Thanks for popping in on this list of top Legend of Zelda games. If you’re here for a consolidated recommendation of where to start, you’ve come to the right place. If you want detailed rundowns of all the games, check out part one for 2D Zelda titles and part two for 3D Zelda games.
Below are five excellent Zelda series titles to start with, alongside one honorable mention. I should note that just about any Legend of Zelda is a decent place to start, with the exception of the universally panned Phillips CD-i games, and perhaps the Satellaview games, as they are notoriously difficult to access.
Honorable Mention: The Legend of Zelda (NES)
For The Legend of Zelda purists, NES lovers, and game historians out there, the very first game is a solid place to start. Even if your gaming tastes lean modern, or you’ve played newer Zelda games, revisiting the series’ progenitor is a valuable exercise. It is the beginning not just of this series, but of open-world games, console action adventures, and save files for heck’s sake. To note, many of the innovations in Breath of the Wild’s open world actually return to the design paradigms of this game, and you can play it in SP mode if you need something more fast-paced. It has timeless dungeon-focused design, item progression, puzzles of memory and wit, and polished action combat. And while I wouldn’t personally start here, some people love to start at the start, and I respect that. At any rate, the first game holds up; it is fun and engaging regardless of whether it’s your first or fifteenth Zelda.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (NSW)
Starting at the start is cool for some, but I might instead recommend working backward through The Legend of Zelda series. The Zelda timeline is not a straight line by any means, so your comprehension of Zelda lore, much like Final Fantasy lore, will be unaffected by the order you tackle the Zeldas in. The most recent games will undoubtedly align better with modern tastes and play into current videogaming literacies better. Of course, ease of play and access notwithstanding, I believe Echoes of Wisdom has the series’ best puzzles, most interesting combat, and smoothest gameplay (especially on Switch 2), bar none. It’s succinct, tight, and experimental by design, all features of a great place to start.
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GCN)
The Wind Waker is a rare treasure (or booty, if you are a cultured individual). It is the most vivid and well-aged traditional 3D Legend of Zelda game, with lovely cel-shaded visuals, approachable combat and puzzle design, and fun oceanic traversal. Compared to all the other Zeldas here, Wind Waker is certainly the most hangin’ out, kickback-ready of the lot. Those who like gorgeous vistas, 1v1 combat, vertically-oriented dungeon exploration, smaller and more focused overworld zones, and especially grappling hooks, should start here. If you’re looking for those elements but you don’t jive with the aesthetic of The Wind Waker, or simply don’t luxuriate in the journey between places, replace this entry with the more temporal-gothic Ocarina of Time or horror-strange Majora’s Mask. For what it’s worth, The Wind Waker tells a far more interesting and legible story than its immediate predecessors: one about expectations, responsibility, and familial trauma. Plus, it has pirates, man. Pirates are way cooler than ninjas.
3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
Gaming publications have flipped back and forth over the last two decades on whether to give the GOAT (greatest of all time) title to a 2D or 3D Zelda game. Sentiments are moving nowadays toward 3D, especially with the release of Breath of the Wild in 2017. However, what is not contentious for anyone in the gaming press is whether to award the title for “best” 2D Zelda game to A Link to the Past. It is the quintessential 2D entry in many ways, being the longest, most aesthetically well-regarded, most discourse-friendly title in the series. One might call it the reference point for Legend of Zelda fandom. It’s also an awesome action RPG with addictive memory puzzles, a dark mystical vibe, and iconic music and sound effects. As mentioned above, if you want to start with a traditional 3D Zelda game, you should start with The Wind Waker; but if 2D whets your appetite, A Link to the Past is the way to go. If you find it to be too dark and stormy, check out Minish Cap instead. However, I should note that A Link to the Past has a sequel (not counting all the other ones on Game Boy/Game Boy Color), A Link Between Worlds, so you have a direct Zelda lineage to follow to help lead you into other games in the series — all I’m saying is let A Link to the Past be your gateway game. It’s very good at that.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NSW)
Let’s just go ahead and call a spade a spade. Breath of the Wild is where most of you who are reading this (and haven’t played a Zelda) are going to start, and I think that’s wonderful. Honestly, I don’t think you can do much better: BotW has a captivating open world featuring all the famous characters, locales, and gameplay tropes started in the series’ previous entries; it’s got great vibes, luscious visuals, and charming storylines. It’s the easiest Zelda to talk about with your friends, because they’re all playing it too. It doesn’t follow the dungeon pipeline of traditional Zelda games, but it doesn’t have to, because it instills the same sense of wonder in exploration that the previous games did through its compelling open world. It’s a masterpiece, a cliché but profoundly accurate moniker, as it is regarded by many as their favorite/the best game of all time, and it remains highly prescient in 2025. It has a direct sequel in Tears of the Kingdom, as well, which makes its Hyrule more experimental. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is addictive and vast, sponsoring hundreds of hours of playtime, but it’s playable in a much more medium amount of time (30-ish hours), too. It is probably the Zeldiest Zelda ever made.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX (GBC)
Except SIKE, no it ain’t. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the Game Boy is the Zeldiest Zelda ever made — at least in this writer’s opinion. What a magic, microcosmic journey Link’s Awakening is. You follow Link as he wakes up in a strange place after a storm crashes his ship. You must awaken the Wind Fish using magical musical instruments, and in doing so, awaken something in yourself. The game is deeply philosophical, pondering community values, reality vs. unreality, navigating trauma, and the persevering lightness of being. It relies on musical motifs to tell its story, centering gameplay around the use and acquisition of musical instruments — as such, it has a remarkable soundtrack, not only in its frankly unbelievable use of the Game Boy’s limited sound chip (tonally and in the number of synchronous tracks), but also in it being one of the most effective sound designs in all of videogames, regardless of consideration for limitations.
Someone once told me that Super Mario 64 is a masterpiece before you get into Princess Peach’s castle — playfully navigating 3D space as a familiar character is a powerfully embodying experience. I think Link’s Awakening is that for 2D action-adventure. Like Super Mario 64, it is a masterpiece before the first level; it is a profound experience before you interact with its first setpiece, its first dungeon, etc. For context, Link’s Awakening was the first videogame I ever owned, and I played it every week of the first two years of grade school, for likely 100 hours-plus, before I entered the first dungeon. I was, of course, a child who didn’t have the videogame literacy to find the first dungeon key, but the richness of that otherwhere gave me a space to imagine, explore, and play in a way that sports, visual media, and analog games couldn’t for me at the time. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening grants context for the embodying experience of games. It is where I started my gaming journey, and I think you should start here too. It is also the most accessible entry on this list, as the original is available on Switch Online (go for Link’s Awakening DX on Game Boy Color), and its remake is typically on sale for $40 or less. Link’s Awakening is a dreamy, magical other-space that appeals to folks of all ages with its slick gameplay, deep themes, and sonic intonations. Start here, you won’t regret it.
