The Legend of Zelda Face-Off: Which Game Is the Best?

It may be hard to believe, but The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is only a few days away and will finally bring the long-awaited sequel to 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to Switch owners worldwide. However, we know the wait for May 12 is still a tough one, so we thought one of the best ways to make that a bit easier was to have you help us decide what the best Zelda game of all time is before we jump into Link’s latest adventure.

Do you think The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time deserves the top spot? How about its sequel Majora’s Mask? Maybe Breath of the Wild rose above all others to claim that special place in your heart? We’ve selected 18 of the best The Legend of Zelda games to “Face-Off” against each other two at a time, and you’ll have to make the tough choice between them to help us crown a winner worthy of the Triforce. Will you choose Skyward Sword over A Link to the Past? Twilight Princess over the original? The choice is yours…

Oh, and there is a very good chance we will bring this Face-Off back after we’ve all had some time to dive deep into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to see how it stacks up against the rest, as it will be fun to compare how the results differ!

(And don't forget, you can pass on a Face-Off round if you don't know a character by just hitting "skip" at the bottom of the page.)

Click here to start voting in The Legend of Zelda Face-Off!

What Is a Face-Off?

Like the name suggests, a Face-Off pits two things against one another and you decide which one is the superior of the two. In this case, you are voting to determine what the best game in The Legend of Zelda series is. It's possible to see certain games multiple times, so you can keep voting for your favorites to ensure they get ranked higher than the rest. IGN's resident team of Zelda experts pre-selected 18 games for you to choose from. These get randomly paired up and each time you pick a winner, it's tracked.

How Is the Winner Determined?

When voting ends on May 11, the day before The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrives, we’ll tally up the total number of "wins" and "losses" each Zelda video game has and create a ranked list based on your choices that will go live on May 12. The game that won the most match-ups will be crowned the "winner," and in the event of a tied number of "wins," the game with the least "losses" will take the top spot. If you continue to keep voting for your favorite game, they'll have a better chance of ranking high on the list. You can vote as many times as you want until the Face-Off closes.

How Do I Know When I’ve Clicked Through Everything?

It's difficult to know when you've seen every Zelda video game included because they are matched randomly, and there are many possible match-ups. Playing until you vote for all your favorites or ensuring that certain games don't get in the winner's circle are different options you can take with a Face-Off. By deciding the winner throughout all these match-ups, you're ensuring that your picks for the best Zelda video game will have a fighting chance to reach the top of the list.

Which The Legend of Zelda Video Games Have You Included?

The list of games from The Legend of Zelda series we’ve chosen all come from the mainline Zelda games we all know and love. This includes everything from the original back in 1986 to 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on all platforms, but it does not include separate entries for remakes/remasters. This means Ocarina of Time for N64 and Ocarina of Time 3D for 3DS are all the same entry, so you can consider all of that when you make your vote! We’ve also not added spin-offs like Age of Calamity: Hyrule Warriors, games where Zelda characters show up like Super Smash Bros., or the hilarious Philips CD-i titles like Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. We wanted to focus this Face-Off on the main series so we can truly see what IGN’s audience believes is the best Zelda of them all.

Click here to start voting in The Legend of Zelda Face-Off!

For more, be sure to check out IGN’s list of the best The Legend of Zelda games of all time, our hands-on preview of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and five reasons why we believe Tears of the Kingdom is more than just a sequel to Breath of the Wild.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.