Well I haven't played 2, Oracle of Seasons, Skyward Sword, and the Four Sword games. So I can't comment on them. Out of the rest it was a real toss up between Twilight Princess and Spirit Tracks but Twilight Princesses is the worst.

The problems with Spirit Tracks is pretty much the almost game break badness of the train traversal but it did have some fantastic dungeons and really expanded on the game play of Phantom Hourglass which I really liked. Also having Zelda at your side of the entire game was a great idea. Overall I liked Spirit Tracks.

Twilight Princess on the other hand doesn't have anything as glaringly bad as Spirit Track's trains. But that game is far longer then it needs to be. The dungeons were ok but none really stand out to me. The Wolf Link mechanic wasn't good enough to justify all the backtracking it made you do. The combat felt like a step back from Wind Waker. Also it looks like a hot mess, its so muddy and jaggy. It aged very poorly and extremely fast. I would choose original OoT over TP for graphics anytime. On the plus side Midna was pretty great. Overall I feel meh about Twlight Princess so that's why it losses.

@BisonHero said:

@Taku128 said:

As a pretty big Zelda II fan these results are breaking my heart. :(

Given the demographics of the site, I'm assuming that the majority of people voting in this poll weren't even born or were infants when Zelda II came out. So years after the fact, when 2D Zelda came to be defined as a very particular thing, anybody who plays Zelda II goes "Y MY SKILLS NO TRANSFER?" because they expect something called "Zelda II" would play like Zelda 1 or LttP.

Uh, I think you got it backwards. Zelda II was greatly dismissed back then. It's only in recent years that I've noticed the kiddos holding it up as an underrated gem. Two decades ago, it was crap.

I mean, I liked it, but it wasn't a popular opinion.

God I love Link to the Past it really is the perfect game to this day.

@sonicrift said:

I think I'll say that Spirit Tracks was not fun or engaging, Phantom Hourglass had it's moments, and all the rest are varying degrees of great and excellent.

I played all the way through Phantom Hourglass, and at points it really felt like a chore to keep going, but I was determined. I think I picked up Spirit Tracks the day I finished Phantom Hourglass, and when I saw that the game was all about taking all the gameplay mechanics I hated from Phantom Hourglass deeper, I put the game down. I can't imagine anyone voting for Skyward Sword or Twilight Princess has played the DS games.

Those are the truest words in this thread.

Having grown up with The Legend of Zelda games (and being a huge fan of the series), I have a different perspective than alot of the posters here. I played these game at or near release, and most of them were fantastic at the time of their release, including Zelda II. To complain about OoT's battle system and handholding is complete sh*t, if you consider it came out at a time when 3D gaming was at it's infancy (3D as in 3 dimensional movement, not 3D visuals). Anyways, after saying all that the Zelda game I enjoyed the least was Skyward Sword (in fact it is the only Zelda game listed that I have yet to complete). The visual presentation and gaming world just didn't do it for me. Oh and long live Windwaker! Man I love that game. It is my second favorite and only behind A Link to the Past.

How is anyone saying Skyward Sword? That game is fantastic.

I just picked Four Swords as it appeals to me the least. I'm sure it's great if you get a group together to play it.

@Superkenon said:

@BisonHero said:

@Taku128 said:

As a pretty big Zelda II fan these results are breaking my heart. :(

Given the demographics of the site, I'm assuming that the majority of people voting in this poll weren't even born or were infants when Zelda II came out. So years after the fact, when 2D Zelda came to be defined as a very particular thing, anybody who plays Zelda II goes "Y MY SKILLS NO TRANSFER?" because they expect something called "Zelda II" would play like Zelda 1 or LttP.

Uh, I think you got it backwards. Zelda II was greatly dismissed back then. It's only in recent years that I've noticed the kiddos holding it up as an underrated gem. Two decades ago, it was crap.

I mean, I liked it, but it wasn't a popular opinion.

I think I disagree. Most people I knew had it and I feel like the people who had it enjoyed it. I think people didn't hold it in as high regard as they did Zelda 1, but they still liked it. It was always in the Nintendo Power top whatever like every zelda game. It was popular enough for Journey to Olympus to steal it's gameplay system, shamelessly.

The DS games, TP and SS all range from soulless to boring. But Zelda 2 is just bad.

Even Nintendo totally abandoned ideas from 2 in the sequels.

Zelda II is really the only sane choice here. Every other Zelda game is at least passable.

By reverse process of elimination (or something), Link's Awakening is the best Zelda game? Or at the very least, had enough Zelda charm to appease the traditionalists, and also had enough original ideas to appease those who want each Zelda to offer something new?

I find this acceptable. As far as breadth of content, Link's Awakening should probably be somewhere in the Top 5 Game Boy games ever.

Four Swords. Kind of interesting with friends, alone it's boring as shit.
 
I also have a strong distaste for Zelda II.

I haaaaated my time with Spirit Tracks. Riding around in the train was so damn boring.

I think very highly of all the other Zelda games I've played though. All ya'll who voted for TP and Skyward Sword are nuts.

To be victor of this poll is what all true warriors strive for!

Skyward Sword's sword play is awful.

I suspect that most of the people who voted for Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword have never played Spirit Tracks, Phantom Hourglass, or Zelda II.

@spankingaddict said:

Zelda 2 , I guess . That's the only one that didn't hook me in . If you think TP is the worst , YOU'RE INSANE !

Exactly. That game is fantastic.

Ocarina of time suuuuucks. people always be tellin me how good it is. fuck u I got to the part and that kid be stopping me for a deku shield I just say fuck ur deku shield. fuk that game man.

WHICH ONE OF YOU FUCKS VOTED FOR LINK'S AWAKENING?!

Seriously, we got like 400 votes into this poll before somebody voted for it. That's still kind of impressive.

Where is the all of the above button?

those saying Zelda 2, fuck you!!  it was awesome!

I went with Skyward Sword for one simple reason. It's only playable with motion controls. I cant stand em. Maybe it's because im a crotchety old man. Fifteen minutes in and screw that. I played through Twilifht Princess on the GameCube by the way. It's the way it was meant to be.

Can't believe so many people claim that Majora's Mask is the worst one. MM is probably the best Zelda game listed there!

I went with Zelda 2 in the end, but in retrospect, I probably should've picked the first one, since it really doesn't hold up that well now. Neither does 2 really, but I can at least appreciate that it was attempting to do something different.

@RVonE said:

@spankingaddict said:

Zelda 2 , I guess . That's the only one that didn't hook me in . If you think TP is the worst , YOU'RE INSANE !

Exactly. That game is fantastic.

I would argue the exact opposite of that. TP didn't hook me in and Zelda 2 is fantastic.

I have played most of the 3d ones, ande almost no 2D ones. So I would have to say Skyward Sword, the only zelda game thus far, that hasn´t made me feel that I need to finish the game.. :(I

Not much love for Zelda II huh?

:o Nice to see Link's Awakening 'losing'.

Motion controls and too much back tracking killed Skyward Sword for me.

Got to be Four Swords. In general the series is great.

For me, it has to be Twilight Princess. It tried too hard to be dark. I mean, it was dark, it just took all the color and emotion out of Zelda. Majora's Mask actually accomplished being dark, from the storyine... Majora's Mask was darkness masked in colors. Whereas, Twilight Princess was just...dull.

For some odd reason I can't see the poll (either vote or see results - I can't even see the options). But I would have picked 4 Swords Adventures (the one on the Gamecube). It's the only one that I outright hated (but that may be due to me not liking 2D Zelda games or multiplayer - so putting it together is just the worst for me.

I think most (if not all) polls ported over in the site redesign were broken in doing so.

Link: The Faces of Evil and

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Zelda's Adventure

All for the CDI were pretty horrendus. So bad most zelda fans don't even know what there were. Not only was the game play awful, but the games were $300 a pop. They were so bad, that the wand of gamelon is rated the 6th worst game of all time.

The CD-i ones easy. I actually really like Zelda 2. I wish someone would release a modern take on it..even if it's not a Zelda game.

@hunter5024 said:

I agree with this handsome fellow, although I think I might have a little more experience with the game than he does, so I would like to add a few things. There is a large concentration of extraneous bullshit in this game that distracts from the main quest and is designed to arbitrarily pad the length because they couldn't manage to fill the game with enough meaningful content, with the Triforce quest and sailing being the most obvious offenders. Also while I still think it's a beautiful game (my issues with the tonal discrepancies notwithstanding), I have a problem with a lot of the environments looking really similar, because it makes it kind of uninteresting to explore. Also it takes a while to get this game going. That stealth sequence is particularly annoying. I don't know why they'd put something like that at the beginning of the game.

Honestly I think the whole controversy over the art style really distracted from a lot of the other criticisms of this game. When I tell someone I don't like Windwaker they're first response is usually something along the lines of "If you don't think that game looks good there's something wrong with you." And while I do have a problem with the art style, for reasons I already explained, I think there are plenty of other things worth griping about.

Poll is broken.

Of the "real" 14 games in the main series, I'd say Skyward Sword by a long shot. Almost no real redeeming qualities other than a promising start and pleasant visuals.

@bisonhero:

Link: The Faces of Evil and

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Zelda's Adventure

Those three games for the CDI were so bad that most people dont know about them. They were laggy, lacking story line, and cheap.

But that's also the easy way out, because nobody has actually played those games but are probably aware of their infamous reputation. Then you get to the part where they weren't actually made by Nintendo or came out on a Nintendo system, and you may as well continue to ignore them as anything other than a particularly interesting episode of the Angry Video Game Nerd.

@arbitrarywater said:

It continues to fascinate me, the kind of old threads that people find through Google or something. And then more fascinating is that the only point the guy makes is that my reverse logic is flawed because no one has played Link's Awakening so by the same token the CDi games must be great (I think that was his point?)

Are we counting Wand of Gamelon? If so, I don't see how anyone said anything else. If not, Zelda II takes the cake for me.

@bisonhero: Personally, I just sort of wonder what kind of person goes out of their way to not only post in a 6-month-old thread, but also make an account for the sole purpose of saying whatever pithy or otherwise meaningless thing has come to their mind and then never posting again. It's like on one of my earliest blogs (from 2009. Holy shit, I've been doing this for a while) where a guy extrapolates my statement that the dungeons in Daggerfall are massive, incomprehensible labyrinths (something only an insane person would disagree with) as an indication that the sky has fallen and video games are now for casual idiots who don't have 70 hours to finish an RPG. And then he responded 6 months later with nothing meaningful to add.

Also, to keep this mildly on topic, I've gone on record multiple times expressing my distaste for Majora's Mask. Also, let me go on record and say that it's incredibly annoying when the site eats half of your forum post.

What's your favourite dead thread about a game where that once had a handy poll at the top but has since disappeared which has been revived today?

Mine's this one. But only just.

@arbitrarywater: What's not to like about Majora's Mask? Personally, I really like its starkly divergent premise; having fixed NPC character events and timelines grounds the world in an interesting way, and I get a much greater sense of peril from MM's scenario than the noticeably static worlds of the other Zelda games. I'm also all over its more ominous mood, the part where you're constantly filling in the helping-people journal bit by bit, the transformations, and a villain that is more of a trickster force of nature just ruining everyone's week instead of the usual villain with greedy motivations.

It's worth noting I am a huge sucker for any story that involves a time loop and/or using time travel to keep trying to fix one or more problems.

To be fair, I haven't played the game in years. I just remember despising both the time element and the focus on extraneous sidequests over dungeoneering. It's a weird, surprisingly dark game and for a franchise that more than a few people think have fallen into a rut, it's certainly different. Maybe I'll give it another shot around the time that I finish that Master Quest disk that's been sitting on my shelf for two years.

@arbitrarywater: Arbitrary Water is my personal subtitle for Windwaker.

@arbitrarywater: Yeah, for what it's worth, the time mechanics could've been done better. Specifically, there's "regular speed" and "half speed" as far as the passage of time, and every time you restart the 3-day loop it defaults back to "regular speed". You have to play a Song of Time variant to switch to "half speed", WHICH IS STUPID BECAUSE WHY WOULD YOU EVER NOT DO THAT IMMEDIATELY. OK, the only time you would ever use "regular speed" is if you're trying to complete a sidequest that requires a specific time and want to advance time faster than usual.

It's possible to miss the...tutorial scarecrow that explains the Song of Time variants to you (the other variant skips you ahead half a day), and I'm sure at least some amount of players either missed him, or just put the game down for a week then when they came back they forgot those variants existed because they are never noted down in any of the pause screens. Playing the game with half as much time within each 3-day cycle would be nightmarishly frustrating, and I assume this explains at least some of the people who had a bad experience with the game.

I remember on some livestream, Jeff or Brad or somebody thought that it was confusing what reset in your inventory when you restart the 3-day loop, but that's bullshit, it's easy. The things you keep are masks, the MacGuffin you get for killing each boss, pieces of heart, and singular inventory items, since it would be insane for you to have to keep re-earning any of those. So you keep hookshots and bows and shit, but not arrows or deku nuts or whatever. You also don't keep quest items, since that would potentially break quest scripting; however, you obviously keep quest rewards that are masks or singular inventory items. You don't keep the amount of rupees in your wallet, but you can deposit rupees into a hilariously poorly run bank that honours your balance even though you didn't deposit the money in this particular timeline. I feel like all of that is very obvious after playing the game for like 2-3 hours.

As for the sidequests, I ended up liking them. If you don't, the payoff for a bunch of them is either a piece of heart, or just another mask of dubious utility that only really matters if you're trying to get all the masks which gives you something at the end of the game. So you're probably fine skipping them if you're not digging them, especially since you barely need that many hearts when the game contains a record 6(!) bottles, and in N64 Zeldas, fairies are a full heal.

Come on the Zelda CDi games don't count and aren't worth mentioning... you should watch AVGN play them though :P

but lets be honest whatever gets the worst in this list is still better than a majority of games, my vote?

Spirit Tracks or Four Swords.

You should, it took me 2 playthroughs for it to be my fav, i played it straight and got stuck and didn't pick it up till years later.

@hailinel: thats because very few people even know of them there were so bad. Unless people have played Zelda's Adventure or the other two they don't KNOW bad zelda games

CDI Zelda?