• Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Worst 3D Zelda game?

  • Ocarina of Time

    Votes: 82 3.2%
  • Majora's Mask

    Votes: 160 6.2%
  • Wind Waker

    Votes: 205 8.0%
  • Twilight Princess

    Votes: 427 16.7%
  • Skyward Sword

    Votes: 1,260 49.1%
  • Breath of the Wild

    Votes: 219 8.5%
  • Can't decide

    Votes: 211 8.2%

  • Total voters
    2,564

ryushe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,813
For as much as SS irked me by the end, I at least finished it. Can't say the same about Twilight Princess, which while I didn't hate, I just thought it was woefully boring.
 
Oct 27, 2017
20,746
Skyward Sword is my least favorite by far. Not without merit but it had so much pressure to live up to after waiting 5 years for the first original wii Zelda.
 
Oct 27, 2017
556
OKC
BOTW for me. Cool open world and art design, but my favorite part of zelda games are the dungeons so it just doesn't really come close to being near my favorites of the 3D games.
 

Wamb0wneD

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
18,735
SS but it's still not an actually bad game. Just underwhelming for a Zelda mainline title. The people saying OoT have to be trolling though.
 

Droyd

Member
Mar 1, 2018
584
Has anyone watched Mark Brown's Boss Keys series?

I forget the terminology he assigns to different types of dungeon creation however Wind Waker was the more linear type and Skyward Sword the more intricate type.

He put to words what I felt with each games dungeon structures. I much prefer Ocarina, Majora's & Skywards Swords dungeon types but that's just me :)

Edit - (the reason why WW is my least favourite while SS is my fav)
 

JaseMath

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,354
Denver, CO
Majora's Mask. Its a great game, but it's never felt like a Zelda title to me.

Skyward Sword is a fucking masterpiece, you monsters.
 

Yarbskoo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,980
Skyward Sword, so much padding. Going through every environment two or three times. Fighting that damn boss over and over. That dowsing nonsense.

It's still a top tier game in my opinion, but it's easily the worst of the 3D Zelda games.
 

free_bubble

Member
Oct 27, 2017
594
I had to go with Skyward Sword. Runner up is Twilight Princess. I will say this, though: I'd much sooner revisit a remastered Skyward Sword that addresses its design foibles than ever replay Twilight Princess.
 

fiendcode

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,905
BOTW is so different I have issues comparing it directly to the OOT (really ALTTP) mold games.

For those I'd say: MM > TP > OOT > TWW >>>>>> SS
 

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,270
SS but it's still not an actually bad game. Just underwhelming for a Zelda mainline title. The people saying OoT have to be trolling though.
As I said in my post, I played OoT after most of the other games and found it to be just average compared to them. Up until BotW, 3D Zeldas just took OoT and ran in different directions. I found that that made them all feel unique while sort of rendering OoT as the jack of all trades, master of none when it comes to Zelda.

MM has its whole unique time system and atmosphere, TWW has a sense of adventure and exploration that is completely unrivaled in the series until BotW, TP and SS have way more filler but the clearly superior dungeons and more fleshed out stories and characters put them above OoT for me.
 
Oct 2, 2018
3,902
For as much as SS irked me by the end, I at least finished it. Can't say the same about Twilight Princess, which while I didn't hate, I just thought it was woefully boring.

TP's design was just bad. Getting the top spinny thing late and not really being able to use it much anywhere shows how lacklustre the overworld design is. I slogged through it. and all the fetch questy hunt the bug thing. urgh.
 

PrimeBeef

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,840
For me it's Majora's Mask. Didn't care for the story. Didn't like the timed aspect of the game. Wasn't a fan of the transition to 3D with OoT, but I found MM worse to swallow than OoT.
 
Oct 2, 2018
3,902
As I said in my post, I played OoT after most of the other games and found it to be just average compared to them. Up until BotW, 3D Zeldas just took OoT and ran in different directions. I found that that made them all feel unique while sort of rendering OoT as the jack of all trades, master of none when it comes to Zelda.

MM has its whole unique time system and atmosphere, TWW has a sense of adventure and exploration that is completely unrivaled in the series until BotW, TP and SS have way more filler but the clearly superior dungeons and more fleshed out stories and characters put them above OoT for me.

well, that you have to play them in order. Without OOT, the rest wouldn't have been refined. OOT took a 2D game and brought it into a 3D world with aiming/hookshoot and was incredible at its time. Its also had mini link and adult link. There's a lot to the game when it came out. I loved the shit out of it and its not a GOTY 10/10 game for no reason.

early 3D games won't hold up as good. They just don't.
 

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,270
well, that you have to play them in order. Without OOT, the rest wouldn't have been refined. OOT took a 2D game and brought it into a 3D world with aiming/hookshoot and was incredible at its time. Its also had mini link and adult link. There's a lot to the game when it came out. I loved the shit out of it and its not a GOTY 10/10 game for no reason.

early 3D games won't hold up as good. They just don't.
I get OoT's influence and all that don't get me wrong. But I'm not gonna give it a boost just because it was the first in this case. I'm purely going by which game resonated with me more
 

lightning16

Member
May 17, 2019
1,763
I couldn't really get into Ocarina of Time. I didn't play it until the 3DS version and by then I'd already played Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword and I just didn't like it as much.

I thought Majora's Mask 3D was good, though.
 

Yarbskoo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,980
I found that that made them all feel unique while sort of rendering OoT as the jack of all trades, master of none when it comes to Zelda.
To me, OoT has the best pacing in the series, with a great balance between overworld exploration, npc interaction, dungeon crawling, and combat. It's open ended enough to allow for exploration, but guided enough to not feel aimless for the most part. It's the most consistent game in the series, with few obvious flaws, and that, combined with a bit of nostalgia, is why it's still my favorite game.
 

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,270
To me, OoT has the best pacing in the series, with a great balance between overworld exploration, npc interaction, dungeon crawling, and combat. It's open ended enough to allow for exploration, but guided enough to not feel aimless for the most part. It's the most consistent game in the series, with few obvious flaws, and that, combined with a bit of nostalgia, is why it's still my favorite game.
Yeah I completely get that.

I just found the different directions each subsequent game took a bit more impactful
 

3bdelilah

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
1,615
With a heavy heart I vote Majora's Mask. I recently talked about why I view it as one of the lesser (3D) Zelda games, primarily because the three day system becomes tedious and feeling like a chore after you've 100%'d it at least once. All other 3D Zelda games are, despite not always flawless, still enjoyable on subsequent plays. In my opinion the same can't be said for MM.

A link to my earlier post:

I love pretty much all Zelda games, from Ocarina of Time to A Link Between Worlds, The Minish Cap to Breath of the Wild, and A Link to the Past to Majora's Mask. But there's something about the latter that I just don't like replaying. When you've 100%'d Majora's Mask multiple times and know all of its secrets, the 3-day mechanic becomes a chore, and more of a nuisance than the freshness some people make the mechanic out to be. It's true that its heart lies deep down below the surface, and that the 3-day mechanic is intrinsically a part of it, but quite frankly it doesn't make replaying the game any more fun. As a result I personally like to view Majora's Mask as an (one-time) experience more than anything else, but as a game, I would rate it quite lowly.
 

KillstealWolf

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,046
The only one I never finished was Breath of the Wild, and that's the one I could literally finish in an hour if I desired.

Skyward Sword is probably second worst but I at least was compelled enough to finish that one.

BOTW felt like Padding the Game. The only fun thing is Fighting Lynels, and there ain't nearly enough of them in the game to make that worth playing it for.
 

Firemind

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,524
As I said in my post, I played OoT after most of the other games and found it to be just average compared to them. Up until BotW, 3D Zeldas just took OoT and ran in different directions. I found that that made them all feel unique while sort of rendering OoT as the jack of all trades, master of none when it comes to Zelda.

MM has its whole unique time system and atmosphere, TWW has a sense of adventure and exploration that is completely unrivaled in the series until BotW, TP and SS have way more filler but the clearly superior dungeons and more fleshed out stories and characters put them above OoT for me.
TP doesn't 'clearly' have better dungeons though. Also I'm not sure how you can qualify TP has more fleshed out stories and characters apart from Midna. Are you sure you played through OoT?
 

julian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,734
Twilight Princess. Did not love it when it came out. Did not enjoy thinking back on it years after. Tried it again with remaster and found it even worse.

Skyward Sword has a whole host of rather large issues, but I actually enjoyed its highs.
 

Ashhong

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,572
This thread made me realize that I somehow missed out on both Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess. I thought I was a Zelda fan...I guess it doesn't help that I didn't own a Wii U. How did I miss an entire generation. The Wii U must have had a super short life?
 

Glass Arrows

Member
Jan 10, 2019
1,414
As I said in my post, I played OoT after most of the other games and found it to be just average compared to them. Up until BotW, 3D Zeldas just took OoT and ran in different directions. I found that that made them all feel unique while sort of rendering OoT as the jack of all trades, master of none when it comes to Zelda.

MM has its whole unique time system and atmosphere, TWW has a sense of adventure and exploration that is completely unrivaled in the series until BotW, TP and SS have way more filler but the clearly superior dungeons and more fleshed out stories and characters put them above OoT for me.
I wouldn't say that TP's story is that much better than OoT's. Midna is a better character than anyone from OoT yes but that is all that game has going on narrative-wise.
 

Bubukill

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,810
Panama
It's BOTW for me.

BOTW has the best Zelda Gameplay, freedom and customization objectively, and it might be the most difficult in world traversal; but it lacks a lot in the "Zelda Sauce" department by giving us the lamest and easiest dungeons in the entire 3D series, the most lame bosses of the series, the shortest dungeons ever, the lack of sense of "Abilities progression" {come on, you get all abilities available in the game after the tutorial, you just upgrade them slightly throughout the game}, that horrendous final boss is laughable, the horrendous weapons degradation mechanic, the music while beautiful.. it is not that memorable for a Zelda game, enemies become repetitive after a while, the story was rather underwhelming and I can keep going.


Skyward Sword was a lame Zelda too, I can accept it reached a point where the same Zelda formula was no longer as exciting as before, and that some drastic changes in the concept needed to be done for the next installment, but at least... it gave us good "Zelda Mechanics".

What I expect from BOTW 2 is giving us the same open world formula but this time with "For Real Dungeons" with a good sense of progression throughout the entire game till the end.
 

C_Ali88

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
310
Haven't played SS, so toss-up between OoT and MM. *dodges flying rocks* Gonna say MM because I could never be bothered to finish it. Maybe I'll give it a fair shake the next time it gets remastered.

I'm a bit torn about WW. Like, parts of it are really, really good and I felt the complaints about the sailing were overblown (pun intended). But there's a substantial amount of copypaste in its overworld, and it was really disappointing how small and insignficant most islands were. They really missed the opportunity to complete it with the remaster (plus they totally killed the clean look of it with all that bloom).

I probably enjoyed TP more than OoT on the first playthrough, but OoT's pacing is definitely better for re-playing it, even with all that Kokiri crap at the start.

Same in that I could never finish MM... I've tried many a time... Lord knows I have, I just can't get into it.

Loved Tp beat it in 3 days back in the Wii, hated Twili though. Midna was alright just turning to a wolf was tedious with the area of attack crap...
 
Last edited:

JershJopstin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,332
It's Twilight Princess, but even that's a great game. If I had to rank them it'd be:

1. Breath of the Wild
2. Skyward Sword
3. Majora's Mask
4. The Wind Waker
5. Ocarina of Time
6. Twilight Princess

Maybe switch TWW and OoT depending on my mood, the dungeons in OoT are pretty good.

Edit: Actually the bottom three are pretty fluid in general.
 

ghibli99

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,673
Damn, I loved Skyward Sword. :( Maybe I'm easy to please... I love them all (maybe not equally, but I wouldn't call any of them the "worst" 3D Zelda).
 

Wamb0wneD

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
18,735
As I said in my post, I played OoT after most of the other games and found it to be just average compared to them. Up until BotW, 3D Zeldas just took OoT and ran in different directions. I found that that made them all feel unique while sort of rendering OoT as the jack of all trades, master of none when it comes to Zelda.

MM has its whole unique time system and atmosphere, TWW has a sense of adventure and exploration that is completely unrivaled in the series until BotW, TP and SS have way more filler but the clearly superior dungeons and more fleshed out stories and characters put them above OoT for me.
That's fair. The one thing the game has over all the others to this day though is the pacing. It's pitch perfect. Even on my 10th playthrough I'm not bored for a second. It's just from one event/dungeon/town to another. And I think the dungeon design, while not consistently stellar, has some real highlights. Especially the water temple in the 3DS version where changing to steel boots isn't a chore anymore. There's barely anything I could critizise this game for, outside one or two rather obtuse progression roadblocks.
ITT opinions are trolling.
It's just the most well rounded of all the 3D titles. MM had too few dungeons for most tastes, WW was just unfinished (and some say too easy, but I thought it fit the mood of the game well), TP was just a worse paced OoT with some neat dungeon ideas but with the problem of the dungeon items barely being usable outside the respective dungeons and uninteresting NPCs. SS has the most filler out of all of them, and even though it had some real high points like the time stones, it had the lowest lows in the series, too. Like the sky overworld and repeated bossfights or musical notes nonsense.

Even if you think the other games did some things better, I fail to see how someone could say it's the worst of all of them.
 

ClickyCal'

Member
Oct 25, 2017
59,436
That's fair. The one thing the game has over all the others to this day though is the pacing. It's pitch perfect. Even on my 10th playthrough I'm not bored for a second. It's just from one event/dungeon/town to another. And I think the dungeon design, while not consistently stellar, has some real highlights. Especially the water temple in the 3DS version where changing to steel boots isn't a chore anymore. There's barely anything I could critizise this game for, outside one or two rather obtuse progression roadblocks.

It's just the most well rounded of all the 3D titles. MM had too few dungeons for most tastes, WW was just unfinished (and some say too easy, but I thought it fit the mood of the game well), TP was just a worse paced OoT with some neat dungeon ideas but with the problem of the dungeon items barely being usable outside the respective dungeons and uninteresting NPCs. SS has the most filler out of all of them, and even though it had some real high points like the time stones, it had the lowest lows in the series, too. Like the sky overworld and repeated bossfights or musical notes nonsense.

Even if you think the other games did some things better, I fail to see how someone could say it's the worst of all of them.
I didnt vote for OoT, but I have had people say it about people voting BOTW as the worst just because it's popular.
 

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,270
That's fair. The one thing the game has over all the others to this day though is the pacing. It's pitch perfect. Even on my 10th playthrough I'm not bored for a second. It's just from one event/dungeon/town to another. And I think the dungeon design, while not consistently stellar, has some real highlights. Especially the water temple in the 3DS version where changing to steel boots isn't a chore anymore. There's barely anything I could critizise this game for, outside one or two rather obtuse progression roadblocks.

It's just the most well rounded of all the 3D titles. MM had too few dungeons for most tastes, WW was just unfinished (and some say too easy, but I thought it fit the mood of the game well), TP was just a worse paced OoT with some neat dungeon ideas but with the problem of the dungeon items barely being usable outside the respective dungeons and uninteresting NPCs. SS has the most filler out of all of them, and even though it had some real high points like the time stones, it had the lowest lows in the series, too. Like the sky overworld and repeated bossfights or musical notes nonsense.

Even if you think the other games did some things better, I fail to see how someone could say it's the worst of all of them.
True. I can't really criticize the game for much but sometimes a game with lots of stuff I would change still can leave a profound impact with what it does right, and that's the case here for me
 
Nov 21, 2017
1,772
I'm sticking to my guns despite the overwhelming popularity of MM on this forum. I appreciate its novelty and atmosphere, but I honestly just do not find it any fun to play
 

dr.rocktopus

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
7,250
Skyward Sword easily. I do like the controls and some of the interesting twists with it (needing to hit a Skulltula horizontally to force it to spin around in order to hit the belly blew my mind in how Nintendo was willing to play with my expectations), but so much of it feels like a slog. The tears were a slog. The Imprisoned was a slog. The overworld was a slog. Some of the items felts implemented to highlight the controller than actually open up options for the player, or just straight up replaceable. There are some very high highs in SS relative to the rest of the game - the timeshift stones are creative, and I love the fights with Demise and Ghirahim - but it doesn't compare to the other games. In conjunction with the really bad parts that other Zeldas avoided, SS is unfortunately it for me.