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Worst Zelda Game

What's the worst Zelda Game?

  • The Legend of Zelda

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Adventure of Link

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • A Link to the Past

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Link's Awakening/ DX

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Ocarina of Time/Master Quest/3D

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Majora's Mask

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Oracle of Ages/Seasons

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • A Link to the Past and Four Swords

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Wind Waker

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Four Swords Adventures

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Minish Cap

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Twilight Princess

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Phantom Hourglass

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Spirit Tracks

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

jamezrockz98

Link rockz like me. Yay!!
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Location
Popping Tingle's balloon.... Oops!
So everyone. What is the worst Zelda Game that you have ever played? I probably don't have much opinion since I've only played OoT, MM, PH, ST and halfway through TP. What do you guys think?

P.S I'm not including Skyward Sword since it's not released yet. I will add it once the game is released.
 

Rytex

Resident Netizen
Joined
May 10, 2010
Location
Random house in Texas.
Phantom Hourglass by far. This game is what introduced the tradition-break of modernization in an unbelievable fashion. They had steam-powered boats with no supporting explanation. That's also not to mention the terrible control scheme they had for it. If they had made a Classic Setting or even a way to customize the way to manipulate Link, it would have been better, but it simply sucked compared to most games. And don't even get me started on the plot and the resolution of the story...
 

blubb

Ash Gala Wonderful!
Joined
Mar 9, 2010
Location
49.9°N 8.2°E
Hmm, you should've included the CD-i games. Even though they weren't made by Nintendo, they officially licensed Phillips to make them, so they can be considered official games and make it into the list (after all the Capcom games are there too).
Even though I haven't played them myself I've watched enough gameplay videos (including the whole ZD video walkthrough!) and the totally broken gameplay mechanics, pathetic bosses and cheesy cutscenes really make these the worst games that officially bear the title "Zelda".
If I consider only the games I've played (see my signature), well then "worst" sounds a bit harsh because there really isn't a bad game in the list.

But if I have to pick the one out of these which is my least favourite then it's probably WW which I'd still give a 7/10 rating, meaning it's still a good game overall. The main issue for me weren't the graphics, I'm fine with the cel-shading in general but I would've preferred less extreme body proportions (maybe more American cartoon-like) and maybe just a bit less contrast and brightness but like I said this isn't the biggest problem.
The things I didn't like particularly are:
1. Tediousness. Getting from A to B took ages because you couldn't speed up your boat (why was there no sail upgrade(s)?). Sure, the Ballad of the Gales did help somewhat but the places you could warp to were few and far between, why wouldn't the game let you warp to every single square? Oh, and don't get me started on the Triforce chart/piece quest which was the mother of tediousness. The problem could've been easily solved or at least encountered a bit by condensing the overworld to 1/2 or maybe even 1/3 in both axes, which also would've been a solution to the next point...
2. Empty overworld. There was just too little going on on the Great Sea, islands were small and the vast majority of them only had a single purpose and were only visited once, sometimes just for a heart piece or some rupees.
3. Too low difficulty. I haven't seen the game over screen once in this game and I don't remember having had to use a fairy. Most enemies did only 1/4 heart damage and most bosses usually 1/2. Special attacks that are more dangerous were rarely used and easy to evade. Only Ganondorf could deduct a full heart at once easily, IMO all bosses should've been that hard. And of course we had that somewhat boring "defeat dungeon boss by using only the dungeon item on an obvious weak spot (usually red flashing eyeball thing) and then slash with sword" scheme again.

So after all those flaws you might wonder why I'm still giving the game a 7/10? Well I think we're sometimes complaining at a high level when it comes to Zelda and take many of the positive aspects as granted.
For example the controls were very intuitive and responsive, nice extra attacks like the "backslash" and whirlwind were introduced, dungeons were themed well and some of the puzzles, although mostly easy, were fun. We also saw a lot of new and innovative items which other than in the case of TP were put to use often and also a lot outside of the dungeons they were found in. And finally the game had an intriguing storyline with lots of silly and funny moments (especially with Tetra).

Therefore I'm not giving a vote right now because it wouldn't be fair, also considering that I haven't played the DS games yet and from what I've heard they're not really in the top lists of most Zelda fans.
 
Last edited:

geek4887

The Unknown
Joined
Jun 19, 2011
A Link to the Past.

I was soooo disappointed by that game.
No WAY!!! Ok, that was a weird outburst and off topic.

The worst Zelda game I've probably played is probably Spirit Tracks. I just didn't like how the game played out. The temples were poorly placed. At least in Phantom Hourglass, the temples were in some sort of a town, which added more exploration to the game. The overworld was huge, but you can't really explore it. Most of the time you were on your train. I have no problem with the technology stuff, as to the technology used in this game is forgivable. I just thought this game lacked that free feeling that Zelda games give you. Phantom Hourglass had some freedom, because of the Great Sea. The side quests in this game were awful, too. I hated how you had to collect those bunnies :mad: Don't get me wrong, I love this as a DS game, but it fell short when it comes to Zelda standards. :(
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Location
Illinois
Phantom Hourglass. The main reason I disliked it the most is that you had to re-do the Temple of the Ocean King over and over and over and over again. It was very linear and too easy for a person who likes a challenge (a person like me). :(
 

Myriadviper42

Fulcrum Agent
Joined
Feb 14, 2010
Location
Control
They're all great. End of story. :P
Well, yeah, I really couldn't call the one I chose the worst Zelda game, rather my least favorite, which I still find pretty good. My least favorite would have to be AoL. I got it on Virtual Console, and it was INFINITELY hard. It took me an extremely long time to even get past the first level. However, once I got around to it, I actually found it to be pretty decent, if not great. Wish it could've been the least bit easier though.
 

MW7

Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Location
Ohio
Phantom Hourglass by far. This game is what introduced the tradition-break of modernization in an unbelievable fashion. They had steam-powered boats with no supporting explanation. That's also not to mention the terrible control scheme they had for it. If they had made a Classic Setting or even a way to customize the way to manipulate Link, it would have been better, but it simply sucked compared to most games. And don't even get me started on the plot and the resolution of the story...

IMO Phantom Hourglass gets bonus points for having Linebeck. He completely redeemed the concept of having comic relief in Zelda games after the creepiness of Tingle. I went with Spirit Tracks as the worst Zelda game, and it has many of the same flaws as Phantom Hourglass (although the controls are slightly better, by which I mean that I can actually pull off a roll in that game).
 

Ronin

There you are! You monsters!
Forum Volunteer
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Location
Alrest
I'm going with Adventure of Link, hands-down, because Nintendo tried to mix Mario with it. This made the game nigh impossible to enjoy as everything was an overstressed challenge. The first Temple took me about fifty times to go through and beat it, because of those two Iron Knuckles that wear you down before you face Horsehead. Even the overworld was difficult to navigate because of those areas you'd get stuck in when enemies caught up to you, and you could only die to be returned to Zelda's chamber, and merely to go back out to pretty much repeat the process. All this and the side-scrolling, which just didn't make it seem like a Zelda game at all.

Regardless of this it still is Zelda, but its perspective for me was purely changed when Nintendo drastically decided to go against the formula they'd originally set up. I'm glad this was only on the second game, because Zelda in a side-scrolling world would not be as immersive as the overhead system, which greater immerses and makes independent our experience in this franchise.
 
Joined
Aug 2, 2010
I don't know why AoL has so many votes. I really enjoyed it, even though it was FRUSTURATING AS HELL.
But I mean, is it different? Yeah. Is it bad? No.

For me the worst was Spirit Tracks. The train I hated, the characters I felt no connections to (exept for Zelda, but I still didn't like her as the other Zeldas), the music was boring (with one or two exeptions) the overworld empty. What's my rating of the game? 6/10. It's better then a number of games I own, but as a Zelda? Just doesn't hold up.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
The worst Zelda game was Ocarina of Time. Hands of the down. :right:

Seriously speaking, the Zelda game I found to be the worst would have to be Twilight Princess. Comments like 'it was too easy' or 'I hated Midna' will spark up and I really don't feel like repeating myself. Heck, if you can find the time just look up some of Axle the Beast's earlier Curiosity Shop videos and those will more or less sum up my opinion.
 
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Location
Kalamazoo, MI
"Worst" is to strong a term, unless you're talking about those CD-i games. But hey, what else could you say? AoL is not as good as the rest, as far as I know.
 

Heroine of Time

Rest in peace, Paris Caper...
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Location
Whiterun
Gender
Take a guess.
Wow, I'm actually surprised that so many people agree with me about Phantom Hourglass being the worst. I was under the impression it was okay, and Spirit Tracks was the bad one. I personally liked Spirit Tracks... I mean, I STILL don't think it's the best Zelda game ever, but I thought it improved over PH.

I enjoyed Adventure of Link. Sure, it's IMPOSSIBLE... but it's still fun.
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2011
I haven't played the DS or Oracle games so I can't judge them, but of the ones I've played I'd have to go with the original. Maybe I've just been spoiled by the newer games, but I don't think it holds up very well at all. The "puzzles" basically boil down to bombing every wall and burning every tree until you find something that opens, and pushing the block furthest to the left in the middle row to see if it makes a passage appear. The challenge comes primarily from the combat which is hampered by stiff controls, and from having little to no clue where you're supposed to go, assuming you're not using a guide.
 

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