Summary
- Zelda games evolve with new mechanics for fresh experiences.
- Skyward Sword utilized motion controls but lacked open-world majesty.
- Breath of the Wild changed the open world game landscape for Zelda.
The Legend of Zelda series is gaming royalty, and has been delighting fans of fantasy adventures the world over since since 1986. The series has always rewritten the rules of game design and raised the bar in some way for player expectations, and no more has this been evident in its 3D entries, which reinvented open worlds, experimented with time-travel, stylized graphics, motion controls, and immersive physics simulations.
8 Best Zelda Games That Rewrote The Franchise's Playbook
The Legend of Zelda series is constantly evolving, innovating new mechanics to keep the games fresh.
Through it all, every game feels unmistakably "Zelda-like," drawing themes of courage against fear or grief and light versus darkness, each game allowing players to explore Hyrule or some other fantasy land in search of weapons and sacred objects to defeat a great evil. Each Zelda game here is ranked based on its contribution to the lore, its gameplay merits, innovations, storytelling, world and level design, art direction, and emotional resonance.
7 The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Aiming For The Sky, Hitting The Skyloft
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
- Released
- November 20, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
Skyward Sword is something of a black sheep. Built around the Wii’s motion controls, the swordplay mechanics seem like the perfect match on paper. While it had moments of satisfaction, it wasn't the killer feature that Nintendo might have hoped for. Additionally, the sky overworld lacks the majesty of Wind Waker’s seas or BotW’s fields, and it leans heavily into backtracking.
For all of SS's mechanical turbulence, there are pockets of brilliance: tightly designed dungeons, the time-shifting Lanayru Desert, and a genuinely touching relationship between Link and Zelda. Skyward Sword took a risk in going further back in the timeline than before, and for the most part, provided a satisfying enough edition to the Zelda canon.
6 The Legend Of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
An Ultra-Upgrade To A Winning, Open-World Formula
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Released
- May 12, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
- Genre(s)
- Adventure, Action, Open-World
If Breath of the Wild took open-world games and squeezed them into a Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom took freeform sandbox games like Minecraft or even Kerbal Space Program and squeezed them into Breath of the Wild. Besides the well-implemented Ultrahand mechanics that completely rewrote the rules of the open world, there were more than enough additions to warrant TotK being a standalone release, including the sky islands and underworld area.
Zelda: 8 Eras That Should Be Explored Further In Future Games
The Legend of Zelda timeline possesses a rich history that is ripe for exploration in future games.
However, even with additions to the map, its world struggles to step out of the shadow of BotW. Some (especially long-time) fans took issue with the lack of deep dungeon content, which was set aside for the additional freedom offered by BotW's fusion and engineering gameplay. That being said, there is still a tidy balance between creativity-driven emergent gameplay and classic Zelda storytelling and exploration to make it a solid 3D entry.
5 The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess
A Brooding, Glorious Return To Classic Hyrule
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Released
- November 19, 2006
WHERE TO PLAY
After the bright, open skies and sea of Wind Waker, many fans were yearning for another atmospherically oppressive Zelda game with adult tones, and Twilight Princess hit that mark perfectly. Although it in some ways feels like a retread of Ocarina's Hyrule and suffers from the then-popular brown-gray smudge color palette, TP is one of Zelda's best worlds to explore, with its impressively massive world with its own memorable set pieces, and is moodily beautiful in its own right.
Where Ocarina occasionally used perspective tricks, blurry forest barriers, and prerenders to flesh out its world (for example, Hyrule Castle Town), Twilight Princess fully-rendered an extensive world for the player to get lost in to their heats' content, whether on horseback through the back canyons of Hyrule or through the bustling streets of the kingdom's capital.
4 The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
The Boundary-Breaking Titan That Set The Bar For 3D Adventures
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Released
- November 21, 1998
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of TIme marks the first time that The Legend of Zelda made the jump to 3D, giving players the ability to explore Hyrule in an entirely new way.
- ESRB
- E10+ for Everyone 10+: Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence, Suggestive Themes
It is a testament to the Zelda series, and the game that kicked off the 3D revolution, that there are games higher on the list than Ocarina of Time. The game that not only wrote the rules for 3D adventure games but also set the bar for tight, intuitive lock-on camera controls, context-sensitive interaction, fluid swordplay and combat, and engaging puzzles in the third dimension. Ocarina not only innovated in what is now called the immersive-sim genre, but its innovations have scarcely been matched since, even in immersive sims themselves.
7 Bleakest Areas In The Legend of Zelda Games, Ranked
From Majora's Mask's Music Box House to Wind Waker's drowned Hyrule, these are Zelda's most hauntingly bleak locations.
While games under the immersive sim umbrella have players piling boxes for a platform, Ocarina had players using the force of gravity to break the tension of a spider web in the center of the first dungeon's room. Ocarina's story, music, items, and dungeons are iconic and still enjoyable today, but to be among the first games to capture the essence and spectacle of true adventure in a 3D space and to do it so effectively is a great feat. Without Ocarina's legwork, the later games in the series would not have enjoyed such success.
3 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
A Much-Needed Breath Of Fresh Air
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Released
- March 3, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
While the series had typically set gaming trends in the past, Breath of the Wild saw Zelda go true open world. Casting aside the rigid structure of previous games, BotW trusted players to get lost and find themselves in a wide-open Hyrule. Nintendo took all the best facets of open-world games (freedom of exploration, emergent gameplay, and lateral-thinking-based problem solving) and refined them with clever design tricks.
Shrines, physics-based puzzles, survival mechanics, and a dynamic weather system all fed into a world that could be explored through climbing, gliding, or riding and felt less like a backdrop and more like a character: responsive, mysterious, and brimming with opportunity. Although Zelda likes to redefine its mythos and lore with each edition, like its approach to open-world design, BotW picked out the best parts of its history and remixed them into more than the sum of its parts.
2 The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Flying High On The Winds Of Change
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- Released
- March 24, 2003
WHERE TO PLAY
The Wind Waker is a prime example of why creatives can't always (or shouldn't) give an audience what it thinks it wants. Following the then-realistic renderings of the N64 games, Wind Waker's cel-shaded graphics generated a boiling sea of controversy that has since, thankfully, simmered down. However, it is precisely thanks to this pioneering choice that it has, out of every 3D Zelda game, held up the best visually and, in many cases, critically.
4 Ways The Wind Waker Altered The Mythology Of The Legend Of Zelda Franchise
The Wind Waker remains one of the most important games in the mythology of the Zelda franchise. Here are the ways it changed everything.
Given the art direction of the most recent two games, Wind Waker's bright, clean design proves that intention and style trump realism. It isn't just the "interactive cartoon" aesthetics that place Wind Waker high in the hierarchy. Beyond the bright and appealing exterior lies a compelling adventure story chock-full of surprises, a highly polished game feel, and soul-soaring moments (specifically when traversing the Great Sea). Rather than rest on its merit, the Zelda series opted for a fresh horizon with Wind Waker, embracing risk and whimsy without sacrificing depth.
1 The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask
A Clockwork Masterpiece And Game Design Miracle
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
- Released
- October 26, 2000
WHERE TO PLAY
In a striking example of how art imitates life, Majora's Mask was developed in a mere twelve-month cycle. While this mind-bogglingly short development time would not have been possible without Ocarina, the former took its predecessor's excellent foundations and expanded upon them. Majora's Mask not only realized the potential (and embraced the limitations) of 3D space, but 4D space as well. The clockwork world of Termina overflows with soul and memorable moments thanks to the meticulously detailed backstories and schedules of its characters, tragic figures whose terminal courses Link can correct in large and small ways through his intervention.
The resettable three-day limit can be a great source of stress and is one of the biggest hurdles to Majora's enjoyment. However, this bold temporal limitation provides a sublime tension for Link's quest, perfectly framing Termina and its inhabitants as an incomplete canvas of troubles to explore, resolve, and perfect as they traverse a world locked into an inevitable fall. Despite these overwhelming odds, the game gently urges its player to keep moving forward, three days at a time. Between its festive minigames, frequently eerie atmosphere, innovative mask mechanics, and profound themes, no player returns from Termina quite the same.
8 Most Beautiful Locations In The Zelda Games, Ranked
The Legend of Zelda game series has featured some gorgeous vistas throughout the years, and the following stand out as the most picturesque.