Now, I was in an interesting position, having never been allowed to own a large console growing up, but the first game I ever played was Link's Awakening for the GameBoy. (Not the first Zelda game - the first Game). As you can probably tell by my avatar, I really love that game. If you haven't played it, Zeld, shame on you. Thanks to playing that game first (and frequently, because the second sword you get is the result of collecting 20 magical seashells, and then twin lightning bolts come down from the heavens and then fuse into a ball of lightning which morphs into your sword - fuckin' A), and then going on to play the original, and then the oracle games, and then Link to the Past, and then Minish Cap. I never owned an N64 or a Gamecube, but now that I'm in college and have access to a Wii, I've been playing Twilight Princess without having played Ocarina of Time, MM, or WW. I've played the first hour and a half of all three at other folk's houses. Anyway, I found TP to be a little samey, yeah, but I ignored that because being in Hyrule still feels fresh to me because I spent most of my childhood (and subsequent adolescence, and I have a file running right now) in Koholint Island. I also ignored the sameyness because the game is flat-out fun. You howl at the moon to summon the spirit of a dead swordsman, which is a golden wolf. For the first time since Link's Awakening (in which it was an Easter Egg), Nintendo acknowledged the presence of Bomb Arrows. I think I'm about halfway, or a little less than halfway, and I've noticed that in this game, Nintendo went out of its way to make everything as cool as possible. Put bombs on arrows. Magnetize the Iron Boots. TWO (so far) epic joust sequences on huge bridges, one of which is won by charging at the guy, shooting an arrow into his face, and then dodging his massive boar-horse. An ancient item that is a cross between a snowboard and a gyroscope.
What don't I like? Well, the music sounds 10 years old - not the music itself, but the midi nature of it. It's not just midi, it's BAD midi. Do better.
One thing that has bugged me about Zelda games - collection sequences. I like one or two, like TP has. It's Link's Awakening has an awesome collection sequence. Collect seashells, get Lightning Sword. Collect Pieces of Heart (as always), get Heart Container.
So I guess my favorite, by your pidgeonholing standards, is Link's Awakening, but I also really liked Link to the Past (like a whole lot), primarily because you felt so bad-ass by storming through Ganon's Tower, seeing a whole bunch of difficult enemies, and then turning them all to ice and then smashing them with a hammer), the Oracle Games (Capcom did a few things right), and I"m loving Twilight Princess. The worst Zelda game ever? DEFINITELY Minish Cap. It had like 10 too many collection questions, one of which involved collecting some 200 trophies, and the reward is...a piece of heart.
