It's been a few months since Skyward Sword's release. Now that everyone who's anyone has finished it, let's take a look at how it ranks among all the other Zelda games. Using Negative World's Game Database, I compiled a list of our community's top ten rated Zelda games. Let's get started.
No ports or remakes allowed!
02/21/12, 00:13 Edited: 10/31/13, 22:32
The Minish Cap
Negative World Community Rating: 9.0
When I think of Zelda, I hardly ever think of Minish Cap. The third game in the Four Swords trilogy, this game showed us the origin of the Four Sword. It was developed by Capcom, the only developer outside of Nintendo trusted with making Zelda games.
Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons
Negative World Community Rating: 9.04
Oh my, look at that! It's two other Capcom-developed Zelda games!
The two Oracle games were released at the same time, and players could carry their save file over from one game to the next. In our database, they're listed as two different games, but their scores are so close (Seasons- 9.05 and Ages- 9.03) that I decided to consolidate them into one entry to make more room on the top ten list. FOR YOU, DEAR READER.
The Legend of Zelda
Negative World Community Rating: 9.16
The game that started it all. I figured this one would be higher.
What else is there to say? Come on, it's Zelda.
Twilight Princess
Negative World Community Rating: 9.24
I wasn't sure whether to use the GameCube version of Twilight Princess (the definitive version, obviously) or the Wii version (which has more ratings). Luckily for me, the two games' scores are exactly the same. A divine prank, indeed.
Skyward Sword
Negative World Community Rating: 9.27
Just beating out Twilight Princess, we have Skyward Sword coming in at #6. Of course, Skyward Sword doesn't have nearly as many ratings as the other games on this list. Haven't you beaten it yet!?
The Wind Waker
Negative World Community Rating: 9.3
One of the most beautiful games ever created. Wind Waker was a huge departure from the traditional Zelda formula of... land. The sailing turned out to be very love it or hate it, especially with the huge fetch quest towards the end of the game.
Since when is there a "The" in the title?
Majora's Mask
Negative World Community Rating: 9.51
Arguably the most polarizing Zelda game to date- even moreso than Wind Waker. Majora's Mask's main gimmick was a 72-hour countdown that forced players to manage their time and use knowledge of future events to figure out what to do in the past. The game took place in a screwed-up world called Termina, aka pseudo-Hyrule. I doubt we'll ever see another Zelda game like Majora's Mask, for better or for worse.
Link's Awakening
Negative World Community Rating: 9.57
The first portable Zelda game, and a total cult classic. Like what Majora's Mask would do to Ocarina of Time, Link's Awakening took the world of A Link to the Past and turned it on its head. Yes, those are goombas.
A Link to the Past
Negative World Community Rating: 9.7
The third Zelda game ever released, A Link to the Past completely ignored Zelda II and returned to Zelda's roots to create one of the most cherished games of all time. A Link to the Past stands strongly as the best 2D Zelda. Which, of course, leaves only one option for the overall best Zelda game...
Ocarina of Time
Negative World Community Rating: 9.76
Surprised? I doubt it. Not only is Ocarina of Time Negative World's top rated Zelda game, it's our top rated game PERIOD. Topping countless "Best Game of All Time" lists, Ocarina of Time is a true masterpiece that will never be forgotten.
So what do you think? Disagree? Too bad, there's nothing you can do about it. Nah, I'm just messing. Head on over to the Game Database and start rating some games yourself! You just might make a difference.
@HammerLord - Zelda II is my 8th favorite Zelda game. So while that's not terribly high up, that's still higher than half the Zelda games...
@Secret_Tunnel - Four Swords doesn't count as a Capcom-made Zelda game? I also think it's unfair to say that ALttP completely ignored AoL. After all, ALttP adopted multiple things that were introduced in AoL like the magic bar, spells, towns, sidequests (assuming you don't count LoZ's Letter as a sidequest), sword skills (the Spin Attack was in the SNES version, wasn't it?), and more.
This top ten kind of surprised me, in a good-ish way, as everything lined up pretty nicely. Though with just my scores factored in, things would be a bit different/more accurate. I mean, A Link to the Past not at the top spot? And Link's Awakening not in second place? I'd also bump Minish Cap up, such a great game, and swap Twilight Princess with Skyward Sword. But still a great ranking as is. Oh, and yes, I agree that Wind Waker is perhaps one of the finest looking games ever. It just about nailed my vision of how the series and its characters should look.
Everything is flipped! Link is right-handed, the Triforce pieces are wrong, and Hyrule is geographically completely different! (Not that Hyrule's geography is that big of a deal to me from game to game, but it was pretty cool how Twilight Princess tried to be faithful to Ocarina of Time.)
@Secret_Tunnel - To be fair, Link is right-handed in SS and ambidextrous in at least the first two games, the Triforce pieces in TP aren't necessarily the Triforce pieces themselves (and AoL, OoX, and SS (and even the beginning of both versions of TP) have given Link Triforce marks that aren't just the right triangle being lit up, and Hyrule is geographically completely different in many of the games (e.g., OoT Hyrule vs. ST Hyrule vs. AoL Hyrule).
Now that I think about it, why did Nintendo do that with the geography in TP? What was the point of doing that? What function does reversing the geography serve?
Link has always been left-handed. But with motion controls having to cater for the majority population (yes Lefties, you're all freaks), they had to make him a righty.
For Skyward Sword this wasn't a problem as this was a decision made from the beginning. But Twilight Princess started on the Gamecube where Link was a originally Lefty. And apparently it was easier to simply mirror-flip the entire game rather than reprogram a right-handed model.
EDIT: What Stephen said. That'll teach me to dawdle on posts