Every Legend of Zelda game... ranked!
The Hyrules and lows of Nintendo's classic adventure series
Four decades on from its NES debut, The Legend of Zelda’s stock has arguably never been higher.
As the 40th birthday celebrations continue, Nintendo’s second most famous video game franchise finds itself in an enviable position. It has two generational greats still visible in its rear view mirror, and a glossy remake of its most beloved entry in the immediate future.
In terms of the latter, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake hits the Switch 2 on November 5th, promising a complete reimagining of the seminal N64 original.
This protracted Zelda victory lap doesn’t end with 2026, either. On April 30, 2027, a live action The Legend of Zelda movie will arrive in theatres. If it’s half as successful as the two recent Mario movies, it’s going to be a smash hit for Nintendo.
All of which has prompted us to take a step back and reflect on the source material. There have been 18 mainline Zelda games released since 1986, and we count it as a major oversight that we haven’t yet done what we do best: ranked the suckers.
Here, then, is our entirely subjective (but also totally correct) rundown of Nintendo’s Zelda games, ranked from worst to best.
Note that we’re not including remakes, spinoffs (sorry, Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland fans), multiplayer-focused diversions, or weirdo entries made for non-Nintendo consoles (yes, they exist). Just the pure, single-player, narrative-driven action-RPGs we’ve all come to know and love.
Got it? Good. To the fields of Hyrule!
18. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
It’s easy to think of Zelda’s core gameplay loop as being set in stone, with a cursory glance back to the original NES game only reinforcing that idea. The sequel, however, was a completely different kettle of fish.
This 2D adventure introduced a new side-scrolling perspective, an RPG-like levelling system, and (gulp) extensive platforming sections. It was also notoriously difficult. Playing it today is a proper sliding doors moment, and while it’s far from a terrible game, we should all give thanks that Nintendo went back to the original for inspiration in subsequent Zelda games.
17. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Perhaps you appreciate Skyward Sword’s aerial spin on Zelda staples. Perhaps you like its visual style, its sweeping orchestral soundtrack, its tight narrative, and its multi-layered dungeon design. It’ll still always occupy the lower regions of the Zelda rankings for one reason: those infernal Wii motion controls.
Let me tell you, having to waggle away furiously for every single combat encounter gets old real fast. Does it make you feel like a fantasy swordsman? Yes – an inept, unfit, poorly trained one. The linear, bitty world layout and sluggish pace doesn’t help matters either.
16. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
The second Nintendo DS Zelda game stuck with the touchscreen controls of Phantom Hourglass, but switched out the beguiling boat travel system for a frustratingly limited train-based equivalent. By its very nature, it felt rather restrictive.
Still, it’s well worth playing if you have a vintage Nintendo DS hanging around. There’s neat stuff here, such as a mechanic in which Zelda’s spirit can be used to possess armoured phantoms. Overall, however, this particular Zelda game saw the series straying a little off track.
15. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
It’s easy to forget that the Nintendo DS played host to two Zelda adventures. Nintendo’s implementation of touchscreen controls arguably lent both games a whiff of lightweight gimmickry, though they’re not without their charms.
Phantom Hourglass had the benefit of a more interesting travel mechanic, but those stylus-driven controls start to become somewhat tiresome (in all senses of the word) after a while, as does the requirement to return to the same central dungeon again and again.
14. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Given that her name is central to every single Zelda game, it’s somewhat curious that it took until 2024 for our courageous princess to get the starring role. It’s a bit of a shame, then, to note that Echoes of Wisdom is something of a minor addition to the series.
It’s a fun one, though, with a novel object-conjuring system that places an onus on creative problem solving over the usual sword-based button bashing. The use of the ‘chibi’ 2.5D engine from the preceding Link’s Awakening remake means that performance is on the janky side, though, and there’s a little too much menu management for our liking.
13. The Legend of Zelda
This is where it all started, back in 1986 (1987 outside of Japan). The NES original might be showing its age, but it’s remarkable how recognisably ‘Zelda-y’ it all is, from the top-down flip-screen exploration to now-familiar components such as the TriForce, extra hearts, and the evil Ganon.
Admittedly, it’s all rather too vague and random for its own good, with the game essentially dropping you into the middle of Hyrule with little indication as to what you’re supposed to be doing next. But the sense of adventure and exploration remains tangible, even in this crude 8-bit form.
12. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Many people think of Majora's Mask as Ocarina of Time’s weirdo little brother, but it deserves to stand on its own two Pegasus Boots. Released onto the Nintendo 64 less than two years after its illustrious predecessor, it turned out to be much more than a mere retread.
Nintendo took the core components of OoT and reconfigured them into a darker, twistier, more densely packed tale centred around a morbid doomsday scenario and a confounding time loop mechanic. It’s far from the most conventionally appealing of Zelda games, but Majora’s Mask is all the more memorable for it.
11. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
The flip side to the Oracle of Ages coin was this, its more action-oriented sibling. If you get more of your Zelda kicks from bashing moblins than figuring out puzzles, this one was for you – plus its season-switching mechanic was something fresh to the series.
Of course, completionists are required to play both games in order to see the true ending. A cheeky attempt to siphon away precious pocket money? To a certain extent, but unlike the Pokémon series these are completely distinct games, with the link up aspect merely adding to the magic.
10. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
We’ve bunched the three Capcom-produced Zelda games together, because they’re very much of a piece – particularly the two older entries. Together with Oracle of Seasons, Oracle of Ages formed a one-two slash attack on the Game Boy Color in 2001 with a pair of tightly connected adventures.
Oracle of Ages was arguably the more interesting of the two thanks to its more puzzle-oriented gameplay, but really they should be played back to back. These games are also notable for serving as spiritual successors to the beloved Link’s Awakening, utilising the same engine to create their intricate 2D worlds.
9. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
It might astound casual fans (and maybe even a few die-hards) to note that Nintendo didn’t make all of the games on this list. Three of these Zelda games were farmed out to Capcom, and the amazing thing is that they’re all brilliant.
The Minish Cap is arguably the best of the bunch, with its dinky ‘Honey I Shrunk the Link’ miniaturisation gimmick and its charming talking hat sidekick. It’s also arguably the best that Link has ever looked in pure 2D, with a gorgeously vibrant pixel art style that learned all the right lessons from Wind Waker.
8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Twilight Princess tends to be overlooked when considering all of the 3D Zelda games. That’s not because it’s a bad game – far from it – but rather because it failed to offer anything particularly new to the formula.
It’s often seen (accurately or not) as a rather conservative snap reaction to vocal criticism concerning Wind Waker’s youthful graphics, resulting in a somewhat dark and dingy art style and a return to something approaching Ocarina of Time’s more ‘mature’ tone. Despite all that, the dungeons are great, the combat is tight, and in Midna we have a memorably ambiguous sidekick.
7. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Nintendo reportedly started out intending A Link Between Worlds to be a remake of A Link to the Past, then evidently thought better of it – see entry two for why that was probably a smart decision. Instead, it opted to make a spiritual sequel to its breakthrough 2D adventure, returning to much the same overworld layout.
The game stands it ground as a more than worthy follow-up, with a brilliantly inventive wall-merging ability that made full use of the Nintendo 3DS handheld’s 3D display. Elsewhere, a daring item rental system paved the way for Breath of the Wild’s freeform revolution.
6. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Wind Waker may not be among the most important or influential games in the series, but it’s arguably the most timeless – certainly among the 3D entries. Its cel-shaded art style, so divisive at launch, has aged like a fine wine, making it seem like you’re playing through your very own animated movie.
The setting is uniquely evocative, too, with those rolling Hyrule fields replaced with a vast (or so it seemed at the time) sea, dotted with mysterious islands and nautical-themed baddies. Setting sail on your little sentient boat presented a particular fresh thrill, despite some late-game padding.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Here’s the game that dragged the series into the 3D era, thus setting the template for all of the great titles to follow – including our top pick. It’s also an early 3D game from the late ‘90s, and thus hasn’t aged all that elegantly – hence the imminent remake.
It remains a game rife with magical moments, though. Nintendo was at the vanguard of solving the troublesome transition from 2D to 3D here, inventing systems like Z-targeting that persist in some form to this day. OoT also contains some of the best (and the most challenging) dungeon design in the entire series, as well as some of the most memorable tunes.
4. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
The fact that the Zelda entry made for the most technically limited Nintendo machine of all time – the humble Game Boy – should rank so highly on this list is quite remarkable. But then, Link’s Awakening is a remarkable game in almost every department.
It takes the top-down action-RPG formula of A Link to the Past and creates a more compact and intimate, yet also more varied and interesting adventure with it. Link’s Awakening also dares to stray away from our beloved Hyrule, with the woozily off-kilter nature of its Koholint Island forming the franchise’s most compelling mystery. The Switch remake is well worth a look too, with it's charming toy-town art style.
3. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
This direct sequel couldn’t possibly hope to make as seismic an impact as Breath of The Wild. Not when it’s building on that game’s very bones. It’s a technically rough game, too, and the entire lower tier of its world is a bit of a featureless slog.
So why, then, have I pumped way more hours into Tears of the Kingdom than any other Zelda title to date? Because of the way it takes BotW’s gently interlocking physics-based systems and ramps them up to thrillingly world-expanding levels. Breath of the Wild might be the better game, but Tears of the Kingdom is the better toy.
2. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
A Link to the Past may not be quite as revolutionary as some of the other Zelda games on this list, and it’s certainly one of the least technically lavish. But here’s why it deserves such a high ranking: it remains hugely fun to play today.
It was a masterpiece of 2D action-adventure design back in 1992, with its ingenious mirror world concept. Yet its brilliance remains undimmed in a way that can’t be said of Ocarina of Time. This was also where many of today’s series staples were established, from The Master Sword to heart fragments, right through to the franchise’s signature item-based dungeon progression.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
As good as the 21st century has been for Zelda games, none of the post-Ocarina of Time releases can really say that they’ve dragged the franchise – or indeed the medium – forward since that initial switch to 3D. None until Breath of the Wild, that is.
Here was a Zelda game that gave us what we’d all been fantasising about, even if we didn’t know it. Doubling down on the spirit of exploration at the heart of the series, it lets you roam anywhere on its vast map, forging your own personal adventure through various delightfully interlocking physics systems. Best Zelda Ever? Sure, but also in the running for Best Game Of All Time Ever, too.
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