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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DS, 2009

A sequel to Phantom Hourglass, the final Zelda title for the Nintendo DS introduces a number of new mechanics to the series, including a heavily-armed spirit companion and train conducting.

Writes IGN, "While Spirit Tracks has some obvious deja vu elements and can drag on from time to time, Nintendo's latest pocket Zelda trumps the first game hands-down, delivering amazing bosses once again, now complemented with impressive dungeons, a truly epic challenge in the Spirit Tower, and a substantially longer adventure overall."

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