Which installment or installments of the Legend of Zelda series is your favorite?

For Me it's a good four way tie between Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword.

...So you like all of the 3D Zelda games that aren't Majora's Mask? Wow. Way to make difficult choices.

Probably still Ocarina of Time.

Link's Awakening.

Majora's Mask.

@arbitrarywater: Does it hold up?

Depending on which day you ask me I'll say either Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, or A Link to the Past. After that it would probably be Skyward Sword. I really liked Skyward Sword. Still haven't played Twilight Princess.

Oracle of Seasons?

@arbitrarywater: I haven't played Majora's Mask. & I do want to play it. I never owned the system it was on. I played OoT on the gamecube.

Amidst a field of strong contenders, Majora's Mask stands clearly above the others near the top. Then Ocarina, Wind Waker/Twilight Princess (I go back and forth). I don't want to talk about Skyward Sword... (nah, it was all right, but just all right).

Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time. I'm not a big fan of the 2D games. The only one I finished is The Minish Cap. The Wind Waker could have been better and Twilight Princess was dull. I have no desire to try Skyward Sword with its motion controls and I've stopped caring about future installments. But maybe Nintendo will surprise me.

wind waker.... but I have to say I have never played Ocarina of Time. I also really liked the phantom hour glass. Twilight princess was ok....

Yep. I can indeed confirm that this is your favourite.

Asking if Ocarina of Time holds up is like asking if Super Mario 64 holds up. It's not without a few quirks that have appeared with age (the comparatively large, empty Hyrule Field comes to mind), but even disregarding what it did for video games as a whole, it's not like the games that succeeded it are especially superior in terms of things like control and dungeon design... though that might be more a problem with how conservative Nintendo has been with that series (the weird experiment that is Majora's Mask notwithstanding) than a testament to OOT's unshakeable quality.

Haha. "What's your favorite? Mine's everything!"

A Link to the Past, prolly.

Ocarina of Time, no question

A Link To The Past by a pretty wide margin

Still, saying that every Zelda game that you've played is the best is something of a cop-out. MAKE A DECISION, even if it's Twilight Princess. I'd love to read someone's claim that Twilight Princess is the best Zelda game because I can't even fathom such a justification at this point.

@arbitrarywater: I didn't say that 4 games I listed were the best, but my favorite Zelda game at this point is Twilight Princess.

I'm not a huge Zelda fan and I've only played some of them, but Majora's Mask would be my favorite.

Wind Waker. It's just so full of fucking joy, man.

I think they nailed the classic Ganon-messing-up-Hyrule premise in Link to the Past, so it really irks me that they keep going back to the well with that (Ocarina of Time, and Twilight Princess especially retreading that ground a LOT).

So I really like Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask, but WindWaker is seriously the best, you guys. It does have some of the usual Hyrule Ganon Triforce BS, but the game tackled this entirely new concept of the overworld being huge stretches of ocean and it was the last (maybe first?) time I actually felt like a Zelda overworld might always have some interesting thing off in the horizon that I should go investigate, like in a Fallout/Skyrim. It was such a huge overhaul of how you travel, Link felt much more agile in combat, and the art design borrowed almost nothing from Ocarina of Time, and it all totally worked.

I miss the pre-Ocarina days when Nintendo could get away with making a child Link out on a coming of age adventure, but all of the Zelda fans grew up I guess, and now they're all whiny assholes that can't like a Zelda game unless Link looks older and "cool", so we got two games that pretty liberally reused the Ocarina of Time Adult Link design.

I'm glad Link Between Worlds is returning to a child Link, but then of course they could get away with that on a handheld game that has a lower budget than a console game, and less money at risk if it turns out everybody hates the character design. I think it looks cool.

Oracle of Ages/Seasons. ALTTP.

I do not like the rest at all.

I'll be the "boring guy" and say Ocarina of Time. Honorable mention to A Link to the Past.

I had not played anything past Wind Waker, and i didnt even beat Wind Waker (wasn't my copy of the game)

Wind Waker! I was so excited when they announced an HD version for WiiU.

OoT or TP for me. ALttP is fantastic but I'm not the biggest fan of the Top Down Zeldas. Skyward Sword is the WORST Zelda, terrible game.

@saoakden: Why bother asking a question if your answer is all of them?

@bisonhero: Adding twenty minutes of sailing between every piece of meaningful content sucked, expanding upon the combat put too much focus on a relatively unimportant part of the game, and the art style clashed with the tone of the story.

The only real answer

Link To The Past. The greatest game that has ever been made, now and forever.

OoT is next.

Wind Waker is last.

Ocarina of Time then Link to the Past then its a three way split between Twilight Princess, Links Awakening and Phantom Hour Glass.

@hunter5024 said:

Nuh-uh.

However, I think Phantom Hourglass' sailing/Spirit Tracks' train riding DO add 1-5 minutes of incredibly uneventful travel and have one of the worst overworlds ever, because there is way less to do in those overworlds compared to all of the little islands, enemy platforms, submarines, squid battles, etc. that are in Wind Waker to find. The DS Zelda games just have NOTHING to find out there.

And Twilight Princess is the game that added too many combat moves that nobody fucking used. Wind Waker improved Ocarina of Time's combat by adding the parry button to get a surprise attack behind dudes, so you never had to face anything as tedious as those fucking Stalfos in Ocarina of Time that just instablock 90% of your attacks and take goddamn forever. Plus the grappling hook and Deku Leaf gave you some stun options in combat and were some cool ways to get around the environment, and led to some impressive large vertical environments like Dragon Roost Island.

And I don't see any conflict at all between the art style and the tone of the story.

I once dreamt about the most awesome Zelda game ever. It had everything the old games had, but about 5 times faster paced and with permadeath, plus you had control over the story. Of course it was a dream so I cheated a bunch, but I had to cheat anyway since I'd accidentally destroyed the water temple in the game.

I really enjoy how Majora's Mask twisted the classic Zelda formula into something fresh.

1. Legend of Zelda
2. Ocarina of Time
3. A Link to the Past
4. Link's Awakening
5. Wind Waker
6. Twilight Princess
7. Majora's Mask
8. Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons
9. Minish Cap
10. Phantom Hourglass
11. Four Swords Adventures
12. Adventure of Link
13. Spirit Tracks

need to play: Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, the CDi games and Link's crossbow training

@slag said:

But do you really?

@hunkulese: Main reason, I felt like asking.

I think it might be Skyward Sword.

If you're going to name four games then what's the point? And Twilight Princess up there with Ocarnia... geez

Like a train wreck , I can't look away. I need to see it for myself

@slag: I actually have no concept of how easy it is to get a hold of a CDi at this point in time. Godspeed on your terrible quest.

I can't decide between Majora's Mask and Wind Waker. It is so hard to choose. Haven't played Skyward sword or several of the 2D ones though.

Link to the Past. I always wonder why no one talks about Minish cap though? I don't remember it being poorly received but it's rarely talked about in these discussions.

The Wind Waker.

@noboners: Maybe the numbers contradict me, but I'm pretty sure way less people ever owned a GBA, relative to the zillions of Game Boys and DSs that have been sold.

Ask me again when I've completed Link Between Worlds. As of right now probably Windwaker.

Link's Awakening, I love not being able to use the sword and Jump over things.

I'll start by saying that I haven't played any of the 2d Zelda games, so I don't really know about those as much. I have played everything 3D-wise and I have to say Wind Waker is my favorite by far. I'll even go as far as saying it's the best 3D Zelda game. The combat, the story, the music, the enviroment, the items, the characters! Man! I used to love just sailing around, filling out my map. I really love the HD version, too. Really gives you the chance to just watch the game in awe. #fanboy

Definitely A link to the Past, as cliche as that is to say. I played it for the first time a few months ago and fell in love.

Wind Waker