The Legend of Zelda has long been my favourite video game and it was the first game of its type to include complex puzzles and exciting action gaming. It has a rich and fully fleshed out universe and always has the best plots most beautiful graphics and the most intuitive gameplay. I’d like to see in depth discussions about timeline issues, philisophical debates and forecasts for future titles but feel free to post whatever you like in relation to the series.
Link to the Past, the SNES title, was the only one I ever got into. I can’t believe they never made a sequel for the SNES. That was *the *system forever. It was also my last Nintendo console, so I’ve never played later titles. The switch to 3D killed my interest for a long time anyhow. Until pretty recently, I’ve thought that a lot of 3D graphics were a lot uglier and rougher than their artful 2D pixelated ancestors.
The only game that beat out Link on the SNES was Chrono Trigger. I don’t even like turn-based RPGs, but that game was simply flat out kick ass.
Oh, yeah, I love Zelda. Best game series ever, IMO.
I’m really kinda worried about the new game though, as apparantly it will use motion controls heavily, that is, you will actually control Links sword with your Wiimote. I’m not so sure that is a good idea for a Zelda game.
I played it at E3 and thought it worked very well. Whether it works well for a Zelda-length game, I’m not so sure about.
Moved to The Game Room from Cafe Society.
Just a reminder that in this of all possible discussions f video games, you should not forget to provide a Link. 
Loved it also. However, I really hated, in the early iterations, re-killing all the monsters upon reentering an area. Very disruptive to gameplay especially when your moving about searching for something or trying to solve a puzzle.
The SNES Zelda game was the ultimate RPG.
I tried to play the one on the N64, but it was… crap. And that annoying fairy. I guess I’m an old dork who will never like 3D games.
maybe it’s era bias (it probably is) but Ocarina of Time is my vote for hands down, best video game in the history of video games.
it beats all any SNES, later n64, gamecube, wii incarnations by a fair margin.
I agree!
My favorite is still Link’s Awakening. (In fact, most of the time I find the portable version is my favorite game.)I just thing the mechanics are perfected there–simple, yet entirely functional. And it’s a pretty long game, (unlike, say, the Minish Cap which I wasted my money on.) And the difficulty is about right (ditto).
Of course, I’ve never played the Oracles, except for a brief demo that didn’t get past the beginning stages. But, based on the lack of direction I found myself in rather quickly, I’m assuming they aren’t going to beat the first Game Boy game.
I actually think Twilight Princess is the best one.
My wife and just finished playing through all the Zelda’s(not the CD-I ones). Oh, we don’t have a DS. Anyone have a DS we can buy for cheap? 
Heck, we’d take an original model if it was cheap enough.
My thoughts:
NES: Loved the original Zelda. Hated Zelda 2. I just don’t feel like Zelda 2 was finished.
Gameboy:
We really loved Oracle of Seasons. We thought** Ages** had dungeons far too complex and convoluted at times. **Link’s Awakening **was charming, but nearly broken for us sometimes. We got lost on Link’s Awakening’s world map countless amounts of time.
GBA:
**Minish Cap **was amazingly fun, but we hated the link stone thingy(those stones you merge with people). Most took us to more stones, which was lame. Great dungeons, though.
SNES: Link to the Past. How did anyone beat this without a guide? My wife told me her brother did beat it without a guide simply by wandering around the dungeons and world map for over a year. Love the game, but we had to use a guide to get through most of the later dungeons. I hate that hand thing that takes you back to the beginning of the dungeon. What a bad idea. However, I will admit, this is the largest Zelda and a very cool game.
N64: Ocarina of Time. Wonderful, but I hate the camera in this game. I also don’t get how the Water Temple was considered finished. We had to use a guide just to find all the keys in that dungeon. However, I will admit, Ocarina is amazing and I am impressed they fit the whole game on a N64 cartridge. I love this game.
**
Majora’s Mask** - I never loved this game. I wanted too, but the whole “repeat the days over and over” thing just bugged me. I don’t know why. I beat it and never had major trouble getting dungeons done in the 3 day period, but I just didn’t like this game.
Gamecube:
Wind Waker: I like it, but they made a fatal error. The boat needed to be upgradeable so you can sail faster. Yeah, I know you can warp in the game, but the boat should be able to sail more quickly. I do like all the dungeons, though, which is key. I adored the look of the game, too. I know people were mixed on it, but I thought the animated look worked really well. Oh, you shouldn’t have to pay that stupid fish to make your map! We got so tired of finding him, feeding him, listening to him babble on, and then getting our square mapped.
Twilight Princess: Best. Zelda. Ever. I know, people consider it too close to Ocarina, but it isn’t for me and it is just amazing. Perhaps a perfect game. Well, I don’t like the “collect the lights” with the wolf, but that isn’t a major problem for me. That tower dungeon where you pick up the wand that controls things is my favorite dungeon in Zelda history. I love everything about this game. I never played it on the Wii, though. I consider it a Gamecube game all the way.
They do, especially if you combine them into one game. Seasons is the best portable Zelda I have played.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Wind Waker was my favorite, though I admittedly haven’t played MM or the Oracles.
I wanted to like Phantom Hourglass, but having to go back to that same timed dungeon over and over again was aggravating.
i didn’t like playing as the wolf. everything you did with the wolf was formulaic and tiring. yeah. i get it. find the lights and then hold down B and you can’t leave just 1 baddie left. oh i have to do this every time i enter twilight? i can’t leave twilight until this is over?
i just felt very handcuffed whenever i turned into a wolf.
also, my vote for best zelda dungeon is the spirit temple in ocarina. faaaaaaantastic. i didn’t want that level to ever end.
**A Link to the Past **is my favorite video game of all time. I never beat it until I found a guide online, but man I loved that game. I didn’t have N64 so I have not played **Ocarina of Time **but have heard that it is better. I refuse to believe it. Maybe I’ll download it for Wii.
Someone mentioned **Chrono Trigger **upthread. I couldn’t get into that one.
My favorite is Wind Waker. She was my first, and you always remember your first…
I hadn’t heard of the Legend of Zelda series before, and I bought it for something like $20 just to tide me over for a month or two until Christmas when Donkey Konga was going to be under the tree. Without any knowledge of the story, or the weapons to come, it was a different experience from someone who’s played prior games. At some point, I started just tooling around the Ocean, completing my mask, opening the treasures chests, and finding things I couldn’t do yet. Played it through the second time as well.
I’ve since played Ocarina, Majora’s Mask and Twilight Princess on the Gamecube. I like those also, with Twilight Princess probably at the bottom of the four. Majora’s Mask took a while (includng taking a break and coming back to it several months later) to get the hang of it. The time aspect makes it really a 4-D game map. Almost done with it.
If this was a poll, then Links Awakening would be getting my vote. That game was perfect, particularly for the age I played it. It and Super Metroid on the snes, are the only games that ever truly entered my conciousness to the point that when I wasnt playing them, I would still be randomly thinking about what I should be trying next to finish the game.
I dont get that feeling from games any more, which is a shame.
I thought Link to the Past was almost too easy, because all i had to compare it too were the two NES titles. The castles were numbered on a map, and you needed most of the items in them to even be able to proceed to the next area. I thought that was refreshingly straightforward compared to wandering around in the first Zelda. I’m not saying I didn’t take hours to crack some of the tougher dungeons, but I like knowing what I needed to do next.
A Link to the Past had some extremely fiendish puzzles, but by the time I played it I had read through my friend’s strategy guide and/or seen him play the game enough to know exactly how to get through all the tricky bits. The first dark world dungeon boss I have found to be extremely difficult with the low number of hearts you have unless (1) you know how to get every piece of heart available, and have done so, and/or (2) are very patient. If you don’t have a guide, it will be difficult to find the rest of the dungeons without killing that boss and being told where the others are. Even if you could find them, without them being numbered on your map you’d not be sure when you get stuck somewhere if there’s some puzzle you’re supposed to figure out, or whether there’s an item from another dungeon needed. I personally remember playthroughs where I get the hammer, and get the hell out of that dungeon. I then get Titan’s Mitt (I think it’s obtainable with just the hammer) and get the sword upgraded before taking on any bosses. It seems so easy now, but I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for players that didn’t have any access to Nintendo Power.
Wind Waker I never owned (never had a Game Cube), and I played through it at a friend’s; there’s a ton of stuff to do in the game, but it gets very tedious sailing around and not having any idea if what you discover is beatable with the items you have. There are so many places that you have to come back to once you get certain items, but since they’re scattered all over the place they’re difficult to remember. If there was a way for the game to let you know whether you’ve done everything on a certain square, it would be better but lose a bit of the mystery of discovery; unfortunately that mystery gets exceedingly tedious with the travel times involved.
I played Twilight Princess on my Wii, and I was quite impressed with it. Unfortunately the controls for some of the special moves did not register very well. I don’t remember precisely, but I had a really hard time getting the game to differentiate two of the moves involving the nunchuk and it made certain fights much harder than they should have been. Otherwise the controls were pretty good, if not a bit different from what one is used to. The only hiccup I had that almost had me “cheating” and looking at a guide was how to get into Snowfall; the hints provided in the game were just a bit too vague and it took me a long time to piece together exactly what was needed, including a long time trying things that ended up not working.