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All through 2023, in honor of the magnificent Tears of the Kingdom, Polygon has been celebrating Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda collection. It’s been fascinating. Maybe no different online game collection is so rewarding to revisit, or presents such wildly completely different, refracted visions of its core thought — which nonetheless stays constant all through.
Created by the good Shigeru Miyamoto within the Eighties as an expression of his childhood love of exploring with no map, Zelda has all the time held a revered place in Gaming tradition, though it by no means fairly loved common success to match — not, that’s, till its unlikely rebirth in 2017, because of the runaway success of the Nintendo Change and the revolutionary design of Breath of the Wild.
The collection’ robust traditions are balanced by an ingrained behavior of hitting the reset button. Throughout 16 mainline entries, solely a small handful (Majora’s Masks, Phantom Hourglass, Tears of the Kingdom) are true sequels, and even these enjoyment of reinvention. The Zelda timeline is extra a tangle of rumor and delusion than a longtime canon, and its lore is consistently rewritten.
Rating these good, shapeshifting video games is, in some methods, an absurd job. They’re all nice (effectively, maybe all however one); the highest seven or so are masterpieces that might be organized in nearly any order. However it’s an fascinating train in exploring a collection of video games that exist in a novel, echoing dialog with one another. In placing this rating collectively, we paid at the very least as a lot consideration to how enjoyable the video games are to play now as to their historic import.
A number of factors of order: Although they’re technically a part of the principle Zelda canon, we now have excluded the multiplayer video games 4 Swords, 4 Swords Adventures, and Tri Drive Heroes. They’re troublesome to play as their makers supposed now, and truthfully really feel extra like spinoffs (although 4 Swords Adventures, particularly, completely guidelines). Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, which have been launched as a pair, Pokémon-style, are counted as a single entry. And precise spinoffs like Hyperlink’s Crossbow Coaching or Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland are additionally excluded. The Zelda collection is gloriously bizarre — however possibly not that bizarre.
16. Zelda 2: The Journey of Hyperlink
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 1987, on NES
The place to play now: Nintendo Change On-line
If the unique The Legend of Zelda is the collection at its most youthful, exuberant, and promising, Zelda 2: The Journey of Hyperlink represents the video games’ awkward teen years. Fittingly, the Hyperlink we play in Zelda 2 is 16 years previous, fumbling his means by means of new gameplay territory, as Nintendo explores the lite role-playing mechanics from a side-scrolling perspective. Unfold throughout overworld segments of harmful exploration and equally harrowing side-scrolling dungeon crawling, Zelda 2 is a tougher, extra obtuse type of journey.
Lengthy thought of the black sheep of the Legend of Zelda video games, The Journey of Hyperlink was a more durable, clumsier experiment for Nintendo. It was envisioned as an motion Recreation infused with role-playing Recreation stats, and the tip end result seems like Nintendo’s designers copying others’ work (e.g., Dragon Quest, Kung-Fu Grasp) as an alternative of flexing the corporate’s trademark originality. Zelda 2 is just not a failed experiment, nevertheless. Nintendo clearly discovered the fitting classes from it, in addition to influencing different video games, together with Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest, Faxanadu, and Shovel Knight. Even the worst Zelda video games have their significance. —Michael McWhertor
15. Phantom Hourglass
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2007, on Nintendo DS
The place to play now: Unavailable — observe down a used copy
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass represents a considerably awkward period of Zelda. As a direct sequel to The Wind Waker, it had large sneakers to fill, and wore them slightly clumsily. Phantom Hourglass was the primary mainline Zelda Recreation to be launched on the Nintendo DS household of handhelds and the primary Zelda Recreation to reap the benefits of the console’s contact controls. Total, the controls slot in properly with the Zelda components and permit gamers to scribble on dungeon maps and faucet to struggle. Nonetheless, the Recreation suffers from uneven pacing whereas touring in your customizable steamboat ship, or revisiting the Temple of the Ocean King, a dungeon that requires you to return again to it a number of instances. Nonetheless, I’ll bear in mind it for its willingness to attempt new gameplay and check the Zelda waters. —Ana Diaz
14. Twilight Princess
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2006, on GameCube and Wii
The place to play now: Unavailable — observe down a used copy of Twilight Princess HD for Wii U
Hyperlink spends a reasonably large chunk of time in wolf type in Twilight Princess, which you’d suppose can be a promoting level (as a result of he appears so darn cute), nevertheless it’s truly fairly bizarre. In any case, Hyperlink can’t do the entire greatest elements of being Hyperlink when he’s a wolf: throwing a boomerang, say, or twirling his sword round in a circle whereas shouting “Hiyah!” Twilight Princess additionally introduces Midna, a helper character within the vein of Navi, however much more condescending. I discover Midna’s snarky feedback to be deeply satisfying, and the conclusion of her arc on the Recreation’s finish feels extra fulfilling than most of Princess Zelda’s arcs. The Legend of Zelda collection doesn’t all the time enable its feminine aspect characters to have a lot to do, however by the tip of Twilight Princess, it’s truly extra Midna’s story than anybody else’s. —Maddy Myers
13. Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2001, on Recreation Boy Coloration
The place to play now: Nintendo Change On-line
In 2001, Nintendo lent the proverbial Zelda keys to Capcom. Because it seems, Capcom didn’t want them: It kicked down the door to one in all Gaming’s most hallowed collection and made itself proper at house. Billed as a double characteristic centered on time- and season-based puzzles, respectively, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons are tight and complicated sufficient to have emerged from the places of work of Nintendo itself. (Sequence creator Shigeru Miyamoto had big-picture manufacturing enter, to be honest.)
Ages’ time-traveling puzzles are among the many most interesting within the 2D Zelda pantheon, and Seasons’ extra action-oriented strategy makes it a recent entry within the in any other case “left-brained” franchise. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi would go on to direct a handful of later Zelda video games (The Minish Cap, Skyward Sword, and — checks notes — Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom amongst them), however so far as “traditional” Zelda goes, few entries seize the collection on a grand scale like Capcom’s darkish horse two-parter. —Mike Mahardy
12. Spirit Tracks
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2009, on Nintendo DS
The place to play now: Unavailable — observe down a used copy
As follow-ups on this endlessly changeable collection go, Spirit Tracks has one of the vital easy, cut-and-paste premises: it’s Phantom Hourglass however with a prepare as an alternative of a ship. Like its fast predecessor, it leans arduous on stylus management, course-plotting map traversal, and a method of journey that’s breezily approachable till it all of a sudden isn’t, within the grim, stealthy, piecemeal ascent of its central tower dungeon.
If Spirit Tracks in the end surpasses Phantom Hourglass, it’s due to its sheer, ebullient allure. The enchantment of its steam-train playset is irresistable, and that is additionally the one Recreation within the collection through which Hyperlink and Zelda — the latter admittedly in ghost type — get to hang around for the entire thing. Zelda even will get to be semi-playable, by possessing clanking fits of armor, whereas the pair have an lovable, harmless chemistry. Choo choo! —Oli Welsh
11. The Legend of Zelda
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 1986, on NES
The place to play now: Nintendo Change On-line
It’s the uncommon Recreation that impresses me extra with every passing 12 months. However as tendencies come and go, genres flourish and stagnate, and open worlds proceed to distance themselves from their late-2010s rising pains, The Legend of Zelda frequently grows in my estimation. It’s opaque by as we speak’s requirements, replete as it’s with hidden doorways and labyrinthine shifts from one display to a different. And given the selection, it’s pretty far down the listing of “enjoyable” Zelda video games. However it stands as a progenitor of most of as we speak’s greatest video games, open-world or in any other case, and it took Nintendo 31 years to circle again to its elegant conceit of a sprawling, mysterious world value exploring in Breath of the Wild. —M. Mahardy
10. Skyward Sword
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2011, on Nintendo Wii
The place to play now: Skyward Sword HD on Nintendo Change
It’s time to reclaim maybe essentially the most constantly underrated Recreation within the Legend of Zelda collection. There are causes Skyward Sword’s repute has suffered. First, its authentic movement controls, whereas effectively applied, are simply not how anybody desires to play an epic journey like this. Second, it has a ridiculously overwrought climax worthy of a Hideo Kojima Recreation. Third, it arrived at simply the purpose when the Zelda video games’ Ocarina of Time-inspired design was beginning to present its age.
Skyward Sword ended up being a swan track for that period of Zelda — however what a swan track. It’s a dense and satisfying Recreation, expertly designed, with intricate, cleverly conceived dungeons that rank alongside the easiest within the collection’ historical past. And it additionally has a hovering, romantic spirit. Skyward Sword is probably the purest expression of Zelda’s high-fantasy aesthetic — and the one time the collection absolutely owned as much as being a love story. —OW
9. A Hyperlink Between Worlds
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2013, on Nintendo 3DS
The place to play now: Boxed 3DS version continues to be in print
I all the time discovered A Hyperlink Between Worlds to be a particular Recreation due to the way in which it iterates on the traditional Zelda theme of traversing parallel worlds. As a substitute of utilizing a mirror to flip between worlds, this Recreation permits Hyperlink to remodel right into a 2D portray, through which type he can stroll alongside partitions and into the glittering crevices of Hyrule and its counterpart, Lorule.
For me, Lorule is likely one of the extra fascinating variations of Zelda’s traditional Darkish World. It isn’t only a barren wasteland stuffed with monsters; it’s additionally the house of form and heroic individuals who need a greater lifestyle. The Recreation performs effectively, with maybe the best-integrated contact controls in a Zelda Recreation. On prime of all that, it options an unconventional weapon rental system that permits you to discover wherever you need early on. The Recreation’s title nods to the revered A Hyperlink to the Previous, and it definitely doesn’t fail to reside as much as its namesake. —AD
8. The Minish Cap
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2004, on Recreation Boy Advance
The place to play now: Nintendo Change On-line + Enlargement Pack
The Minish Cap is a hidden gem of the Zelda collection. Developed by Capcom, this Zelda Recreation follows Hyperlink after he meets a speaking hat named Ezlo that grants him the ability to shrink to the dimensions of a pea. Exploring as a tiny hero actually modifications our perspective on Hyrule and permits the builders to conjure up a sensorial and vivid world the place you’ll struggle Vaati and dodge the deathly plop of raindrops.
Equally to The Wind Waker, The Minish Cap leans right into a cartoony allure; you’ll meet zany sword instructors and discuss to cows chewing cud. This Recreation additionally accommodates one of many Legend of Zelda’s goofiest objects, a magical cane that turns objects the other way up. Mix these charms with some nice dungeon design, and you’ve got the makings of a improbable Zelda Recreation. It won’t normally be counted among the many Zelda greats, however The Minish Cap finds its brilliance within the tiny particulars. —AD
7. Hyperlink’s Awakening
Picture: Grezzo/Nintendo
Unique launch: 1993, on Recreation Boy
The place to play now: Select between its 1998 DX type for Recreation Boy Coloration on Nintendo Change On-line or the modernized 2019 Nintendo Change remake
This was the first-ever Zelda Recreation I performed, so the entire references to different video games flew over my head, in addition to the very apparent signposting about how the story would finish. I felt confused, as so many gamers do, about why the identify “Zelda” was within the title (I did suppose possibly the owl was named Zelda). And but — though I skilled the traditional Zelda tropes and mechanics within the dreamlike setting of Koholint Island, slightly than within the bigger and extra outlined kingdom of Hyrule — their magic captivated me fully. Like many others on this listing, Hyperlink’s Awakening is a bizarre Zelda Recreation, and it’s proof that being bizarre and foolish is simply as a lot part of the patchwork of “being a Zelda Recreation” as environmental puzzles or a magic sword wielded by an eternally reincarnating hero. —M. Myers
6. The Wind Waker
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2002, on GameCube
The place to play now: Unavailable — observe down a used copy of The Wind Waker HD for Wii U
The Wind Waker oozes a allure and sense of character that distinguishes it from different Zelda video games and makes it a collection nice. It dared to take the Legend of Zelda in a daring new visible route with its splendidly expressive, cartoony graphics, and launched one in all my favourite Zelda casts. Tetra is an impressed tackle the function of Zelda: an adventurous and succesful pirate captain who helps Hyperlink alongside his journey. This Hyperlink, too, is one in all my favourite Hyperlinks, together with his comedian e book expressions and bumbling antics.
The Recreation moved me emotionally in ways in which no different Zelda Recreation has, and I nonetheless take into consideration Hyperlink’s large send-off, as he waves his tiny arms goodbye to his granny. All this, and it’s totally pleasurable to play. Prospers just like the adaptive soundtrack that performs stringed devices as Hyperlink hits his enemies solely add to its zippy fight. This Recreation — from its snot-nosed youngsters to its timeless artwork type — is endlessly endearing. To me, its components make for the right elixir of a Zelda Recreation. —AD
5. Ocarina of Time
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 1998, on Nintendo 64
The place to play now: Select between the unique model on Nintendo Change On-line + Enlargement Pack, or the Ocarina of Time 3D remaster on 3DS (boxed version nonetheless in print)
Simply as Twilight Princess is secretly Midna’s Recreation, Ocarina of Time is secretly Zelda’s Recreation — or maybe it belongs to Sheik. It might not be the very best Zelda Recreation by fashionable requirements, however Ocarina of Time set a benchmark by which all subsequent entries have been measured, significantly on the subject of storytelling and world-building. It provides up the phantasm of an open-world Hyrule, planting the seeds for a backyard that may bloom in Breath of the Wild. And it’s the Recreation with a time-travel story that splintered your entire collection into disparate arcs — maybe an important linchpin within the larger Ganondorf saga. And it nonetheless holds up in any case these years. Too unhealthy its greatest model is relegated to the Nintendo 3DS — at the very least, for now. —M. Myers
4. Breath of the Wild
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2017, on Nintendo Change and Wii U
The place to play now: Nintendo Change
Breath of the Wild represents essentially the most consequential overhaul the Zelda collection has had because it moved into 3D with Ocarina of Time; in truth, it could be essentially the most consequential ever, bravely scrapping many of the design hallmarks of a revered Recreation collection. Nintendo was searching for to modernize Zelda, but additionally to chop by means of 30 years of collected custom, all the way in which again to the untamed journey of the very first Recreation.
It hardly must be mentioned what a hit it was: Breath of the Wild catapulted the Zelda collection to a brand new stage of recognition and challenged the assumptions of numerous open-world and role-playing Recreation design in a means that the remainder of the trade continues to be digesting. It’s a dynamic, natural, thrillingly pure journey, and the one motive it doesn’t prime this listing is due to what adopted. —OW
3. A Hyperlink to the Previous
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 1991, on SNES
The place to play now: Nintendo Change On-line
Writing entries for this ranked listing has me occupied with simply what it’s that makes a Zelda Recreation nice, and I believe it’s the second of realization. A Hyperlink to the Previous serves up scrumptious moments of realization over and time and again. You determine {that a} cracked wall could be blown open to disclose a hidden passageway — oooh! You get a brand-new software and also you notice precisely how it is advisable to use it — aha! You all of a sudden determine the trick to a boss struggle — take that! And then you definately notice that you haven’t even come shut — not even shut — to seeing the entire discoveries on supply right here. A Hyperlink to the Previous delivers on the pure dopamine rush of discovery, forcing a smile onto your face at each new revelation. It simply feels good. —M. Myers
2. Majora’s Masks
Picture: Nintendo through Polygon
Unique launch: 2000, on Nintendo 64
The place to play now: Select between the unique model on Nintendo Change On-line + Enlargement Pack, or the Majora’s Masks 3D remaster on 3DS (boxed version nonetheless in print)
As we’re speaking a couple of collection so centered on music, enable me a metaphor: Whereas Ocarina of Time’s time journey was classical in its strategy (elegant, balletic, and nimble), Majora’s Masks’s time loop was extra paying homage to jazz: fractured, messy, and difficult, however revelatory all the identical. Arriving 20 years earlier than the time-loop craze comprising Outer Wilds, Deathloop, and 12 Minutes, Majora’s Masks places Hyperlink in a three-day cycle that unwinds and respools in an odd dream world replete with characters considering the approaching apocalypse. In comparison with most video games within the collection, Majora largely revolves round aspect quests, that are largely predicated on the gathering of masks. Mentioned quests reset themselves each time Hyperlink travels again to the daybreak of the primary day, (hopefully) armed with the required information to bolster his assortment and save a life or two within the course of.
Majora was the feverish reply to a confounding query: “How will we comply with the resounding success of Ocarina of Time and in addition bridge the hole between the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube?” Nobody might have predicted the reply: a melancholy, tick-tock ballet of thwarted desires and determined lives within the face of the apocalypse, essentially the most intimate and private Zelda has ever been. It stays the strangest and darkest entry within the collection, and I doubt we’ll ever see something prefer it once more. —M. Mahardy
1. Tears of the Kingdom
Picture: Nintendo
Unique launch: 2023, on Nintendo Change
The place to play now: Nintendo Change
Each Zelda Recreation has constructed upon the foundations of the video games earlier than it, with even the characters in its world acknowledging the myths of yore. Nobody believes extra within the idea of predicting the longer term primarily based on the previous than the builders of Zelda — in addition to Princess Zelda herself, who opens Tears of the Kingdom by guiding Hyperlink by means of a collection of historic underground murals.
And but even Princess Zelda in her knowledge couldn’t presumably have predicted how unbelievable and miraculous her story would turn into. Tears of the Kingdom is a mirrored image of this continued promise: Chances are you’ll think about you perceive — primarily based on the historical past of Zelda video games — how bold and artistic and world-warping a Zelda Recreation might be. And but that very world will nonetheless shock you. Tears of the Kingdom nonetheless surprises me. It’s a present that I can’t imagine all of us acquired. —M. Myers
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