The Top Five

By Zac Pritcher | October 4, 2006

Hi, my name is Xaq. Some of you know me from my Wii: What Real People Think review or maybe even by my Nintendomobile. And since it is my first post, I figured I would do something in the fashion of how I, myself, was introduced to Aeropause. I will let you, the viewer, express your opinion in a category of my choosing. The Top Five is something I plan to let you participate in every week, but with an alternating category. I will post my “Top Five” along with a description why, and I urge you to let your voice be heard by doing the same!

This weeks category? Zelda. That’s right. The universal language of peace. Everyone loves Zelda, and EVERYONE has their own opinion of what they think is the greatest game. Here are my picks for the “Top Five”

1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) – What can I say? This is one of the greatest games on the SNES platform, as well as my no. one pick for Zelda games. The game brought back so much that we loved about the original Zelda adventure as well as introduced some brand new elements of gameplay. First off, there were no more lame side-scrolling segments that were featured in Zelda 2. The game returned to classic Zelda form. Instead of having random battles and RPG elements (which is something I DO miss) it returned to pure adventure and dungeon crawling. New weapons, amazing graphics, the return of the cherished overworld theme that we all hum in the shower every morning… erm… every other morning? Anyway, this game featured many new elements and kept the things that made us love Zelda in the first place.

2. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA) – OK, OK… by now you are wondering where is Ocarina of Time? Worry not, Zelda fanboys, it is on this list. But now let’s talk about The Minish Cap. This was just one of those games that you could play anywhere. In class, on the toilet, outside… ANYWHERE! And that is all thanks to the Gameboy Advance handheld format. Sure there have been handheld Zeldas before this one, but none of them are as well-executed (in my opinion) or as immersive. The games had beautiful, colorful graphics, great sounds and innovation. The kinstones also added a huge addiction factor. Even after playing through most of the game and being able to go fight Vati to finish the game, I just wandered around finding people to fuse kinstones with to see what surprises and treasures they might conceal. This is an overall great game and deserves its spot as no. 2 on my “Top Five”.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) – Here it is, the game that many consider to be the best game of all time. And why not? It had everything a Zelda fan could want! Great dungeons, puzzles, and a memorable cast of characters. Not only that, but it was also Links first foray into the 3-D gaming realm. And while keeping a hold of the quality experience that brought us to love Zelda in the first place, it introduced many new assets. Many of which are still used in the 3-D Zelda games of modern day. Heck, even Twilight Princess is using most of these features. But the one thing keeping this title from being number 1 on my list is that I found it to be a little bit too linear compared to other Zelda games.

4. The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker (GCN) – I know what you are all thinking. Zelda? More like Cel-da! Am I correct? Thought so. But the truth is my fellow gamers, that The Windwaker is one of the most immersive titles on the Gamecube, second to only Metroid Prime. And once you get into the game, you will come to love almost everything about it. The characters, the bosses, the enemies, the landscapes. Heck, you might even start to love the colorful, cartoony graphics. This game is an overall great adventure that I encourage you all to give a fair chance, if you haven’t already.

5. The Legend of Zelda (NES) – And why wouldn’t the game that started it all be on the list? Not only did it introduce a Save feature, it also brought us everything that has evolved into what we call Zelda today. The dungeons, memorable enemies, epic bosses, overworld theme. Heck, it even had two different quests! It promised you the most for your gaming buck back in the day and is still a challenging game. But the main thing keeping it from a higher spot is that I found it hard to go back and enjoy the title now that I’ve experienced the enhancements of today’s Zelda games.