Zelda is my favorite series. I've been with it since the very beginning in 1987. As of this writing, Tears of the Kingdom came out about four months ago, so I've had some time to think about where it falls on my list, but I've never written it down anywhere. So... lets head north, west, south, and west to rank 'em.
A Link to the Past has always been the GOAT in my mind. I've said this before, but no game is perfect. This game is the most perfect. I've played through it countless times and it never gets old. It's pure.
I thought long and hard about whether or not this could dethrone LttP, but I just can't do it. While Tears is incredible and easily one of the best games ever made, they're very different games.
A revolutionary take on the series. You could argue that the fact that they took such a big risk with the franchise and completely crushed it should've kept it at #2, but Tears improves upon it in virtually every way.
You're going to try to make a sequel to the greatest game of all time 20 years later? Don't mess with greatness! Well, fuck that notion I guess. They nailed it. And you can see how the open design here led to the future of the series.
The original game was unlike anything that came before it. It literally became the talk of my neighborhood as kids and parents alike were trying to figure out its secrets. I vividly remember coming home from school one day and being mad that my mom had found the next dungeon before I did.
This one was the first one where I felt like I could truly go anywhere and do anything whenever I wanted. Was that true? Not really. But, it FELT like it. That sense of exploration is powerful. And it still looks beautiful today.
Ocarina of Time is not one of the Top 5 games of all time. It's not even a Top 5 Zelda. Wanna fight about it? Okay, look. Yes, it revolutionized 3D action-adventure with Z-targetting. Games that didn't even have a Z-button kept calling it Z-targetting for years. But, the actual game doesn't hold up as well as these others.
The best of the handheld spinoffs and utilized the DS in some fun and creative ways.
The beginning is a slog, and much of the game is brown and ugly (what the fuck is going on with some of these NPCs?) But! Those dungeons are some of the best in the series. Blades will bleed, y'all.
The Capcom games are good and this is the best one. How can you not like a suck bucket?
