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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#4 (tie): The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Wii, 2006

Called “one of the best launch titles in the history of launch titles” by IGN’s Matt Casamassina, this 2006 game makes good use of the Wii remote’s motion controls and nunchuck attachment. The game is best remembered for its horseback battles and, of course, Link’s transformation into wolf form whenever he enters the Twilight Realm.

A high-definition remake followed in 2016 for the Wii U console.

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