Top 5 Legend of Zelda Games

With just 2 weeks left until the release of Hyrule Warriors, which is a sort-of Zelda game, I thought I’d take a look back at my personal top 5 games in the series proper.

Looking at my list after struggling with this mammoth question for a long while I’ve come to realise it’s completely dominated with 3D Zelda’s. For whatever reason the 2D Zelda games never resonated with me as much as the 3D ones, the 3D worlds to me felt bigger, more alive and easier to escape to.
That’s not to say that I don’t like any of the 2D games. Link’s Awakening for example wasn’t far off appearing on this list. What impresses me most when I think back on this series is how much the games have maintained such a high standard for such a long time, enduring several new iterations that, for me, always manage to pull something new and interesting out of the bag while still feeling as comfortable as old boots to slip back into.
In ways it feels similar to Studio Ghibli films, you may not be sure exactly what form the next installment will take but you know that the name itself promises a beautiful score, a rich new world to explore and an epic adventure filled to the brim with interesting, memorable characters.

5. Majora’s Mask

Majora’s Mask feels very much like the black sheep of the family. With its depressing tone and constant sense of foreboding, it felt truly unique, earning its place as easily the creepiest Zelda game in the series. Even just hanging around in Clock Town, something sinister always felt like it was lurking just beneath the surface.

The oft-criticised 3 day mechanic was an interesting way of taking time travel even further than Ocarina of Time, and in a game already heavy with a sense of dread it forced the player to constantly look at a ticking clock, the end of which meant their doom was at hand. Of course, all you had to do was look up in the sky to see history’s creepiest moon staring down at you, creeping closer by the minute, which didn’t exactly help you relax either.

All of this, combined with the fact that the faces you see in this game are all familiar, yet in reality they’re alternate versions of characters you already know who merely share their appearance. This is a concept I find much more chilling than the idea of simply being in a completely different world filled with entirely unfamiliar people.

Another major highlight of the game was Skull Kid, easily the most relatable and compelling of the Zelda villains. Spoiler Alert for a 14-year-old game, the true villain is revealed to be Majora’s Mask itself who stumbled upon an understandably bitter outcast who hated the world for its treatment of him; offered him immense power, corrupted him, ultimately giving him the ability to squash the world he’d come to hate like a bug. Personally, there’s no other Zelda villain I’ve been able to empathise with as much.

The thing that stands out to me the most looking back on this game, was the ability to transform into a Goron, Zora, or Deku Shrub, each kitted out with their own instrument for when the time came to play a magical melody. They also each had an individual way of moving that needed to be used for various unique situations, leading to gameplay I’ve really never seen anywhere since.

Gorons once again proved themselves to be the personification of Rock ‘N’ Roll...
…I’ll see myself out.

It’s the game I’ve not played in the longest amount of time on this list, many years in fact, which only makes how deeply it ingrained itself in my mind all the more impressive.

Zora fish bone guitar solo/10