Favorite Handheld Zelda

[Link Floyd]

Well, the title pretty much says it all.

What is your favorite Zelda game for a handheld console?

Mine is The Minish Cap. In my opinion, it was the most fun to play and Hyrule was fun to explore. Also, the items were unique and interesting.

 

[DARK MASTER]

I'm very split between, A Link Between Worlds, Phantom Hourglass, Link's Awkening (G, and Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland.

Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland for the diversity, clever characters, and truly unique experience.

Phantom Hourglass for the naval combat, Temple of the Ocean King, and awesome online strategy mode.

Link's Awakening on the Game Boy for the dark heartwarming atmosphere, depressing ending, and Bow-Wow.

Finally A Link Between Worlds for the amazing sense of openness it finally brought back to the series.

 

[Azure Sage]

Spirit Tracks, for sure. It's my favorite Zelda game in general. I really love the story and the music and the dungeons, especially the Tower of Spirits. I love that Zelda herself is the partner character and I love the teamwork puzzles. Those are among my favorite in the whole series. I also love the Lokomo Sword's design more than any other sword in the series. I have a soft spot for trains, so I enjoy the overworld (and especially the overworld's music).

 

[Iridescence]

Here's how I'd rank the handheld Zeldas.

1. A Link Between Worlds - great exploration and discovery
2. Link's Awakening - love the story, atmosphere and dungeons
3. Oracle of Ages - difficult but rewarding puzzles
4. The Minish Cap - excellent atmosphere
5. Oracle of Seasons - all around solid zelda game
6. Phantom Hourglass - does everything okay, but nothing exceptional
7. Spirit Tracks - of all games, why make a sequel to phantom hourglass?

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

A Link Between Worlds is my number one. I'd give it this spot simply due to its non-linearity, but there was also the exploration, the graphics, the wall merging gimmick, the difficulty, etc. It's a return to Zelda's old days, and it's fantastic!

Close second is The Minish Cap. Considering it was developed by Capcom instead of Nintendo, it's pretty damn good! It's got some of the best puzzles of the handheld games, awesome music, decent graphics, cool characters (Ezlo <3), etc. It's a great game.

I think the third spot is a toss-up between Oracle of Ages and Spirit Tracks, both for different reasons. OoA is another Capcom one and it's brilliant! It has some of the best puzzles in the entire series, a spectacular soundtrack, engaging characters, and it's difficult. ST, on the other hand, isn't very high up on the difficulty scale, but it does have some nice challenging puzzles, good characters, etc. Overall, it's an inferior game, but I tend to have more fun with it than OoA, which is why I can't decide which one I like better overall.

I really like all of the handhelds though. These are just my personal favourite ones.

 

[Katsie]

My number one is Oracle of Seasons. I felt that it had very strong dungeons, posed a decent challenge at times and had really fun elements with the whole Gasha Nuts and collectible Rings thing. It was all really involved and it had fun characters. I think Capcom did a great job with the Oracle games. Oracle of Ages comes second. I used to prefer Ages, but I've kind of switched after playing Seasons and Ages again recently. I just liked the dungeons and the world of Holodrum more overall, I think. And the items. I love stuff like Roc's Cape and the Magnet Gloves! Also, Oracle of Ages has my least favorite dungeon in the entire Zelda series: Jabu-Jabu's Belly.

In third is Link's Awakening DX. To me, the Game Boy Color Zeldas are simply the best. They have a charm to all of them, having that classic top-down Zelda design, interesting worlds and fun items to play with. And they all have a version of a classic Zelda sidequest: the Trading Sequence!

Fourth is A Link Between Worlds... good game, some freedom to do dungeons in the order you please, and the dungeons themselves are pretty fun. The game is super easy, but that's fine. I absolutely love the visual design, the world is beautiful and I think the game looks great in 3D. My favorite dungeon in this one is the Ice Palace! Such a fun, creative level.

Fifth is The Minish Cap. Also easy, but the dungeons are cool, the characters are likeable and the villain is actually a nice change. The final sequence and climactic boss fight of this game is one of my personal favorite final confrontations in the series. It left quite an impression on me the first time I played it.

Sixth is Spirit Tracks. I expected this game to be almost identical to Phantom Hourglass, and have dull dungeon design, lazy environments and so on... but it pleasantly surprised me. The game had its own charm, a more interesting world, better dungeons... and some awesome music.

Last for me is Phantom Hourglass, the worst Zelda game ever made in my personal opinion. I'm too tired to explain now, but to sum it up in a word: lazy.

 

[Luke's Wife]

Phantom Hourglass is probably my favorite, because it was my introduction to the Zelda series and it's a game I've played multiple times over and never get tired of. I love the overworld, characters, etc.

 

[ILU]

Link's Awakening! I loved it when I was little, probably because it was very easy, so it wasn't too hard for my dumb baby self.

Replaying it later, I realized how great the story is, and how deep it actually is. I feel like it's a game that is equally enjoyable for advanced players and very young children, so I also think it's a great introductory game.

 

[NintendoCN]

Seasons since the other handheld games had some BS mechanic, at least in OoA time travel, PH the hourglass, and MC kinstones.

 

[VitaTempusN92]

1. A Link Between Worlds - What can I say? That game was just so perfect and had everything an official Nintendo Zelda should have. Great story, very fun smooth gameplay mechanics, and fast smooth kinda realistic frame rate.

2. Spirit Tracks - Similar reasons as ALBW. Great epic story, fun to play, and I love trains.

3. Phantom Hourglass - Similar reason as the above. Epic as heck, fun to play, and I love boats. What? So I happen love multiple ways of transportation. Besides, isn't that part of what makes adventure so epic, exciting, and fun?

4. Oracle of Seasons/Ages - It's a multi-part game with an awesome epic story with such elements that should definitely make a return in future Zelda games.

5. Link's Awakening - Link was trapped in a dreamworld and had fight evil nightmare monsters created by the evil malevolent nightmare master, Dethl. The game had dark feel to it, epic adventure sense, and fun gameplay.

6. Minish Cap - Similar as LA. The game had an epic dark feel as Link had to be face the evil sadistic dark mage Vaati.

7. Four Swords - The game was epic and fun.

I listed all handheld games, it's that simple, I love Zelda.

Edit:

Note: I didn't include the remakes/remasters, ports, and Tingle games cause:

a) All remakes/remasters (accept FS AE) and ports were originally console games, therefore, don't count in this case.

b) The Tingle games are spinoff's, therefore don't count.

 

[misskitten]

A Link Between Worlds for me, it's a ton of fun, open to explore any way you want to, the wall-merging mechanic is heaps of fun, and collecting the Maiamai's are actually fun compared to other collecting quests

 

[Kylo Ken]

Link's Awakening is pretty good.

 

[PalaeoJoe]

ALBW and PH are the only handheld Zeldas that I have beaten so I would have to go with ALBW.

 

[Beauts]

Mine is probably Minish Cap. I'm not even a big fan of the Minish Cap, but out of the handheld Zelda's I've played it is undoubtedly the best (I haven't gotten around to ALBW yet)

 

[Curmudgeon]

minish cap by a country mile. delightful game.