Ok, I learned my lesson this time, Skyward Sword will not be part of this poll. I'm just curious to see how we feel about the games leading up to it. Of course Ocarina of Time will win this poll, probably by a landslide, but I'm still curious.

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@Zero

Just goes to show how many great games this series has produced, and even with the same basic gameplay throughout the 3D games, there's something to uniquely separate all four of the games in this poll to the point where you get a wide range of opinions. And something like the order in which they were played probably plays a role as well.

I would imagine similar results with the Mario series, maybe even more diversity. I bet 5 Mario games would get a significant number of votes. Not as much with Metroid, I think most people would vote either Super Metroid or Prime.

@Shadowlink
But TP is better!

@carlosrox

TP is great, don't get me wrong. It's basically OoT on steroids- Which would normally be enough to put it over the top.

But it does have some flaws. My recent playthrough confirmed that.

OoT IMO did not. There was *never* a part in that game where I got frustrated and thought 'Oh this is bullshit'. Something that happened a few times with Twilight Princess .

@TheBigG753

Zero Mission!

(Nah, Prime. But Zero Mission>Super Metroid, now and forever.)

Are we talking which is objectively the best, or which is our favorite?

Majora's Mask is far and away the best, although I admit Wind Waker is my favorite. Either way I'd put Ocarina of Time last. It's a great game, but it's been outdone.

How can Wind Waker be beating Twilight? Hoooowwww??

Filthy heathens, all of you.

@Anand
I bet you a lot of people have Twilight PRincess as their #2 behind Ocarina. We should have a "worst 3d zelda" poll, guaranteed Wind Waker would win

@Shadowlink

Oh thems fightin' words! Zero Mission was good, but Super Metroid it was not. Not even close.

@rebonack

Majora's Mask is probably my least favorite console Zelda. It was a different game than Ocarina of Time, but felt too much like a "Me too!" game to me from start to end. Too many re-used assets and waaaaaay too much fetch-questing (although some of the story lines associated with them were interesting) to pad the game's length. It had its moments of brilliance though, especially some of the boss fights.

@ludist210

Fair enough, I can't argue with the reused assets.

I think the world felt much more alive than the others, because of the way everyone is actually on a schedule. Even in Skyward Sword, when I return to Skyloft halfway through the game, characters still say the same things. Majora's Mask's world felt alive because the characters seemed like they were actually living real lives. I also think the dungeons (particularly the Great Bay Temple and Stone Tower Temple) are some of the absolute best in the series, and the ticking clock adds a feeling of tension and dread which makes me feel more immersed. And the masks add quite a bit of variety to the gameplay, although I admit it's part of the reason I wasn't a huge fan of the game at first -- I wanted to play as Link, not a Deku Scrub. I also found the main story more interesting than Ocarina, which to me felt a bit "me-too" to A Link to the Past.

At least we agree that Super Metroid rules.

@rebonack

Being forced to play as the Deku Scrub in the very beginning turned off a lot of players, I think.

The later transformations were great, though. I tried play as Zora link whenever I could. Sometimes I'd just go out to the Great Bay and swim around, just for fun. It was a blast.

@Shadowlink

Hey, I'm "THAT GUY" who would vote for Prime 2.

But I speculate it'd be more of a 2 horse race with Metroid.

I really really enjoyed Majora's Mask. But, there were a few areas where the game just lacks polish, and that bothered me. When there's a design choice I personally don't like in a game but is well done, I don't mind that. But MM had a few undeniably "ugh!" moments. Like, the Stone Tower Temple is frustrating. The save system is frustrating. Fighting that guy that multiplies (Wizrobe, or something like that) like six or seven times is annoying. The doggy race track is stupid. And a few more instances like that where the polish doesn't shine, not even close, and that never happened to me in any other Zelda game.

@anon_mastermind
That would definitely be an interesting poll (although Majora might 'win' instead). Make it!

@rebonack

I can't argue with that either, though the ticking clock drove me up the wall. I felt rushed even when I slowed it down, something I don't like when I'm exploring. I did like the dungeons, but the sense of urgency while exploring them took away from that for me. Also the (admittedly optional) 52 heart pieces. 52! Only four complete heart containers to be found, all from bosses! Tracking them all down got old quick.

Though the one thing I totally agree with was the life in Clock Town. Simbabbad argued that point well in another thread, and I think you both convinced me that I need to replay Majora's Mask (without a grudge this time, stupid sword glitch). I wish the Zelda franchise would operate on a calendar like, say, Harvest Moon. Seasons come and go (maybe every seven days instead of 30) and bring different things for townspeople to do.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Majora's Mask. It's just my least-favorite 3D and console-based Zelda game.

OoT probably. Though my personal favorite 3D Zelda before SS is The Wind Waker but it has enough flaws that I have a hard time calling the "best".

I really wish I had written a step-by-step account of me playing the beginning of Majora's Mask, it would have illustrated TirforceBun's arguments perfectly. Now it's not very fresh in my mind, and if I were to start over, I probably would remember what to do and what not to do.

But basically, the start of that game is a mess, and totally put me off the rest of the game.

I really don't enjoy doing the sidequests either, so everyone telling me "you gotta do the sidequests, they make the game!" were in fact giving me bad advice. It's not the way I want to play Zelda games.

Simba's criticisms of the "quest dispensers" in Skyward Sword sound valid for what I've read. I don't think they'll bother me though as I naturally tend to ignore them once the real quest gets going.


It's really cool to see different people enjoying Zelda games for completely different reasons, though. There is obviously no "one way" the series should evolve, as no two people seem to like the exact same things about it.


To answer the question, my pick is Wind Waker. Best feeling of exploration I've ever gotten from a Zelda game, best feeling of adventure. The "flaws" like combat that's way too easy or 100% rehashed puzzles don't phase me a much as they should, I guess.

@Guillaume

While the start of MM is a bit weak, it's been that way for just about every console Zelda game since LttP. None of them have matched that, at least not IMHO. Decent "tutorial," great atmosphere, quick pace and good narrative delivery. I feel like EVERY Zelda game has chugged at the beginning since OoT. MM may be worse than the rest; I don't remember.

Also, Zelda games haven't had compelling sidequests since Majora's Mask. Barring some exceptions they're almost universally boring to execute and have incredibly pedestrian rewards. No idea why Nintendo has abandoned awesome stuff like what LttP brought to the table with tons of randomness and unnecessary goodies.

EDIT - I have never understood the claim that Wind Waker has any kind of exploration, let alone compelling. You know where the islands are based on your map, so you just go to them. There's almost nothing good on any of them and they take way too long to get to. Everything about that game's design is smoke and mirrors to obscure the fact that it's a ten hour game that takes three times as long to complete, praying all the while that you don't notice where content was obviously removed to meet a ship date.

Actually, I think I remember liking Wind Waker's opening quite a bit. Irony!

@Kal-El814

It's not "a bit weak". I really, really should have written it down. It is beyond awful.

Some people have been saying that if it weren't for the Zelda name they wouldn't have gotten past the first 3 hours of SS. Well at the very least in SS you know what you're doing.

Not being told the rules is fun sometimes, but not in MM. Not when your tasks are so tedious (finding kids hiding, finding fairies scattered around) and when just finding one item, like the deed, can take so long unless you already know where it is. And then you run out of time, and you lose the deed, and you realize that not only you need to find it again, but that it will be part of a long trading sequence, so if you thought you didn't need it beyond that first use, think again.

MM is definitely worse than the rest. And I don't find the sidequests compelling at all. I'll try to rush through the main quest one day, but I definitely didn't enjoy the game when playing the way people told me to play it.

edit - I liked sailing. What can I say. It was fun and relaxing, and for most of the game before you get the warp song I did not particularly long for a faster way to travel.

@Guillaume
I agree. What was so good about those tedious time based quests?

@Kal-El814

Personally, I love the opening of OOT. It's a short and sweet primer on Zelda gameplay with lots of charm, a nice little dungeon with a cool boss that really was impressive in its day, and then you're out into the world on your own like classic Zelda.

It's been downhill since then unfortunately.

@Guillaume

I've posted this before, but here's my take on Wind Waker's sailing. I set course, then went to the bathroom to poop. One poop later I was not yet at my destination, still on course, and still had full health. I don't think any other game in history would fail the poop test.

@carlosrox

Plenty of them weren't tedious, I think. And the payoff of some of the sidequests is better than what you get out of the plot of just about every other Zelda game, combined. Minus Link's Awakening.

Though thinking about it more, I'm coming around to the notion that the initial curve in Majora's Mask is probably too steep. I know a few people that didn't find out how to slow time soon enough and they never came back to the game. That's a huge problem.

@Jargon

That's a good point, too. A brief primer and then a legit dungeon is a good way to open the game. Not dissimilar from LttP in that regard, and probably done better.