So I assume that most of us here like Zelda.
Are you trying to start a flame war?
LoZ
Best- Classic retro feel, great dungeon music, simple fun.
Worst- Being locked to the grid, bland visuals, lack of musical variety, difficulty keeping track of overworld secrets. Peahats. There is also the undeserved reputation for non-linearity. Only the first half of the game is non-linear, the dungeons in the second half of the game are item-gated. It is 55% non-linear at best.
AoL
Best- Underrated solid game. Introduced towns, sidequests, talking to NPCs of your choice, updated sword combat.
Worst- High learning curve turns people away, leveling up system should be more flexible instead of encouraging a specific order. Random encounter mechanic gets irksome, especially when exploring the overworld for hidden areas. Like Zelda 1, controls are still a little stiff. Some enemies are a bit too relentless. Needs save stations in towns.
ALttP
Best- Epic world and mythos. New items, fluid gameplay and controls, beautiful graphics. Lots of dungeons.
Worst- Later games had unique dungeon themes and were more emotional on a personal level. Kakariko theme gets killed off early in the game.
LA
Best- First game with unique dungeon themes, trading quest, quirky humor/world, emotional resonance, wonderful music, good balance of puzzles and action. My favorite Zelda.
Worst- Music for Guardian Acorns and Pieces of Power.
OoT
Best- Amazing dungeons, gorgeous incredible score, dialogue and depth of lore, sense of being in a fleshed out world, incredibly immersive and compelling. N64 controller layout is a thing of joy and beauty. A milestone in game development.
Worst- Size and scope has aged poorly, difficulty is ridiculously easy with high defense and an invulnerable shield. Combat is oversimplified A button mashing, enemies pose no real threat. Bosses are spectacle over substance. Final boss started the unfortunate trend of last bosses having the huge "wait-for-the-quicktime-strike-because-you-can't-deal-actual-damage" problem. The plot's scope feels limited by being a prequel as they can't let you truly defeat Ganon. (also problematic horse controls)
MM
Best- Challenge is increased from OoT. Enemies are tougher, dungeons are trickier and complicated.
Worst- Some of the music is really grating, time mechanic is clunky, waiting around for events (or missing them) sucks royally. I miss the set your own pace and schedule feel of OoT. Game is laggy. Still impressive considering the ridiculously short turn around time the developers had to work in.
OoA/OoS
Best- Revisit to classic Zelda gameplay.
Worst- Most music is bland or terrible. Story is pretty flat, characters are reused from other games too often. Overworld navigation can be really tedious.
OoT MQ
Best- Great idea
Worst- Execution is questionable, some things are really non-intuitive
FS
Best- Intro and title screen rocks, fun when taken as a mini-game to pass time with friends
Worst- Music apart from the intro/title is awful, hard to get a group together, no real depth
WW
Best- Silky smooth graphics, camera and play control. Great music. Wonderfully imaginative and incredible atmosphere and ending.
Worst- Pacing lags in places, the amount of sailing is debatable. Combat isn't fleshed out, but it's very fun and an improvement over OoT. Ropes and swinging are clunky. Tutorials are a bit much, a couple dungeons were cut. 100% is asking a lot.
FSA
Best- Lush visuals and music. Large stages.
Worst- Stage-based gameplay is very foreign and multiplayer is hard to make happen. Replay value is moderate at best.
MC
Best- Loving tribute to ALttP. Gorgeous pixel art, nice music and lush play environments. Very enjoyable.
Worst- Tons of item-gating, small overworld, could use more dungeons. Kinstones are too particular, figurine system is a pain.
TP
Best- Huge excellent game that outdoes OoT in nearly every category! Wonderful epic. Great bosses! Great half bosses! Great additional depth to sword combat!! 5 Heart Pieces! Cool dungeons! Awesome music and visuals! Fantastic game! (also much improved horse controls)
Worst- Overworld lacks the depth and replay value that OoT has. Wolf Link gameplay is lame A button mashing and wolf sense obscures your vision too much. Spinner loses momentum in the overworld. Magic armor drains rupees when not taking damage.
PH
Best- Revisits classic enemies long missing. Great ending.
Worst- Should have gotten a WW style sequel instead, game design and graphics are oversimplified and blocky. Island exploration and music leave much to be desired.
LCT
Best- Fun shooter mini-game, fun to replay and improve
Worst- No story? Is that an issue?
ST
Best- Fantastic music. Last game in this style.
Worst- Music is the only thing this does better than PH. New Hyrule wasn't interesting, being on tracks makes exploration even more limited than PH. Villain and ending were uninteresting tired cliches. "Song" of Awakening.
OoT 3D
Best- Cleaner visuals, great character models
Worst- Too many unneccesary additions and changes that dampen the experience. No significant expansion to the original game. Slide pad isn't an analog stick. Not an N64 controller (it's just not OoT without it).
SS
Best- Lovely huge areas to explore, no more tiny load areas! Fun sword motion controls! Awesome new villain!
Worst- Camera issues with bow & arrow, harp instrument is problematic and underdeveloped. Whip does nothing. Underwhelming Master Sword origin. Too much Imprisoned. People don't realize tadtones were fine.
WW:HD
Best- I haven't tried this version, so no comment.
Worst- My god! What have you done to the graphics?? And why the blinding bloom?
ALBW
Best- Great mechanics such as wall walking. Nice music and visual style.
Worst- Clunky play-control, awkward 3D model collision boxes, story is only present at the end. Game seems fine and fun until you try a 3 heart run. Then the play controls and enemy design just seem cheap, and the controls start to feel like a mobile game. Sad.
Edited by Cukeman, 21 February 2018 - 08:21 AM.