Daily Debate: What is the Worst Minigame in the Zelda Series?

Minigames have always held a place in the Zelda series, existing as fun distractions from Link‘s main quests. From the simple Money Making Game in The Legend of Zelda to the over-the-top Fun Fun Island in Skyward Sword, minigames have served as ways for players to earn rupees fast, win Heart Pieces, or upgrade their arsenal of weapons. Unfortunately with as many great amusements that Link has enjoyed over the years, there are a number that just aren’t as fun as what the Zelda team intended.

There are many factors that make up a fantastic minigame. We can all agree that these games must, first and foremost, provide a sense of fun, compelling us to push toward the prize out of sheer enjoyment. Minigames need to provide us with challenge, but never in a way that leads us to be overly frustrated. The reward must not come to us too easily and thus leave us unfulfilled, but it must never elude us so harshly that we simply give up. Not all minigames can meet these requirements, and for that there is always one that holds a place in our memories as that one stupid minigame.

Some minigames are frustrating because of some limitation in the hardware, such as with the Shooting Galleries in Nintendo 64 Zelda titles. The aiming is at times too finicky rather than precise, thus leading to a missed arrow shot that is out of the player’s control. Other minigames are too reliant on luck and the player has no real way to exercise skill. These types of minigames are present in many Zelda titles, such as the Treasure Chest Game in A Link to the Past or Sinking Ships in Wind Waker.

Then there are minigames that seem completely out of place in a Zelda title, such as the Octoball Derby in A Link Between Worlds. Rather than present Link with a challenge that utilizes the skills he’s built over the course of the game, this minigame places him in a completely unfamiliar baseball situation. The player is forced to learn a new skill set, paying a hefty price for each new attempt, with only vague instructions to help complete the goal. The frustration produced by a minigame of this type is what separates a bad minigame from the great ones.

So, I leave you to decide definitively which Zelda minigame is the absolute worst. Is it one of the above examples? Is there another that left you needlessly frustrated? Share your stories and tell us what made that minigame so terrible. Join the Daily Debate!

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