Every Zelda Game, Reviewed

February 15th, 2016 Mark

Hyperlinks to the past

One of the most wonderful things about a longstanding game series is how you grow up with it.

If you’ve been blessed with video games since childhood, it’s likely that you have crossed paths with a Zelda game on more than one occasion. Whether you started with the original Legend of Zelda (1987), or A Link to the Past (1991), or Ocarina of Time (1998), or Twilight Princess (2006), your connection with Nintendo’s garlanded adventure series is something that will continue to punctuate different phases of your life.

There’s a beautiful and powerful familiarity to these games. In good times and bad, a new Zelda will introduce itself into your life without fail, and before playing you’ll know what the challenge is and how you’re going to overcome it. That alluring alchemy of dungeon exploration, fetch quests, and demon slaying has the power to connect you back to times of old, when you first picked up a controller and ventured across Hyrule.

GameSpot has, throughout its own history, reviewed every single mainline Zelda game ever released (with one exception). To mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Zelda series, across the following pages we present key excerpts from each review, along with release info and the score.

Click next to start with the seminal NES game which started it all..

The Legend of Zelda

  • Release date: August 22, 1987
  • System: NES
  • Full article: The Legend of Zelda Review
  • (Reviewed on November 22, 2006, for Wii Virtual Console)
  • Critic – Jeff Gerstmann

“If you missed this game the first time around, it’s still a great deal of fun, as well as an interesting history lesson that shows off what has and hasn’t changed about the Zelda series’ design after all these years. It’s certainly one of the better games currently available for the Virtual Console, but considering the game has been released in plenty of other formats since the original, including the GameCube Zelda bonus disc and a Classic NES Series version for the Game Boy Advance, you may have already played this game fairly recently.”

Score: 7.2

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

“It’s entirely understandable why someone might not like Zelda II. It’s such a wild departure from the original Zelda, and there are certainly some foibles and questionable design decisions floating around within the game. But with that said, Zelda II doesn’t deserve nearly the level of derision it gets nowadays. It’s an interesting adventure that, in some respects, paved the way for concepts and mechanics found in the modern Zelda games.”

Score: 6.9

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

“The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was one of the greatest games to be released for Nintendo’s 16-bit SNES. The game brought the classic NES series up to the standards of the day, adding plenty of new gameplay elements while still maintaining the same basic feel of the original action adventure game.”

Score: 9.2

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

“It’s not often that a handheld entry in a franchise can be compared in quality to its console brethren, but Link’s Awakening on Game Boy was and is one of the best entries in the series. While it started out as an experiment to bring A Link to the Past to Game Boy, it eventually morphed into its own quirky tale. Without any of the regular trappings of the series, no Ganon to fight or Triforce to collect, players got to explore a world that felt unique while still familiar.

“Link’s Awakening is a curious side story in the Zelda canon, and also one of the few times that other Nintendo characters crossed-over into Link’s adventures. But the success of the game led to a long line of standalone, portable adventures for Link that might not have ever happened without this first experiment.”

No Score (Justin gives it a 10)

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

“In a way, Ocarina of Time is a textbook example of retro done right. It manages to combine small aspects from all the previous Zelda games, giving you the same Zelda feel but in an entirely new way. Even in its huge, fiercely 3D world, the game retains a truly classic feel. This is a sequel at its finest, expanding on previous themes and bringing plenty of new stuff to the table. This is the masterpiece that people will still be talking about ten years down the road. This is the game that perfectly exhibits the “quality not quantity” mantra that Nintendo has been touting since the N64 was released. In a word, perfect. To call it anything else would be a bald-faced lie.”

Score: 10

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

“Majora’s Mask is a great game, but it isn’t for everybody. Even though it uses the same engine that drove Ocarina of Time, and the gameplay is the same on the surface, the adventure is extremely different. Some will appreciate the game’s differences, while others will find the game’s focus on minigames and side quests tedious and slightly out of place. While the game definitely has a lot going for it, and in the end comes together in a pretty tight package, skeptics should definitely rent this one first.”

Score: 8.3

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

(and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons)

“Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, deliver on every essential element of the classic Zelda formula–dungeons, puzzles, and items galore are all here. Oracle of Ages is the more cerebral of the two Oracle games–Seasons has you slashing more enemies and solving fewer logic puzzles. If you really want to play only one of them, your decision should be based on the part of Zelda you enjoy most–the action or the puzzles. Ages is a wonderful game in its own right, and as a set with Seasons, it comes as highly recommended as a game can be.”

Score: 9.2

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

“While some may be a little put off by the late-game item fetching and the game’s easy puzzles and boss battles, The Wind Waker is nonetheless a strong achievement in every way, from its stunning graphical presentation to its tight control and interesting story line. It may not have fallen too far from the tree Nintendo planted back in 1998, but the way it refines one of the polygonal generation’s most important games makes The Wind Waker every bit as much of a must-own game as The Ocarina of Time was before it.”

Score: 9.3

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

“This is a game best enjoyed with a group of four, and using the Game Boy Advance as a controller has an appreciable impact on the experience. When you’re all hooked up and playing with a posse, Four Swords Adventures is a great game… It’s not too surprising that it took Nintendo developing a game itself for the whole connectivity idea to really crystallize. The key to the success of this game is that the game is inherently really good, with or without the hardware novelty. But, to be fair, if you only play Four Swords Adventures by yourself, you won’t be getting the full experience. If you’ve been waiting for a truly compelling reason to invest in a GameCube-to-GBA link cable, this is probably it.”

Score 8.1

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

“The game easily lives up to its predecessors, with enough questing and variety to keep you entertained for the duration of its storyline and beyond. Whether or not this game represents the end of an era for this hallowed franchise, it’s a superb game in its own right that any fan of Zelda, and indeed any Game Boy Advance-owning fan of adventure games, shouldn’t be without.”

Score: 9.1

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

“It’s still a little disappointing that the series hasn’t evolved much at all with this latest installment. You’ll almost certainly enjoy the game for its terrific puzzles, colorful characters, and compelling story, but at some point the feeling of nostalgia crosses the line and holds this game back from being as unbelievably good as some of its predecessors.

“So as impressive of a game as it is, Twilight Princess seems like it could have been so much more with a few presentational updates and more effective and interesting uses of the Wii’s unique control scheme. But even without those things, Twilight Princess is a great game that stays true to the Zelda franchise’s past. That’s excellent news for fans of the series, who’ll find in Twilight Princess a true-blue Zelda game with updated visuals, some new twists, plenty of challenging puzzles, and a faithful dedication to the series’ roots.”

Score: 8.8

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

“Ultimately, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a superb effort and pretty much what you would want from a first entry in the series on the DS. It’s got a few pacing problems, and those who demand traditional control schemes will probably be turned off by this game’s control methodology. But really, even if you’re convinced you hate the notion of touch-screen controls, you owe it to yourself to give this game a try.

“Phantom Hourglass implements its control mechanics so seamlessly into the standard Zelda game design that it’s hard to imagine anyone not appreciating it on some level. There are few games on the DS that take advantage of the touch-screen technology as well as Phantom Hourglass does. It’s a must-play for any DS owner.”

Score: 9

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

“You’ll find plenty that’s familiar in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, but the inclusion of new mechanics, such as controlling both Link and Zelda, and the simple joy of driving the train lift this game above being just another Zelda adventure. This game is a top-notch adventure, and whether this is your first or 15th time in Hyrule, Spirit Tracks is a must-play.”

Score: 8.5

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

“The good elements do outweigh the bad in Skyward Sword, creating another engrossing experience in this venerable franchise. Strong visual design meshes the cartoony world of Wind Waker with the more realistic approach offered by Twilight Princess, and the riveting orchestral soundtrack brings back many classic tracks while offering a few tasty new ones. However, the formula is beginning to show its age.

“There just aren’t enough new ideas to separate Skyward Sword from its predecessors, and the few additions come with mixed results. Even with many bright spots, Skyward Sword still feels like a nostalgic retread. Those yearning for something new will be disappointed, but anyone thirsty for another exciting adventure will find plenty to enjoy here.”

Score: 7.5

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

“Though it can be bizarre to think that something so occasionally familiar can still be so fresh and engaging, A Link Between Worlds is itself a unique experience. There’s a lingering sense that by this point Nintendo is just running victory laps around a set of mechanics they perfected decades ago but, at the end of the day, none of that matters: this is simply an absolute treat to play.”

Score: 9

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

“There are hints of a great game here, and when three players are cooperating in frantic battles, or working through dynamic puzzles, it shows. But like its story of fashion and surface appeal, there’s not much depth here, and the facade fades with time. Tri Force Heroes offers us the means to work together, but not enough reason to do so.”

Score: 5

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