Zelda

[Dones]

Given they seemed to be dominated more by name recognition than game quality, the fact that Zelda 2 registered where it did spoke volumes to me. It was a Zelda game AND couldn't make it to the top.

I see what you mean. I never payed much attention to NP's top 10, specially when (at the time) I saw old games like Super Mario Brothers and Zelda always getting the top spots over fresh newcomers. I don't know the specifics, but didn't Zelda or Mario stayed on the #1 spot for years?

[JB]

Given they seemed to be dominated more by name recognition than game quality, the fact that Zelda 2 registered where it did spoke volumes to me. It was a Zelda game AND couldn't make it to the top.

I see what you mean. I never payed much attention to NP's top 10, specially when (at the time) I saw old games like Super Mario Brothers and Zelda always getting the top spots over fresh newcomers. I don't know the specifics, but didn't Zelda or Mario stayed on the #1 spot for years?

When they discontinued the NES lists due to stagnation, the top game had been Super Mario 3 and #2 was Zelda 1 for a LOOOONG period of time.

I don't have the exact #s, but I know it was a few years on Zelda at least.

[EricDeLee]

I had all of the Zelda GB games at one time. Then a friend's kid lost my gameboy Sp and over $400 worth of games. He just left it laying around and walked off Kids these days just don't understand!

 

I ALMOST bought a friggin DS last night just to buy the new Zelda game and to get either a Football or golf games for DS. Then I couldn't decide and put them down.

[Flojomojo]

I have a feeling if you've never bothered with Zelda this far, you're not likely to stick it through and play ALL the games in this series. I would start with the 3D Ocarina of Time -- should be easy to find for either N64 or Cube.

 

I played the first one on NES, loved it, including the obscure "2nd quest" with different enemies.

 

I also really liked the 2nd one, the scrolling-jumper "Adventures of Link," but wimped out at the final boss.

 

Then I hit the wall. I wanted to love Link to the Past on SNES, and have considered getting it on GBA, but it was just too similar to the first two games, so it felt like a grind.

 

The N64 version is really lovely, well-designed, and is a breath of fresh air.

 

Unfortunately, I lacked the stamina to get into Majora's Mask. Same thing for the GameBoy games, and Wind Waker, which I have yet to make any real progress in.

 

These are time-consuming games.

 

(Confession: even though I'm a big Nintendo fan too, I haven't played any of the Metroid games seriously. Figured I'd start with Super Metroid and then play Prime on the Cube, then Zero Mission on the GBA)

[128bytes]

They are time-consuming games! I'm just now doing my first Zelda game, Link to the Past on the GBA, and I'm stuck around the East Castle looking for a "big key". I've been all around the place looking for it. I'm trying very hard to get through the game without any help! I still am a bigger fan of shorter "classic" games, though, and may try to pick up a used Wario Ware as a reward for completing my first Zelda.

[Dones]

Unfortunately, I lacked the stamina to get into Majora's Mask.  Same thing for the GameBoy games, and Wind Waker, which I have yet to make any real progress in.

 

Majora is a short game padded with mini games and a time-reset problem just to make it longer than it should be. You won't be missing much if you skip this one.

[rockman_x_2002]

Unfortunately, I lacked the stamina to get into Majora's Mask.  Same thing for the GameBoy games, and Wind Waker, which I have yet to make any real progress in.

 

Majora is a short game padded with mini games and a time-reset problem just to make it longer than it should be. You won't be missing much if you skip this one.

 

Nothing missing except perhaps for a few headaches. Don't get me wrong. The game is Zelda-esque enough. It's just that if you want to "do it all" in the game, you will pretty much have to use a strategy guide to find everything. It takes a long time to complete the game thoroughly, and as I said, you'll need a bottle of Advil nearby from time to time.

[Flojomojo]

Unfortunately, I lacked the stamina to get into Majora's Mask.  Same thing for the GameBoy games, and Wind Waker, which I have yet to make any real progress in.

 

Majora is a short game padded with mini games and a time-reset problem just to make it longer than it should be. You won't be missing much if you skip this one.

 

Nothing missing except perhaps for a few headaches. Don't get me wrong. The game is Zelda-esque enough. It's just that if you want to "do it all" in the game, you will pretty much have to use a strategy guide to find everything. It takes a long time to complete the game thoroughly, and as I said, you'll need a bottle of Advil nearby from time to time.

Excellent. You have assuaged my guilt nicely. Thanks for that.

 

I still am a bigger fan of shorter "classic" games, though, and may try to pick up a used Wario Ware as a reward for completing my first Zelda.

With the possible exception of Activision's "DRAGSTER," I can't think of any other game which is shorter or more classic than Wario Ware. If you're slogging through Zelda, you would certainly enjoy the pace of WW.

 

Then again, I have the attention span of a flea, so your mileage my vary.

[StanJr]

I disagree, Majora's Mask is quite good and quite beatable sans guide. But it is INCREDIBLY immersive. You may want to take notes at times, or become EXTREMELY familiar with the world. I have beat it twice, completely sans guide and it was a very fun ride. Its side quest heaven, because the entire game is just side quests. The frame quest is extremely short, but to get there, and do it well, you'll want to do most of the side quests. And they are rewarding, because the final boss is extremely difficult unless you collect all the masks.

 

Still a great game, and a significant departure from the standard Zelda formula (ala Adv. of Link, maybe that is why everyone hates it, its not the same old same old... )

[128bytes]

Hey, I found the big key during lunch time today! I'm still succeeding without anyone giving me any hints

[Dones]

I disagree, Majora's Mask is quite good and quite beatable sans guide.  But it is INCREDIBLY immersive.  You may want to take notes at times, or become EXTREMELY familiar with the world.  I have beat it twice, completely sans guide and it was a very fun ride.  Its side quest heaven, because the entire game is just side quests.  The frame quest is extremely short, but to get there, and do it well, you'll want to do most of the side quests.  And they are rewarding, because the final boss is extremely difficult unless you collect all the masks.

 

Still a great game, and a significant departure from the standard Zelda formula (ala Adv. of Link, maybe that is why everyone hates it, its not the same old same old... )

No one said it was a bad game. I do think Majora is not for everyone, specially if (like you said) side-questing is not your thing. Interesting to note that both Majora's Mask and Wind Waker were designed by Eiji Aonuma, Miyamoto's protege (Mr. M had input but he only produced them). Aonuma's mini-quest-as-game-filling approach is palpable in both games.

[Stingray]

I have a feeling if you've never bothered with Zelda this far, you're not likely to stick it through and play ALL the games in this series.

 

Well I certainly never intended to play them all straight through. I've finished Legend of Zelda (1st quest anyway) and have gone back to PS2 for a while before I pick up Link to the Past for GBA and play that one.

 

-S

[StanJr]

 

Well I certainly never intended to play them all straight through. I've finished Legend of Zelda (1st quest anyway) and have gone back to PS2 for a while before I pick up Link to the Past for GBA and play that one.

 

-S

 

soooo.....

 

how did you like it?

[Stingray]

Oh I thought it was a blast. Can't belive I've gone so long without playing a Zelda game. After I play all of them that I can on my GBA SP, I guess I'm going to have to break down and finally buy a Gamecube so I can play the newer ones.

 

-S

[StanJr]

very happy to hear it. The Zelda games are great!

[Laner]

The Original Zelda is a great game to take the time to play. When I 1st played this game, I played it for a couple hours, saved it, played it again the next day, saved it and did that for weeks, till I finally beat it.  

 

Another great game

This has nothing to do with Zelda, but what is your avatar from? It's so familiar, yet I can't quite place it.

[Laner]

Of course, I figure it out immediately after posting...

[ubersaurus]

Well, I've been on a mission to finish all the zelda games Nintendo has put out before the new one is released. Here's where I stand:

 

Legend of Zelda-1st quest was beaten a while back, but I've never finished the 2nd. Damn hard.

 

Zelda 2-Finished.

 

Link to the Past-finished

 

Links Awakening-Finished. Don't have DX, but honestly one exta dungeon isn't worth me picking it up unless it's cheap.

 

Ocarina of Time-Finished. Currently working on the Master Quest version, I'm up to Spirit Temple.

 

Majora's Mask-Finished

 

Oracle of Ages-Finished this a couple weeks ago. DAMN HARD zelda game.

 

Oracle of Seasons-Currently playing through it, link game with my Ages data. Seems way more fun than Ages, honestly.

 

Wind Waker-Finished. So easy, I don't know how you can't.

 

4 Swords Adventures-Own it. Haven't started it. I'm planning on going through it with friends, but we haven't found a free time to start yet.

 

Minish Cap-Have to pick it up still.

 

So yeah. Minish Cap, Oracle of Seasons, 4 Swords, and the harder quests of Zelda 1 and Ocarina, are all that's left for me. Those games are addictive-must be the dungeon puzzles. I'll admit it, though, Ages had me going to the guide more than once.

[Stingray]

Before I resort to ebay, anyone here have Link to the Past for GBA available for sale?

 

-S

[Joe C.]

The Original Zelda is a great game to take the time to play. When I 1st played this game, I played it for a couple hours, saved it, played it again the next day, saved it and did that for weeks, till I finally beat it.  

 

Another great game

This has nothing to do with Zelda, but what is your avatar from? It's so familiar, yet I can't quite place it.

 

Glad you asked Laner.. that is Spheroid from my favorite game,

 

M.U.L.E.

[Room 34]

Before I resort to ebay, anyone here have Link to the Past for GBA available for sale?

 

-S

Why resort to eBay? It's still for sale new around here.

[Stingray]

Before I resort to ebay, anyone here have Link to the Past for GBA available for sale?

 

-S

Why resort to eBay? It's still for sale new around here.

 

Couldn't find it at Best Buy or Circuit City, checked Wal Mart, but that was a no-go too. Seems to be one that's hard to find new at least inmy area.

 

-S

[Room 34]

Before I resort to ebay, anyone here have Link to the Past for GBA available for sale?

 

-S

Why resort to eBay? It's still for sale new around here.

 

Couldn't find it at Best Buy or Circuit City, checked Wal Mart, but that was a no-go too. Seems to be one that's hard to find new at least inmy area.

 

-S

I saw it at Toys 'R' Us. You might want to check there. They have the best selection of any place around where I live!

 

(Granted, if I didn't have a 2 year old, I'd never have even set foot in the store!)

[Stingray]

I saw it at Toys 'R' Us. You might want to check there. They have the best selection of any place around where I live!

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but the toys r us nearest to me has a terrible selection, however it is next door to a great used game place so I may pop in and have a look next time I'm over there just for the heck of it.

 

-S

[mechanized]

You've got plenty of replies by now, but I guess one more can't "hurt" .. can it?

 

Like others have said, don't consider the games chronologically, since not only do the games jump around in time periods, but also in generations, and even worlds. The games that do happen in the same world, for instance, would be generations apart with recurring characters in a sort of reincarnative cycle. For the most part, there is always a Princess Zelda, heir to the Hyrule Kingdom, with the princess in each game being, at least, named in homage to the original Princess Zelda who had been cursed into a deep, magical sleep. How we always have a "Link" available is a bit more tricky and has never officially been touched upon... it's possible that young boys get named in homage to the original Link, or blonde kids, or the Triforce or the Gods themselves (Nayru, Din, Fayore) preselect the hero at birth and inspire the boy's naming... I dunno, it's all supposition. There is, nevertheless, always a Link and a Zelda, and a handful of others are involved with their intertwined fates and reincarnations, or whatever (Impa, Zelda's nurse/guard/handmaiden, and King Jabu-Jabu/Jabun for example) and most of the time Gannondorf is involved with whatever is wrong, notably as the King of the Gerudo, King of Thieves, Dark Magician, or in his more corrupted form, Gannon, a hulking brute of a pig-monster. Often, the King of Hyrule is involved in some manner, but it's uncertain (like much of the uncertainty of LoZ) whether it's a particular recurring kingly presence or just the king du jour.

 

Chronologically, the games were released as: Legend of Zelda (NES), Adventure of Link (NES), Link's Awakening (GB), A Link to the Past (SNES), Link's Awakening DX (GBC; Slightly expanded and in Color), Ocarina of Time (N64; and likely thereafter the OoT Master Quest edition), Majora's Mask (N64), Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages (GBC; these two games go hand in hand, with different plots and play that affect one another via link cable {note: extra features if playing with a GBA}), Wind Waker (GC), A Link to the Past w/ Four Swords (GBA; a slightly modified Link to the Past with four player link cable support), Four Swords Adventures (GC) .... and of course, this totally ignores the bastard games that were released for the Phillips system.

 

Sequentially, it's hard to discern what goes with what. It appears that Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link are connected, but it's hard to tell which came first, though likely LoZ happened first (I say it's difficult to tell because there's no mention of the Princess Zelda that Link would have saved in LoZ during the events of AoL, in which Link is trying to revive the original Princess Zelda, which seems pretty odd). Prior to both of these is supposed to have occurred A Link to the Past, where we learn more about Gannon's origins and how he became the pig-monster magician fought in the other two.

 

Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker also seem to be linked together, but on a potentially different version of Hyrule than the other games; Majora's Mask in particular has little to no association with Either world, but involves young Link from OoT being trapped in a sort of tangent universe and having to escape. Many, many years later, the events of Wind Waker unfold, long after Hyrule is little more than a memory. (There is supposed to be a direct sequel to Wind Waker in the works, reportedly.)

 

Link's Awakening seems to stand entirely on its own as well, but it could tie into another game. It involves a Link's adventures in a dream world (I hope that wasn't a spoiler... ehh..).

 

Oralce of Ages/Oracle of Seasons seem to involve another, different Link as well. I haven't finished these, so I can't really say much on the plot.

 

Were I to rate them, I'd have a difficult time. Legend of Zelda is a stellar game for its time. Adventure of Link, while very different than its predecessor and the games to come, is very good in its own right with solid gameplay all around. A Link to the Past is, for many, the definitive top-view Legend of Zelda game, and for good reason - it's colorful, the world is pretty damn big, the gameplay is solid all around, and there's a lot to find and do with upwards of ten full-fledged dungeons and many smaller dungeons. Link's Awakening was hard for me to get into the last time I played it, but I suspect it's because I just can't seem to get into it with the original release's pea soup colorations - I expect I'll find it much more palatable once I play the DX version. Ocarina of Time is a great game, and one of the defining titles for the N64. The world, while large, doesn't quite seem large enough, to me, but the dungeons are inventive and well-executed, and there's a lot to do. Majora's Mask, though, I personally loathe... I hate the entire time limit thing (you have a certain number of "days" to complete the game) and I found it to be the sort of game I require a walkthrough to manage - very little was intuitive, and finding clues on what to do and where to go was extremely frustrating with that timer ticking down. Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons have so far proven to be a great time, though I haven't picked them up in a while (though I blame that on my current disinterest in games... I just want more to do than sit and play a game, so don't think it's because the game was boring). Wind Waker is a great game, too, but a lot of people find the sailing to be tedious; me, I see right through the sailing and believe it's a result of the developers wanting a "big" game world but not having a lot of space to make it on the GameCube discs.... it's still a great game, though, with fun characters, things to do, nice dungeons, and good plot.

 

.... instead of rating them, I'll say which ones I find myself going back to after all these years.

 

Legend of Zelda, since it's a great, fairly quick play (by fairly quick, I mean if you know what you're doing, you can breeze through it in a few hours) and loaded with nostalgia. Plus, that Second Quest, that's some replay. I still haven't finished that one, heh!

 

A Link to the Past, I pick this one up every few years and do it start to finish and am consistently entertained to the end, where, once again, I'm a little sad that the ride is over.

 

Adventure of Link, I never played much as a kid (I didn't own it) so I'm sort of discovering it for the first time and I like it. I pick it up infrequently.

 

Wind Waker, which also has a second quest that I'm currently working through, but its second quest isn't really a second quest... it's mostly being able to play through the game again in a different outfit with a few new features available, like being able to understand ancient languages that certain characters speak, et cetera.

 

Ocarina of Time has some replace in its Master Quest, too, but I'm usually hesitant to pick it up again because it's a big, time-consuming game, and these days I'm mostly looking for a quick fix before I do something else.