1. I bought Twilight Princess when I bought my Wii. That was the first Zelda game I ever played. I am now hooked. I am going to play through the series, but backwards. I am nearing the completion of WindWaker and I have the GameCube disk that has the 1st 2 games as well as the N64 Versions. I have also downloaded a Link to the Past on the VC. I cant wait until Phantom Hourglass comes out. I would love to get some Dual Screen Zelda action going on.

Posted at 9:35AM on Feb 22nd 2007 by Robert

2. Zelda is the perfect combination of action, adventure, storyline, gameplay, pretty graphics, great sound, puzzle solving, RPG elements, etc. It is everything that makes games great rolled into one package. It isn't a master of any one of those areas, but it does them all really well.

The games are so good my wife is content to just sit and watch me play them. She won't even let me play the game if she isn't there to watch. She really gets into the plot and puzzle solving and likes to help me (even if I don't need it). She has watched me play Wind Waker and now Twilight Princess all the way through.

Posted at 9:36AM on Feb 22nd 2007 by Loban

3. I remember playing the first Zelda as a 7 or 8 year old and not really grasping the concept. Later, during the SNES years, I picked up Link to the Past and was blown away. My favorite memories of the series are from that game, staying up all night playing, and specifically the first half hour or so of the game during the rainstorm. It really sucked me into Link's world.

ZOOT (as I like to call it) nearly accomplished that same sense of wonder and awe by bringing Hyrule to life in 3D. Unfortunately, I was older and my ability to be wow-ed had diminished. I still loved the game, but something about being younger when LTTP came out made it stand out even more to me.

Posted at 10:32AM on Feb 22nd 2007 by bombtrak

4. I find that the lack of any real depth (aside from gameplay) turns me off Zelda. OoT is bizzarely considered the best game ever made by some, but I was underwhelmed by it. I'd much rather play Final Fantasy.

Posted at 10:34AM on Feb 22nd 2007 by CitizenGeek

5. Well CitizenGeek, it's not bizzar that its concidered the best game ever made if the majority think that. It's just not up your alley.

I am a huge Zelda dork and my friends seem to know it. They have bought me a full size Master Sword, the Zelda cartoons on DVD, a Nintendo Controller belt buckle, and figurines... it's actually kindof sad they don't get me other stuff for my birthdays, like useful stuff.

Anyways, I have played most Zelda games through a couple of times over, mostly OoT, Wind Waker, and I am starting again on TP. There is something about the game that is familiar but different each time you play through it. I purchased both Zelda games for the VC because back then I didn't own them, I just watched my buddy play them and thought they were cool. Neat story line, great gameplay, fun puzzles (frustrating at times) and rewarding finishes for the most part.

Posted at 11:35AM on Feb 22nd 2007 by Canuckle

6. I find the Zelda games to be grossly overrated. The game play is shallow and boring, they have minimal story, and the characters (what little there actually are) are not very interesting and poorly designed. The music is also bland. I will never understand why people like the Zelda games so much, especially considering how little the series has changes since its conception.

I'd rather play a real Action-RPG, like Soul Blazer, or Terranigma, than the bland and uninteresting Zelda games. The only Zelda games I could stand were the Capcom ones, "Oracle of Ages" and "Oracle of Seasons".

Posted at 12:07PM on Feb 22nd 2007 by Anony

7. #6: I think you're making an easy mistake thinking of Zelda as an "RPG" of any kind. Sure, you take on the "role" of Link when you play, but it's not really an RPG in any traditional console sense.

I like the freedom of Zelda games, and the sense of real accomplishment I get from finally reaching a chest, or finding a heart piece. Secrets are usually hidden so masterfully that, while I'm sure everyone finds them, you get a real feeling like you've done something extraordinary by figuring them out.

A Link to the Past is my favorite game in the series, with Wind Waker a close second. I really enjoyed Wind Waker's sense of exploration and setting out into the unknown.

It's difficult to qualify my love for the series, because it's so hard to pick out individual elements and explain why I like them.

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M

Posted at 12:52PM on Feb 22nd 2007 by FoolsRun

8. For me it's the sense of scale. Not just in terms of the length of the game, or the epic story. It's the scale of the locations that you get to explore, roam around and revisit.

Whether it's floating around cavernous chambers suspended from a single leaf in Wind Waker, or discovering a whole world beneath a lake in Twilight Princess, encountering the vast populated arenas never fails to send shivers down my spine!

They achieve this legendary sense of scale, in both senses of the word, in a way that is rarely seen elsewhere. And they don't sacrifice the detail of every nook and cranny in these chambers either. You really can spend hours just exploring each location.

It reminds me of Super Mario 64. Just after it launched in the UK people were writing into magazine not with tips on how to beat the game, but the locations that offered the most stunning views!

Now that is a world I want to play in.

Posted at 2:14PM on Feb 22nd 2007 by andyr

9. Replying again: one thing I can qualify is how great it feels to receive a new item and SUDDENLY REALIZE how many uses you have for it out in the world! You then spend the next six delighted hours scouring the map for stuff you couldn't get before!

I love it.

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M

Posted at 2:23PM on Feb 22nd 2007 by FoolsRun

10. I remember playing the original NES Zelda games. I enjoyed them both but I never played LTTP until recently on the Wii VC. I also never played Majora's Mask but I bought the real N64 cart of it the other day at my local EB. I have really liked the portable versions of Zelda: Minish Cap, Oracle of Ages and Seasons and I look forward to future titles especially Phantom Hourglass. The Zelda series for me is great because it was one of a few games I got with my first NES system.

Posted at 2:26PM on Feb 22nd 2007 by Kurifurisan

11. One of my earliest memories of being really IMPRESSED at a game was when I was a kid and playing Zelda II. You actually had to fight. It wasn't just a matter of hitting buttons or moving around in a certain way... you had to anticipate what was going on and it was crazy for my little 10 or 11 year old mind.


I think for me, that sums up most of why I love Zelda. I haven't loved every game in the franchise, but there's always something like the above that surprises me whenever I pick up a Zelda game. There's always something that makes me really think about why these games are good. There aren't a lot of other games that give me that feeling, and it keeps me coming back.

Posted at 2:55PM on Feb 22nd 2007 by Alisha Karabinus

12. The reason I liked Zelda over the FF series is that it's real time based. If mastered, you can actually beat a boss unscathed, unlike FF where I have to wait for the boss to do its turn to attack me.

For TP, the most fun I've had was with the City in the Sky boss.

Posted at 3:26PM on Feb 22nd 2007 by airpolgas

13. Legend of Zelda is my favorite video game franchise. Probably because the first game completely blew me away. The top down go anywhere do things out of order and collect dozens of items really blew me away when I was a kid.

Picking a favorite Zelda game, however, would be like picking which breath of air is my favorite... it is something i cannot do. Each game does something to progress and push what i love about the franchise... and for that reason, i'm looking foreward too Phantom Hourglass... (as well as that "designed for the wii" zelda game i've been hearing about)

Posted at 4:17PM on Feb 22nd 2007 by eight

14. First rule of fight club, never disagree with a nintendo fanboy. I love how anytime someone says something negetive about the series, the next comment is "correcting" the disagreer.

Anywho, While I have tons of love for Link to the Past, Ocrina of time and now Twilight Princess, i can't really say i'm a diehard fan of the series... Mainly due to the fact that most of them have little story. Add ontop of that that most Zelda games are Take LTTP, change sprites and backdrops, release new game. Or take OOT, and change the textures (oddly enough not the models) and release new game. One man's nastalgia is another man's reptition.

Posted at 6:44PM on Feb 22nd 2007 by ShaleX

15. I played, and LOVED the original when I was a kid. My friends couldn't stand it, because it required too much thought to play, but I think that's what draws me to the game. It's a relatively easy accessible combination of puzzling, action, and exploration. Basically, it's the same thing that made the original Tomb Raider, or Soul Reaver good games.

I suppose it sometimes feels like a combination of playing Tetris, Quake, and Mega Man all at once.

Posted at 3:15PM on Feb 23rd 2007 by Metaphyzxx