Every Legend of Zelda Game, Ranked

by Fox Van Allen, for Metacritic – March 7, 2017

Updated May 2023 to add Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda, now over 35 years old, is one of Nintendo’s strongest, most popular and longest-running franchises. The latest Zelda title, Breath of the Wild for the new Nintendo Switch console, has drawn rave reviews from critics, with many giving it a perfect score.

Is Breath of the Wild just a great Zelda game … or the greatest Zelda game of all time? To answer that question, we have ranked every Zelda game by Metascore. (Note that some of the older titles are not available on Metacritic, and in those instances we have used scores from our sister site, GameRankings.)

Additional content by Jason Dietz

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93*

#8 (tie): The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

SNES, 1991

The first and only Zelda game released for the Super Nintendo system, this 1993 title shares much more in common with the original The Legend of Zelda than the Zelda 2 game that immediately preceded it.

The game was the first in the series to introduce the concept of parallel worlds—now a well-worn feature of most Zelda titles.

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