Editing LegendOfZelda

One of the greatest adventure series of all time.

In order:

* The Legend of Zelda (NES)
* The Adventure of Link (NES)
* A Link to the Past (SNES)
** Re-released on the GameBoy Advance with the Four Swords multiplayer game.
* Link's Awakening (GameBoy)
** Re-released in color as Link's Awakening DX on GameBoy Color.
* Ocarina of Time (NintendoSixtyFour)
** Was re-released along with the much more difficult Master Quest as a GameCube bonus disc for those who pre-ordered The Wind Waker.
* Majora's Mask
* Oracle of Seasons/''''Oracle of Ages (GameBoy Color)
* The Wind Waker (GameCube)
* Four Swords Adventures (GameCube)
* The Minish Cap (GameBoy Advance)
* Twilght Princess (GameCube and Wii)
* Phantom Hourglass (NintendoDS)
** A direct sequel to The Wind Waker
* Spirit Tracks (NintendoDS)
* Skyward Sword (Wii)
** Possibly prequel to Ocarina of Time

In addition, both NES games and both NintendoSixtyFour games were released on a GameCube disc packaged with [[GameCube]]s sold during the 2003 holiday season.

Opinions differ as to which game is the best, but A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time are frequently declared as such.

The Adventure of Link is generally considered the worst, and has relatively little in common with the rest of the series in terms of gameplay. 
* I'd say it's more accurate that some people really hate The Adventure of Link, and some people really like it. It completely breaks genre with the other games, being a platformer instead of a top-down game. This doesn't make it bad; just different. Personally I'd say that the worst Zelda game is probably one of the Gameboy Color games. - Chainmaille

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'''More Detailed Descriptions and Commentary'''

The Legend of Zelda (1987) was one of the classic great games created by legendary game designer Shigeru Myamoto. The game was inspired (oddly enough) by the oft-maligned Ridley Scott film [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089469/ Legend]. It began the story of Link, a boy who must gather pieces of the Triforce, which Princess Zelda had scattered across the land of Hyrule to prevent the evil Ganon from becoming all-powerful. The gameplay was controlled from a top-down perspective and involved a lot of free-roaming across a large overworld, and exploring a series of maze-like dungeons, each of which contained a piece of the Triforce, a new gadget for Link, and a fearsome boss. This formula set the stage for all future Zelda games.
*Although I feel that the original LegendOfZelda has been surpassed by many of its successors, which took a good concept and made it better, the impact this game has had on gaming can not be denied. Graphics aside, it's aged remarkably well, providing one of the quintessential NintendoHard gaming experiences, as well as a historical perspective on how the rest of the series evolved. The only quip I have with this game at all is that the overworld is boring and hard to navigate because most of it looks the same. This issue aside, the game is outstanding, and the dungeons provide an experience that should not be missed.--AlexBobbs

The Adventure of Link (1988) continued the story, and brought some radical changes to the gameplay, most of which were immediately discarded in subsequent entries. In this one, Link had grown up, and an evil wizard placed the Princess Zelda under a sleeping curse. Treking out into Hyrule again, Link attempts to place the magical stones neccesary to break her curse and confront the evil wizard. While the world map utilized the traditional overhead view, all combat and dungeoning was done from a side-scrolling perspective. The gameplay involved 2D platforming and fighting, and also had a FinalFantasy-esque leveling and magic system. This was also the first entry to introduce Link's doppelganger, "Dark Link", as well as the only game (IIRC, someone change this if I'm wrong) where Link and Zelda share a romantic kiss (of course, in most of the others they're too young).
*This game isn't terrible, but it's not great either. My problem is not that it's a sidescroller; I like sidescrollers. My problem is that it's just not a ''good'' sidescroller. First of all, the pseudo-random-combat mechanic is just plain annoying. Second, Link doesn't jump terribly well, and for some reason he seems to be using a dagger instead of a sword. The result is a game that's needlessly frustrating, even though it's not much harder than the original. It gets better once you get the downstrike, since you can jump on guys instead of poking them with your stupid dagger, but on the whole there's a reason this is the black sheep of the series. --AlexBobbs
*Personally, I think that this is a fine game. Certainly it's not a traditional Zelda game, but I think it does well on its own. The scale of the game screen places the limitations on Link's jumping and swordsmanship abilities; if he could jump better he'd be constantly going off the top of the screen, and if he could swing further then none of the enemies would be able to get close to him. I think the best part of this game is the duelling between Link and the Darknuts; it's no wonder that the final boss fight follows a similar style. While I would have liked Link to get some items he could actually use outside of the overworld, the spells <i>(and abilities, e.g. downstrike)</i> make an adequate substitute (and again, if he had, say, a boomerang, then nobody would ever get close to him). All in all, I view The Adventure of Link as a good game that tried some experiments with the Zelda style. Is it as good as its siblings? Probably not the famous ones, but it's certainly better than, say, the Gameboy Color games. And incidentally, I think the sorceror mentioned in the storyline is Ganon. This is primarily because of the pigfaced silhouette that shows up when you die. ''Not really. The game manual explains that the evil underlings who remain since Ganon's defeat are hoping to bring him back using the blood of Link. Thus, when you die, it shows Ganon's sillouette and says something to the effect of "Ganon Returns". So Ganon's influence is involved, but he is not actually there unless you die.''

A Link to the Past (1991) returned to the style of the original, with an overhead perspective, child protagonists, and Ganon as the main enemy. However, rather than being about the Link from the NES games, this game told the story of a previous Link. This Link must also stop Ganon from acquiring the Triforce, although this time not by gathering the Triforce itself, but by entering Dark World to recover the descendants of the seven sages who locked the Triforce away in the Sacred Realm to begin with. The game had more in-game plot than its predecessors and also introduced a variety of Zelda standards, including the ever-popular hookshot. It also put much more emphasis on puzzle-solving as an element of the dungeons, which was later carried over into later Zelda games, as well as recent titles such as Star Fox Adventures and Golden Sun.
*I hold this as the high point of the series, and one of the high points of all gaming. The game looks and sounds perfect (the SNES era has aged very well, if you ask me), there is an excellent balance of plot, action, and puzzles, and it's long enough to feel like a truly epic adventure. The overworld is the best in the series, as it feels full of life and danger, and has distinct styles for each area. The original may have set the mold, but this game perfected it.--AlexBobbs 
* I feel the need to desecrate this page by commenting that you should not play this game in the lounge because they will make you try to kill the chickens. A lot. Also you should not play it while sleep-depped or you will spend more time than is reasonable using the 'pull' animation to do dirty things to statues. --StephGrush

Link's Awakening (1993) takes place right after the story of A Link to the Past, and has Link setting out on an ill-fated voyage across the seas which lands him on a mysterious island. The game played a lot like Link to the Past, but modified the interface to accomodate the lack of buttons on the GameBoy. The game introduced Roc's Feather (allowing the player to jump), which returned in later 2D Zeldas, and contained heavy cross-overs to Super Mario Brothers. Also notable is the surprise ending, and a bit of censorship in the US version which modified a sidequest that originally had Link searching for a mermaid's bra.
*This game was good, and I especially liked the final act: the rather creative final two dungeons, the multi-stage boss fight, and the creative twist at the end. However, a lot of this game feels a bit ''too'' much like A Link to the Past, to the point where I'd call it a blatant rehash.--AlexBobbs
*Link's Awakening contains EvilSouthie's all time favorite dungeon ever, such that he plays the game specifically to get to that dungeon- it's the one where you have to keep track of the location of a wrecking ball type object and destroy the pillars of a dungeon in order to change the layout. --EvilSouthie

Ocarina of Time (1998) is often hailed as [http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/simpleratings.asp?rankings=y the greatest game of all time], and most gamers would probably agree that it's at least a worthy candidate if nothing else. While Ocarina recycled elements from all of the past games (such as Dodango from the original, Dark Link from Zelda II, Lightworld/''''Darkworld from Link to the Past, and the Mario cameos from Link's Awakening), the game found its own ground by creating a unique and compelling system to convert the experience into 3D, which of course has been copied by many other games since then. The plot began with yet another incarnation of Link, who has been called by the divine protector of his village (who's a tree, incidentally) to aid young Princess Zelda in thwarting the machinations of Ganondorf, the lord of thieves (name resemblence to "Ganon" is not coincidental). The game introduced many new ideas to the world of Hyrule, such as the Gorons and the musical ocarinas, and contained a variety of interesting plot developments that I won't spoil (although SuperSmashBrothersMelee reveals a big one). Also notable for having some really skanky Great Fairies.
*The one sour point in Ocarina of Time is that it created the "Link yell" sound effect (especially the kid Link, grr), which has been annoyingly duplicated in every game since and even edited into the remake of Link to the Past. Of course, this is a similar gripe to Mario64's inclusion of the pengiun cry sound effect. I don't mind bad sound effects, I just hate necessarily repetitive bad sound effects.--EvilSouthie

Majora's Mask (2000) is best described as a side quest to Ocarina of Time.  While it's shorter (and generally less loved) than its predecessor, Majora's Mask did some very interesting things in terms of gameplay.  During the course of the game, the player gains three masks that allow him to take the form of three species present in Hyrule (and if you're really awesome and get all the masks in the game, there's a fourth mask that can only be used in boss fights because it's really broken).  In addition to Link's new forms, the game takes place over the course of three days (think Groundhog's Day x 3).  At the end of the three days, you have to start over.  While you keep all your possessions, the world reverts to the state it was in at the beginning of the game.
*While this was obviously nowhere near as good as Ocarina of Time, I feel that this game did have its own special brand of charm.  The added diversity in the gameplay was much appreciated, but one of the things I liked the most (and one of the rewards for obtaining every mask in the game) was the amount of character development that you see in random townspeople.  I particularly like the story (that lasts <i>all three days of the game</i>) that gets you the wedding mask.  --RichardGarfinkel

Oracle of Seasons/''''Oracle of Ages (2001) continued with the same Link as the NintendoSixtyFour games, this time sending Link into other worlds in which he must command time and seasons in order to stop the witches Twinrova from resurrecting Ganon. The games were odd in that while each one was a full adventure, you had to beat both to get to the ''final'' boss fight. In addition, the second game you played would, via a password system, turn into a sequel for the first one you played, and you would occasionally be sent back to the first game to retrieve some stuff. Both games played similarly to A Link to the Past, although they brought enough new ideas to the series to be considered original in their own rights. 
*Oracle of Seasons was excellent; Oracle of Ages was less so. Seasons had cooler items (the magnetic gloves, for instance), made excellent use of its premise, and had a cool subterranean world. Ages, on the other hand, felt like it didn't really make much use of the time-traveling trick, and it more or less became another iteration of the Lightworld / Darkworld concept. It wasn't a bad game by any means, it just wasn't terribly memorable. It's worth playing through both, as the password gimmick is kind of cute. --AlexBobbs

The Wind Waker (2003) was the first (and only, to this date) Zelda game to be done with cel-shaded graphics, which caused a thousand wankers to scream "TEH KIDDIE!" on message boards across the world. Of course, true aficionados of the series know that Link has usually been a kid in his adventures (Ocarina of Time and Zelda II being the exceptions that featured teenage Link). The Wind Waker followed in the footsteps of Ocarina of Time, but featured a drastically different world design (an archipelago), and thus involved much sailing around. The story, while it starred yet another version of Link, connected heavily to the Link from Ocarina of Time and explained the tragic events that led to this new vision of Hyrule.
*This game is great, but it falls a bit short of its full potential. For the most part, the game impresses: the graphics are beautiful, the dungeons are well-designed, and the story is probably the best in the series. However, while the series hasn't been NintendoHard since Zelda II, this one managed to lower the difficulty a lot further than its recent cousins did. I'm not sure who play-tested this game, but they should have noticed that you have to be completely incompetent to die in it. Also, the ocean is too big. I like what they were going for, and really enjoyed exploring around trying to find all the sidequests and mini-dungeons, but they overdid it. The amount of empty ocean could have been cut in half without losing any sense of scale. That said, this does have an extremely satisfying ending, with a reasonably tricky penultimate boss battle, and a final fight that is just f**king '''epic'''. --AlexBobbs
**Correction:  Ocarina of Time: Master Quest is NintendoHard.  Which is probably why it wasn't originally released in the US. --RichardGarfinkel
*** Master quest had some pretty evil puzzles, but I didn't die much after I got past the Deku Tree (since you can easily get 2 bottles before the next dungeon, making your effective HP rather high), so I can't call it NintendoHard. --AlexBobbs
*** I actually found that once you get into the right mindset, a lot of the puzzles in Master Quest become much easier. The right mindset, of course, is the "they would never do that; that would be ''evil''!" Usually there's only one truly evil thing that can be done to a puzzle, and they consistently pick it. Granted it's still a lot harder than the original quest, but it's not nearly as bad as, say, the second quest to the original game. -ChainMaille

Four Swords Adventures (2004, and the associated Four Swords add-on to the Link to the Past GBA variant) is designed specifically for multiplayer Link action. While the Gamecube version can be played solo (and in fact is very much fun, and in EvilSouthie's opinion, worth the price of the game by itself), the game truly shines when you get four people to link four GBAs to the gamecube ports and each control an individual Link. Both Four Swords games are "cooperative" in that there's a total score that has to be reached by the end of the level, but since there's also awards for receiving the individual highest score, competition gets pretty fierce. The playstyle and graphics style are very much based on Link To The Past, using effectively the same "world". The enemy is not Ganon this time around, but instead a wind mage named Vaati. Various puzzles around the worlds will depend on being able to use more then one player at once (lifting heavy rocks, pushing heavy switches, standing on multiple triggers), and the cooperative-competitive balance is amazing. The GBA version manages to randomly create the layout of the levels with puzzles based on how many people are playing, so the game is "new" each time you play through it, and even then there's added difficulty levels depending on how many times you've played through it. The Gamecube version adds the element of the players being able to play on either the TV or the GBA connecting them to the gamecube depending on where they are and how close to the other players they are. The utter dread that anybody who's played Link To The Past will feel when they see the army of twenty blue soldiers (on the first level, no less) sprinting towards the player on a limited-room bridge is intense.
* Four Swords is in fact, very chaotic, and very fun with multiple people. It's also decently long- if the game is proportionally spaced per crystal, it's about twenty hours of gameplay, and that's ignoring the Vs. mode (which is also extremely fun, and involves stepping on triggers that make the terrain do silly things like oh, light on fire, or explode or whatnot) --EvilSouthie

The Minish Cap (2005) is a short but sweet entry into the Zelda series for the GameBoy Advanced. Basically, Zelda gets turned to stone by Vaati, and Link must make contact with the tiny Minish people in order to forge the master sword and break the spell. The main gimic of the game is that, via Minish magic, Link will shrink and become a few inches tall, which enables him to slip through tiny holes and talk to animals, but also makes a step an insurmountable obstacle and a stray cat a deadly menace. Following up on many of the concepts introduced in Four Swords, the game also includes a lot of puzzles that require Link to temporarily produce mirror images of himself. Other notable aspects include a fantabulous sky battle, a talking hat, and a dungeon item that is pretty much an industrial strength vacuum cleaner.
*While the formula perfected by Link to the Past may be getting a little old at this point (as is the recycled music), Minish Cap is still quite excellent, and the dungeons manage to feel pretty non-canonical.--AlexBobbs

Twilight Princess (2006) is probably best described as "Ocarina of Time on steroids".

Skyward Sword (2011) was announced at E3 2010.  It relies heavily on motion of the Wiimote and Nunchuck, and uses the Wii Motion Plus.  The live demo at E3 had interference problems, but people demoing on the floor said the controls feel very natural.  It is rumored to be the prequel to Ocarina of Time, though since the Master Sword is forged sometime in the game it would make this game first chronologically in the entire series.
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