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[Deleted member]

Strange. The only Zelda games I really appreciated were Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild. Since I stopped giving a crap about their stories (because they're honestly not investing after the midpoint), I looked at gameplay. Also it didn't help that a lot of cutscenes were unskippable in their original releases.

OoT is a classic but is incredibly slow. I think Somecallmejohnny said it best. What I can do in an hour for Link to the Past will take me two or three hours in OoT. A necessary classic and I do have good memories with this one.
Majora's Mask was too trial and error for my liking. A very unique premise and world, but god it felt like I needed a guide if I didn't want to waste too much time. The first three days are also a horrible tutorial, which means horrible first impression.
Wind Waker had a good story but the dungeons were bland.
Twilight Princess had a decent story with good dungeons, but, like OoT, getting to the dungeons was slow and not everything outside of the dungeons was a hit. Especially the Wolf Link sections in the beginning of the game.
Skyward Sword. Got past the first dungeon. Grew bored of it immediately. Gameplay was not hooking me when outside of dungeons.
Breath of the Wild? Holy **** this is everything I wanted from a Zelda game. Optional story with skippable cutscenes? Check. The pacing and goals of the game are decided upon me? Check. Exploring dungeons (shrines) is actually a focus of the gameplay? Check. Everything out in the fields can be used to fulfill a specific purpose compared to past Zelda games where I get an item in a dungeon and never use it again until the game requires it? Check. Actual combat strategy? Check. I'm athletic and can climb over and around whatever the **** I want? Check! Easily what I needed from the series. It needs more enemy variety, though, which is what I always liked from previous Zelda games.

Link Between Worlds was sort of cute. Quick, I can choose the order of the dungeons I want, most items served a purpose when upgraded, and story was mostly out of the way. It didn't waste my time.

 

[Deleted member]

>Majora's Mask winning the poll
I knew ya'll had ****taste but damn

I see nothing wrong here. It's not like Ocarina or WW won.

 

[Deleted member]

Me: *has new story idea* "cool, I should work on this."
Also me: *constantly pushes away from working on other story idea I've had for god knows how long now*

Majora's mask is the second greatest game of all time sit the **** down

Sounds to me like someone else has **** taste. Starts with a Shish.

 

[Just a penguin]

Sounds to me like someone else has **** taste. Starts with a Shish.

Dude, you just totally roasted Shishio14 !

 

[Deleted member]

Ahh, Mondays.
Spring Break approaches, and so does a direct...

 

[Iridium]

Forgive me, senpai.

At the very least, consider trying out the Link's Awakening remake. Whenever that comes out.

 

[Gyrom8]

god I can't wait to run the ROB poll.

Gyromite gamers where you at; Stack-Up nerds begone

 

[PsySmasher]

Heya guys, what's up?

Finally finished that Poli Sci midterm that I got literally no sleep studying for.

 

[Noipoi]

At the very least, consider trying out the Link's Awakening remake. Whenever that comes out.

It's on the list.

As a kid I had serious Pokemon tunnel vision, so I never played any other games. Ocarina's on the 3DS...

 

[Deleted member]

Heya guys, what's up?

Finally finished that Poli Sci midterm that I got literally no sleep studying for.

I am about to go to the end...
With only half of my health in Hardcore Mode.

CAN I BEAT THANOS HARDCORE? FIND OUT NOW IN SMASHBOARDS!!!

 

[SnakeFighter64]

Alright. The votes have stopped coming in so now I'm starting my half-hour countdown to polls closing.

 

[Deleted member]

I voted BOTW because that's the only one i've played

Wait, what ballot?
Also BOTW is the only Zelda game I played, and I have the DLC, but I never had the will to beat it to be honest.

Edit: Sorry for the double post.

 

[Gyrom8]

I voted BOTW because that's the only one i've played

Oh my. Well have I got the series for you.

 

[Deleted member]

Alright. The votes have stopped coming in so now I'm starting my half-hour countdown to polls closing.

Also for future reference, use a different polling site like Straw Poll. Some troll can vote multiple times by just refreshing the page.

 

[SnakeFighter64]

Wait, what ballot?
Also BOTW is the only Zelda game I played, and I have the DLC, but I never had the will to beat it to be honest.

Edit: Sorry for the double post.

I'm hosting a poll where people vote for the best Zelda game. Doing it for every series in Smash, and then the winners are gonna go head to head in a 1v1 elimination style bracket.

 

[Deleted member]

Honestly Zelda is pretty much one of the only series where I pretty much love every game I've played.

 

[Flyboy]

I can't wait for new players to experience Link's Awakening for the first time. It's the Zelda game I played the most times, both original and DX, and it makes me tear up every single time.

 

[Idon]

Honestly Zelda is pretty much one of the only series where I pretty much love every game I've played.

I dunno man, have you seen tetris?

 

[Deleted member]

Wait, can someone link me to the ballot? Please?

 

[staindgrey]

I mean yeah but.... Breath of the Wild. Like, I thought that game was special or something.

BotW is special in that it broke Zelda conventions and, somehow, made a more engaging and fun-to-play open world experience than the other open world games that were crowding the market. It's an incredible game that came out at the perfect time.

That said, it's not my favorite Zelda, in large part because it breaks those conventions. Twilight Princess is my favorite. I like those Zelda conventions and that, IMO, is the best execution of a standard 3D Zelda experience, with memorable moments and characters I love to revisit.

"Best Zelda" is just a debate that the outlier-- BotW-- has a harder chance of winning due to the very thing that makes it so great: it's not a normal Zelda game.

 

[Deleted member]

I voted BOTW because that's the only one i've played

You're not missing much in my opinion. Zelda has decent games but there's a lot of hit or miss qualities about them that end up conflicting with each other, in which there are other games to play that provide more pros. Play out of curiosity if you're interested.

 

[Idon]

You're not missing much in my opinion.

excuse me?

 

[SnakeFighter64]

Also for future reference, use a different polling site like Straw Poll. Some troll can vote multiple times by just refreshing the page.

Okay. I'll do the rest with Straw Poll

 

[Deleted member]

View attachment 208683
excuse me?

Talk to the hand.

 

[Diem]

On a side note, the more I look into Mario & Luigi Paper Jam, the more I'm confused it's reception was so mixed. The game's dialogue has legit hilarious moments, and the OST is some of the best in the series. The game looks like Color Splash, but with an actually good battle system.

Because it was an absolute waste of amazing potential. Both the Paper Mario and Mario + Luigi series have had creative plots (by Mario standards) and great casts of characters, as well as fun and imaginative gameplay. Combining the two should've been nothing short legendary.

Instead, they just do the "characters interact with alternate universe versions of themselves" trope which is hardly interesting, and instead of making creative use of these different dimensions in core gameplay, and showing what makes each series unique and special, they just made some gimmicky side things like the papercraft fight and Toad hunts, and shortchange the Paper Mario series because Nintendo doesn't know how to do Paper Mario anymore.

For the story, they should've brought back Dimentio and Fawful and have them both be the antagonists. Those two characters could carry a game individually, so putting them together would've been an incredibly special opportunity. Most people agree that Fawful was the best M+L antagonist, and Dimentio was definitely the best Paper Mario antagonist (though Super Paper Mario is often underrated because it's not a traditional RPG), and putting them together and having them interact with these other worlds could've made for the most fun and interesting Mario story ever. Those two personalities bouncing off each other would be both comedic gold and perhaps the most threatening team-up in any Nintendo game. Instead, it's just Bowser + Bowser, which is one of the lamest possible options to go with outside of, I guess, something like Boom Boom and Pom Pom (why is Nintendo pushing those two characters so much).

And because the last fully RPG Paper Mario was in 2004, Paper Mario himself doesn't bring anything interesting to the table from a gameplay perspective. Instead, it's just the lame card battle system that most people agree is vastly inferior, instead of him having his own creative set of moves that can work alongside M+L, and vice versa. There's a lot of potential for how each style of move could've been used to great effect in gameplay, but instead what's done is very basic and unimaginative.

Similarly, and perhaps most glaringly, the game only takes place in one world, rather than two, which is absolutely baffling given that all previous Mario & Luigi games but the first had some kind of dual-world system (time travel in Partners in Time, Bowser's body in Bowser's Inside Story, Luigi's Dream World in Dream Team). The paper world should have been an explorable world with unique events and characters, but it's never explored.

This is all due to the fact that Nintendo hasn't regarded Paper Mario as an RPG since Sticker Star, and sees M+L as the only necessary RPG in the franchise. They feel that having them both be the same genre is redundant, despite the two having vastly different styles in gameplay, design, and storytelling. They don't believe that people find the old style of Paper Mario appealing, and instead think the sole appeal is on the paper aesthetic and gimmicks, rather than the creativity in its environments, characters, and stories.

And that misunderstanding is transferred into Paper Jam, which begs the question of why they'd have the crossover in the first place since Paper Mario is no longer an RPG like M+L. It's the most schizophrenic idea ever, having a crossover for these two RPG series, but only after you've castrated most of the RPG elements from one of them, defeating the purpose entirely.

Instead of being a loving celebration of everything that makes the two series special, it instead highlights everything wrong with Nintendo's evaluation of Paper Mario and thus turns what should've been one of the hypest Nintendo crossovers into a depressing, mediocre game. It's not a bad game inherently, but it does not live up to its dual pedigrees and comes off as lazy and uninspired, even if you only compare it to the previous M+L games, which somehow had much more creativity and heart.

...well, there I go again.

I'm going to pick Twilight Princess. I hope Diem sees it too so it can at least get two votes.

Good thing I happened to stop by just in time.

Though I understand if people don't believe Twilight Princess is the best. Everyone's tastes are different, and everyone experiences things in different context. The context that I experienced Twilight Princess in is a major part of what made it so special for me, and only highlighted its amazing qualities. It wasn't my first Zelda game, which is what most people say ends up being their individual favorite, but I can understand why other people would personally prefer other games, or take personal issue with some elements of the game they simply don't like.

I do have an argument as to why it's objectively the best overall Zelda game, based on its story, structure, gameplay, and world. It's definitely not a perfect game--no game is--and I can understand objective criticisms of some aspects of its design. My personal major criticism is of the Twilight Beasts (the enemies you kill to create portals). As someone who's beaten the game about 10 times, they get really old after the first or second playthrough for sure. They should've been more interesting to fight, especially as the main "true" Twilight enemy in the game. There's a couple other things to be criticized, too, like some items being mostly useless outside their dungeons (which isn't a unique problem to TP), or the wolf form not being used to its fullest potential (though personally I'm fine with it). So I'm under no illusion that it's a perfect game like some people are with their favorite games.

What gets my Ordon goat is when people criticize and belittle it for nothing more than its art style and tone. Both of those criticisms come from a misunderstanding of the game, assuming that it's going for a realistic art style (it's not entirely realistic, and still heavily stylized--it's not trying to be Metal Gear) and that its tone is super dark and grim (which is a disingenuous omission of all the goofy elements of the game like the monkeys, Malo Mart, snowboarding yetis, Oocoo, etc.).

I once saw one apparently popular Zelda YouTuber do a video on the leftover Green ChuChu Jelly in Twilight Princess, and not a minute into the video he makes a smug comment about how Twilight Princess "is just Wind Waker, but without any character." Which is what most of the criticism boils down to, in the end: "Wind Waker good, Twilight Princess bad." Sometimes it's not WW, and may be another game, but usually the criticisms of TP come from comparisons to WW, due to the two being diametrically opposed in terms of aesthetic, as TP was a response to WW's cartoony art style not being appreciated at the time, so now that it's appreciated, people feel the need to make an argument that cartoony Zelda is best Zelda, as though the two can't coexist and both be good and appreciated. Everything always have to be a competition of "which one is best, which one is worst."

If people prefer Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, or Breath of the Wild instead of Twilight Princess, there's nothing wrong with that. I've 100% completed all of those games at least once, and still replay them fairly regularly. In fact, I just started a playthrough of Ocarina of Time yesterday (about to head to Death Mountain), and have an ongoing playthrough of Breath of the Wild (finally got around to beating the Master Trials again on Wednesday, and beat Vah Naboris last night). The only game I haven't really touched in Skyward Sword, though I do own it and will probably get around to tackling it this summer.

...all right, time to officially leave to the Twilight Realm. Bye y'all.

 

[SlickWylde]

I haven't liked any of the 3D Zelda games. Link to the Past FTW!

 

[Idon]

Because it was an absolute waste of amazing potential. Both the Paper Mario and Mario + Luigi series have had creative plots (by Mario standards) and great casts of characters, as well as fun and imaginative gameplay. Combining the two should've been nothing short legendary.

Instead, they just do the "characters interact with alternate universe versions of themselves" trope which is hardly interesting, and instead of making creative use of these different dimensions in core gameplay, and showing what makes each series unique and special, they just made some gimmicky side things like the papercraft fight and Toad hunts, and shortchange the Paper Mario series because Nintendo doesn't know how to do Paper Mario anymore.

For the story, they should've brought back Dimentio and Fawful and have them both be the antagonists. Those two characters could carry a game individually, so putting them together would've been an incredibly special opportunity. Most people agree that Fawful was the best M+L antagonist, and Dimentio was definitely the best Paper Mario antagonist (though Super Paper Mario is often underrated because it's not a traditional RPG), and putting them together and having them interact with these other worlds could've made for the most fun and interesting Mario story ever. Those two personalities bouncing off each other would be both comedic gold and perhaps the most threatening team-up in any Nintendo game. Instead, it's just Bowser + Bowser, which is one of the lamest possible options to go with outside of, I guess, something like Boom Boom and Pom Pom (why is Nintendo pushing those two characters so much).

And because the last fully RPG Paper Mario was in 2004, Paper Mario himself doesn't bring anything interesting to the table from a gameplay perspective. Instead, it's just the lame card battle system that most people agree is vastly inferior, instead of him having his own creative set of moves that can work alongside M+L, and vice versa. There's a lot of potential for how each style of move could've been used to great effect in gameplay, but instead what's done is very basic and unimaginative.

Similarly, and perhaps most glaringly, the game only takes place in one world, rather than two, which is absolutely baffling given that all previous Mario & Luigi games but the first had some kind of dual-world system (time travel in Partners in Time, Bowser's body in Bowser's Inside Story, Luigi's Dream World in Dream Team). The paper world should have been an explorable world with unique events and characters, but it's never explored.

This is all due to the fact that Nintendo hasn't regarded Paper Mario as an RPG since Sticker Star, and sees M+L as the only necessary RPG in the franchise. They feel that having them both be the same genre is redundant, despite the two having vastly different styles in gameplay, design, and storytelling. They don't believe that people find the old style of Paper Mario appealing, and instead think the sole appeal is on the paper aesthetic and gimmicks, rather than the creativity in its environments, characters, and stories.

And that misunderstanding is transferred into Paper Jam, which begs the question of why they'd have the crossover in the first place since Paper Mario is no longer an RPG like M+L. It's the most schizophrenic idea ever, having a crossover for these two RPG series, but only after you've castrated most of the RPG elements from one of them, defeating the purpose entirely.

Instead of being a loving celebration of everything that makes the two series special, it instead highlights everything wrong with Nintendo's evaluation of Paper Mario and thus turns what should've been one of the hypest Nintendo crossovers into a depressing, mediocre game. It's not a bad game inherently, but it does not live up to its dual pedigrees and comes off as lazy and uninspired, even if you only compare it to the previous M+L games, which somehow had much more creativity and heart.

...well, there I go again.


Good thing I happened to stop by just in time.

Though I understand if people don't believe Twilight Princess is the best. Everyone's tastes are different, and everyone experiences things in different context. The context that I experienced Twilight Princess in is a major part of what made it so special for me, and only highlighted its amazing qualities. It wasn't my first Zelda game, which is what most people say ends up being their individual favorite, but I can understand why other people would personally prefer other games, or take personal issue with some elements of the game they simply don't like.

I do have an argument as to why it's objectively the best overall Zelda game, based on its story, structure, gameplay, and world. It's definitely not a perfect game--no game is--and I can understand objective criticisms of some aspects of its design. My personal major criticism is of the Twilight Beasts (the enemies you kill to create portals). As someone who's beaten the game about 10 times, they get really old after the first or second playthrough for sure. They should've been more interesting to fight, especially as the main "true" Twilight enemy in the game. There's a couple other things to be criticized, too, like some items being mostly useless outside their dungeons (which isn't a unique problem to TP), or the wolf form not being used to its fullest potential (though personally I'm fine with it). So I'm under no illusion that it's a perfect game like some people are with their favorite games.

What gets my Ordon goat is when people criticize and belittle it for nothing more than its art style and tone. Both of those criticisms come from a misunderstanding of the game, assuming that it's going for a realistic art style (it's not entirely realistic, and still heavily stylized--it's not trying to be Metal Gear) and that its tone is super dark and grim (which is a disingenuous omission of all the goofy elements of the game like the monkeys, Malo Mart, snowboarding yetis, Oocoo, etc.).

I once saw one apparently popular Zelda YouTuber do a video on the leftover Green ChuChu Jelly in Twilight Princess, and not a minute into the video he makes a smug comment about how Twilight Princess "is just Wind Waker, but without any character." Which is what most of the criticism boils down to, in the end: "Wind Waker good, Twilight Princess bad." Sometimes it's not WW, and may be another game, but usually the criticisms of TP come from comparisons to WW, due to the two being diametrically opposed in terms of aesthetic, as TP was a response to WW's cartoony art style not being appreciated at the time, so now that it's appreciated, people feel the need to make an argument that cartoony Zelda is best Zelda, as though the two can't coexist and both be good and appreciated. Everything always have to be a competition of "which one is best, which one is worst."

If people prefer Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, or Breath of the Wild instead of Twilight Princess, there's nothing wrong with that. I've 100% completed all of those games at least once, and still replay them fairly regularly. In fact, I just started a playthrough of Ocarina of Time yesterday (about to head to Death Mountain), and have an ongoing playthrough of Breath of the Wild (finally got around to beating the Master Trials again on Wednesday, and beat Vah Naboris last night). The only game I haven't really touched in Skyward Sword, though I do own it and will probably get around to tackling it this summer.

...all right, time to officially leave to the Twilight Realm. Bye y'all.

Oh God, Diem comin' in hot.

 

[Roberk]

Don’t mind me, just voting for the actual best Zelda game.

 

[Deleted member]

I dunno man, have you seen tetris?

Tetris 99 is my GOTY so far.

 

[Alternis]

You're not missing much in my opinion. Zelda has decent games but there's a lot of hit or miss qualities about them that end up conflicting with each other, in which there are other games to play that provide more pros. Play out of curiosity if you're interested.

I mean, it's an opinion, but man, I can't resist

 

[Gentlepanda]

day 130, give it up for day 130

 

[staindgrey]

Don’t mind me, just voting for the actual best Zelda game.
View attachment 208684

Best 2D Zelda game. I'll absolutely vote that.

I just like the 3D ones better.

 

[praline]

GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 15

 

[Deleted member]

Real talk though, I'm with PBG on the subject: All Zelda's are like 9/10 and 10/10 games. It's a very consistent series in terms of being, well, legendary.

That said, Majora is the best one.

 

[Flyboy]

Puyo Puyo Tetris is unironically one of the best games on the Switch.

Also bad news @faygoshill

 

[Noipoi]

day 130, give it up for day 130

Well now I gotta draw Joker like this

 

[staindgrey]

I'm going to pick Twilight Princess. I hope Diem sees it too so it can at least get two votes.

Man, you take off your Midna icon for like three months and suddenly everyone forgets you're a Twilight Princess stan.

Also where the hell is this poll.

 

[Idon]

I'm gonna vote Skyward Sword just to mess with yall.

 

[CallMeKnux]

Real talk though, I'm with PBG on the subject: All Zelda's are like 9/10 and 10/10 games. It's a very consistent series in terms of being, well, legendary.

That said, Majora is the best one.

even triforce heroes?

 

[Deleted member]

day 130, give it up for day 130

Nintendo, where are you at?