Top Five Legend of Zelda Games

I'm not sure if you've heard or not, but there's been a new Legend of Zelda game released here recently. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has been sent down from the gaming deities to bless your wear worn Nintendo Wii and unleash the power of the Master Sword unto it.  As per usual when it comes to these types of things, I have more important things to put my money into right now (like a new used car so I can get to work and back) other than what could be the most awesome thing that could come in contact with any gaming system I've ever owned.  Sigh.

So until the glorious day when Skyward Sword may grace my humble console, I thought I'd throw down what I find my Top 5 favorite Zelda games.  Keep in mind that this series of games is so untouchably awesome, the margin between them is so narrow as to almost not exist.  Even the games that didn't make the top 5 are still some of my most favorite games of all time.

Number 5:

I've only played a couple of Zelda games on handheld devices and Minish Cap is so good, it would be worthy of a console release.  If I have one problem with it, it would be the length.  It is simply too short.  But what there is of it, is Gameboy Advance bliss.  It takes the look and character models of Wind waker and sets them in a Link to the Past style of "look down" perspective.  The merge works very well.  As Link, you are sent on a quest to repair the Picori blade, stop the evil Vaati and turn Princess Zelda back from stone.  Typical Zelda fare, I suppose.  Except you are joined by Ezlo, a wizard of sorts that looks like a green hat that you get to wear.  He drops hints now and again.  You are also aided by the Minish, a race of tiny folk living unknown amongst the humans and doing most of their dirty work for them (leaving them to think they did it somehow).  You can shrink down to Minish size and explore Minish villages hidden throughout the land.  Another cool side quest is the fusing of Kinstones.  You find a half of a kinstone and look for someone that has a matching half.  Together, you fuse them and something happens in another part of the land that will be helpful to you like revealing a new path to explore along your journey.  This game is tons of fun and deserves the Zelda trademark.

Number 4:

A lot of folks find Twilight Princess to be the very best of the series, and I won't argue with them. Being the best of this series generally comes down to taste of tone, graphics or gameplay.  I like this game a lot.  It is truly epic in scope with hours upon hours of exploration and dungeon crawling to be had.  The graphics are what a lot of Zelda fans have been looking for since they began their trek through the series.  I have the Wii version, so I was impressed with the motion controls.  A quick waggle of the Wii Remote and Link attacks with his sword.  I love how you can map your items to the D-Pad and quickly equip them to use.  The use of the bow and arrow has never been more fun and a lot of the puzzles are very clever.  I'm a big fan of the spinner tracks.  All that said, it did feel like at times I was playing an updated version of Ocarina of Time.  A lot of the temples were very familiar in that way and the look of the game kind of felt a little OOT retread.  There is also a bit of time spent as a wolf early on in the game, sending you on a fetch quest before you can shed your canine identity.  Later in the game when you could switch back and forth at will, this was no problem.  I just wasn't a big fan of some of the wolf levels.  That being said, this is still probably the most epic in terms of scale in the Zelda family up to this point and provides hours of fun.

Number 3:

Oh yes I did.  What is widely considered to be "The Greatest Game of All Time", I have at number 3 just in its series.  Do not get me wrong.  I appreciate this game for what it is and how it brought Zelda swinging into a 3D landscape.  I love the storyline and the play on time throughout.  For it's time, this game was huge, with cavernous dungeons and bosses that had to be seen to be believed.  For me, this Zelda found its place in history because of how it totally updated the gameplay with Lock On targeting and great use of the other items.  As usual, points must be taken away because of your annoying fairy guide, Navi, who is downright obnoxious in the way she tries to get your attention.  "HEY!" indeed.  Still, she did usually have some helpful advice, if only she had a more subtle way to dispense it.  I also like how it put Link in a believable fantasy world with a captivating story line with quirky and endearing characters.  It made Hyrule come alive in a way that it never had before; it put a realistic spin on things.  You felt like you were Link, the Hero of Time, called into action to save the kingdom.  It did that very well.  One day, when I am able to get a 3DS, I look forward to playing this game in 3D with updated graphics.  There's not a lot of bad to be said here.  Even the much maligned Water Temple didn't bother me like most (I think I hated Jabu Jabu's belly worse).  The only reason this isn't my favorite falls squarely on my age and what game came out when I was at my most impressionable.

Number 2:

The Wind Waker is easily one of my favorite games of all time.  It takes the proven Zelda formula and shakes it up a bit.  Instead of trudging through Hyrule for the thousandth time, you find that the land has been flooded for a hundred years.  The events of Ocarina of Time have been put into legend and Link is of age where he must wear the costume of the Hero of Time on his birthday, as is tradition for boys his age.  Turns out, of course, that he is the chosen one and is sent off into an adventure that includes Sailing, pirates, post office workers and giant birds.  What Ocarina of Time did by bringing Link and Zelda into a believable fantasy world, Wind Waker takes them through a more swashbuckling adventure with fantasy mixed in.  I love the story and execution of this game.  It takes what Ocarina did, control wise, and perfected it.  This thing controls like a dream and requires very little to master it and get comfortable.  I don't know why I dug this game as much as I did.  Maybe it was because, like many before me, I was a a little put off by the initial reveal of the cartoony cell shaded graphics.  Because of that and the fact that the story didn't seem to be super traditional Zelda, my expectations were lowered.  Turns out those couple of issues were the biggest selling points of this game for me.  The graphics work so well, you feel like you're playing a cartoon.  Movements, flow, character expressions, these are all unmatched in the series (including Twilight Princess).  The story is not kid dumbed down at all, it is epic in it's own way with a lot of good surprises and moments.  Playing a game where Ocarina of Time is part of it's ancient history and seeing the characters discover that history and how it pertains to them is a good story move and keeps you interested throughout your play time.  I can't quite remember when I've had this much fun playing an adventure game.

Number 1:

Actually, yes I can.  It was this game.  I played the original Legend of Zelda when I was younger.  Loved the heck out of it, the exploration, the "being a hero" aspect of the whole deal.  When this game was released for the Super Nintendo when I was about 11 or 12 years old, it was like the culmination and perfection of everything you could ever expect from a Zelda game.  As I hinted at in the Ocarina section, I was at the perfect impressionable age when this game came out.  I loved fantasy, and this game was like an interactive fantasy novel in which you were the protagonist.  Surely no experience in the world could match such a feeling at such an age.  The story was huge, in comparison to the original.  You weren't just collecting shards of the triforce to rescue Zelda and save Hyrule, you were called to collect crystals so you could go about finding the Master Sword, so then you could really begin your quest.  And what a quest it was.  Traveling between the light world and the dark world where something you did there would affect the other world were just gameplay mechanics that blew my young mind.  This game wasn't about the journey of a hero, but it was the epitome of the Hero's Journey, from frightened farm boy to savoir of Hyrule.  There's really nothing else I can add to this, other than to say that it is the perfect adventure game, even if the graphics aren't as awesome as it's later cousins or gameplay mechanics aren't as refined.  This game was about the journey and what a journey it took you on.


As for the games that didn't make my top 5, like I said, they are still better than the majority of games out there.  I still love the original Legend of Zelda, it was the first game that showed me that you could have exploration and go on an adventure in video games.  It's just simply outdated now, in terms of story and graphics and immersion.  Still a great game though.  Zelda 2: Screw Zelda 2.  That game is no fun.  Links Awakening on Gameboy showed me that you could have big, fun games on little devices.  Even if some of the things are a bit silly, looking back on it.  Never played any other handheld Zelda, like Oracle of Seasons or Oracle of Ages, or any of the DS ones.  I've only played a bit of Majora's Mask, and I know it's different.  I have it on Virtual Console and when I finally get a chance, I look forward to delving into that ball of mystery.

And I'm really looking forward to Skyward Sword.  It looks as though it combines the art direction of Wind Waker and A Link to the Past, which to me would make the totally perfect merge.  Can't wait to play it (eventually).