Culturess’ Ranking of The Legend of Zelda Games

Still from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D trailer. Image via Nintendo.

In honor of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild coming out this year, here’s our ranking of the Zelda games you can already play.

 Although Mario appears all over the marketing for Nintendo, that doesn’t mean that he’s their only iconic character. There was a reason, after all, that the hero of The Legend of Zelda games, Link, also served as one of the original 12 characters in Super Smash Brothers. Sure, Link may not say much more than “Come on”, as in The Wind Waker, but it’s hard to deny that he and his game series are no less influential on gaming than the Italian plumber.

With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild  coming out in March, it’s hard to contain our excitement for all of the new systems and mechanics (and for this Link’s ponytail). Before we have a chance to dive in to the game, though, it seems fitting to take a look back at how far Zelda has come as a series since the original game’s release in 1986 — 1987 if you’re talking about the States.

Of course, what’s a retrospective without a little opinionating on which games are superior experiences? That’s why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to do a ranking of the Zelda games, all the way up until Tri Force Heroes. We’ve counted only the ones Nintendo does, so there are no CD-i games here and no spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors.

Ready? Then let’s begin.