The Legend of Zelda is often considered one of the most important, and influential, video game franchises of all time. It’s right up there with the Mario series.
Debuting on the Nintendo Entertainment System for homes in 1986, Link and his blight of mistaken identity began a long time ago. Since the launch of the original, simply named The Legend of Zelda, fandom has grown alongside the steady release of 19 main series titles across all of ꦛNinte𒊎ndo’s major consoles.
It’s been an amazing ride since the late 1980s and with last year's Nintendo Switch release, and the launch of Breath of the Wild, the future is assuredly bright for our tunic-clad sword-wielding adventurer. Part of the original Nintendo development team, the group behind the Zelda franchise are still mostly the original members, plus a ton more at thi🥀s stage, and continue to build on the universe they created so long ago.
Led by the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto, Link's fight as good against evil is a tale that will never fade. Fighting along side a groovy cast of characters, like Princess Zelda, Zora royalty, and now Champions of Hyrule, Link and his battle has brought many tears and yelps of joy to𒅌 gamers for decades. All seeking to rid Hyrule of Ganon (evil incarnate) and his gruesome band of Ghouls and Bokoblins.
The Legend of Zelda universe has spanned many mediums over♓ the years; including CD-games, Spin-off games, a TV Series, countless books and manga, Music, and board games. There’s even a travelling orchestra that brings the music of our beloved franchise to theatres across the globe.
Here is a list for the Zelda fans. The 8 dungeons Zelda has completely gotten wrong💃, and 8 that they got so right they will stay in our hearts forever. Enjoy.
16 ꦏ BAD: Jabu Jabu's Belly - Ocarina Of Time ﷺ
Oh boy. I really should have put this horrendous dungeon near the bottom of the list because it’s probably the worst dungeon in Legend of Zelda history, but there were some more obvious choices ahead of this one. Possibly the ugliest interior in gaming history, the Jabu Jabu’s Belly dungeon in Ocarina of Time—the titular title in the Zelda series—sees you (our hero Link) enter the stomach of an old fish in search for the Zora princess. Unfortunately for you, once you do find her this hideous dungeon becomes the bane of existence for gamers around the globe: a carry-and-fetch quest. Needless to say, the princess in question refuses to do the walking herself, making Young Link lift and carry 🍷her around while solving puzzles, seꦬarching for the exit.
15 GOOD: Moon Dungeon - Ma𓄧jora's Mask
After spending an entire game haunted by the sight of the killer moon with a face, knowing the destructive powers it possessed, and fighting the chime of time, Majora’s Mask has one of the coolest dungeons in Zelda history, The Moon Dungeon. Link travels up into the Moon where he is faces with not one, but FOUR dungeons within. E𒀰ach of the interior dungeons have puzzles that need to be completed by Link's acquired forms using the Deku Mask, the Goron Mask, the Zora Mask, and the Hylian Mask. In the game, travelling to the Moon Dungeons comes at a high tide of tension as you’ve just broken the Skull Kid from the grips of Majora’s Mask, and you chase him into the moon. What a game and what a pivotal moment in a lot of our childhoods.
14 BAD: Towerꦐ Of Gods - The Wind Waker
There is a lot of beauty to take in while playing The Wind Waker and, for many fans of the series, the shaken up formula was a sight for sore eyes at the turn of the century, and the height of Zelda fandom. The Wind Waker is like no other Zelda game (though some titles in the series have followed the art style since) and the same can be said for their intriguing dungeon designs. Everything except for the Tower of the Gods. Boring from the outside, and even more inconsequential from within. You have to complete a fetch quest to gain access to the tower, solve puzzles to fight one of the least entertaining bosses in the entire Zelda franchise in ꦦGohdan, and eventually open a portal to H๊yrule, to obtain the “slayer of evil” Master Sword. It may end well, but The Tower Of The Gods is a sludge.
13 ♎ GOOD: Ganon's 𓃲Tower - A Link To The Past
Let’s be honest, thought it’s technically the third game in the franchise, many people didn’t play the first few titles until after they were introduced to the plight of Hyrule in 1991’s Super Nintendo smash hit A Link to the Past. Luckily for the late 80s and early 90s kids, A Link to the Past has Ganon’s Tower, the final dungeon in LTTP (as it’s become affectionately known) and sees the climactic end෴ battle between good and evil. It’s just a masterpiece of usin𓃲g the tools you’ve gained over the course of the game thus far to solve puzzles and gain access to the Ganon fight. And what kind of list would this be, if I didn’t include a dungeon where Link has to use a flute to call a duck and jump through a hole in the roof of a pyramid looking structure to battle the demon pig himself.
12 BAD: Skul♌l Woods - A Link To The Past
Unfortunately for those same kids from the last entry, A Link to the Past also includes one of the least interesting dungeons and biggest let-downs in any Zelda game to date. There’s always something about the Dark World and in A Link to the Past it possesses the most atmospherically full experiences that the game has to offer. So, when it’s highlight dungeon (the Skull Woods dungeon) really does absolutely nothing special, and even slays a lot of the work that the environment artists put into the outside world, it’s heartbreaking. Making matters worse, the only thing you get from the third dungeon in the Dark World is the Fire Rod, which is everyone’s least favorite Zelda item. Adding more boring things to the pile of missed opportunities, the Skull Woods dungeon culminates with an extremely uninterestiꦏng boss fight agians🌠t a giant moth.
11 🍌 GOOD: Inside The Great Deku Tree - Ocarina Of Time
It’s not difficult to argue that Ocarina of Time is the pinnacle of the Legend of Zelda franchise (okay, maybe not anymore since the release of Breath of the Wild in the spring of 2017), but those that grew up playing each and every new Zelda game really took to the Nintendo 64’s title that brought Link and his strife into the 3rd dimension. So when we think of the best, or most important Zelda dungeons, the first trial after Link’s awakening in Ocarina of Time has to land somewhere near the top of it. The player (as Link) learns many things during their travels through the Great De✃ku Tree dungeon, and even obtain the Fairy Sli༒ngshot—one of the most used items in the entire game, as young Link anyway. It’s your first taste of a real dungeon at the series’ most inventive stage.
10 BAD: S🐻kyview Temple - Skyward Sword
Nothing gets you more ready for the completely devoid journey that is Skyward Sword like one of the most beautiful, but completely flat dungeons ever made in any action adventure game Skyward Sword wasn't exactly a masterpiece, so it’s simply a matter of picking one of the many dungeons throughout the game. We chose the first one as the least interesting because the start of Skyward Sword is the most torturous introduction to any Zelda game. So much so that the game became dormant on many a shelves because gamers, and Zelda fans alike, couldn’t get through it to continue the “high-flying adventure.” There’s a real tangible reason why Skyward Sword fell from the grace of fandom and the Skyview Temple is a🃏 big part of that.
9 ▨ GOOD: Yiga Clan Hideout - Breath Of The Wild
It’s hard to get around the serious tones of 2017’s Breath of the Wild, and a lot of what is included in the game lends itself to setting those tones and providing the player with some serious moral questions. But one dungeon in particular is pure delight and nearly comedic, the whole way through. In order to earn the favor of the Gerudo leader, and fight the Divine Beast Vah Naboris, you must retrieve her Thunder Helm from the Yiga Clan Hideout. In order to traverse the ninja maze, you must use bananas (because everyone loves bananas) to distract the most notorious killers in Hyrule, before battling with the witless Master Kohga in what Zelda fans can only refer to as the most Mel Brooks dungeon boss 𝓀💖in franchise history. It’s funny, and stealthy, and you get a helmet that makes you invincible to the dangerous weather in Hyrule.
8 ♔ BAD: Pirates' Fortress - Majora's Mask
Pirates are cool, right? Most people would agree. So when you find out that you have to sneak into and clear the Pirate’s Fortress in the Nintendo 64’s Majora’s Mask you’d rightfully get pretty excited. Except when you arrived, you were greeted with boring and muddled bad guys, and probably the least visually appealing dungeon ever. I’m not sure if it was a hardware limitation—although looking at the rest of Majora’s Mask, I wou🐷ldn’t let the artists or designers of this hideous fortress the break of chalking it up to that. It’s appalling. Throughout. They poorly use the Gerudo race, they throw no type of interesting boss at you, and they try to make up for it by gifting you (Link) with the Hookshot at the end. It’s a giant disappointment from the get-go.
7 ꧑ GOOD: Pꦅalace Of Twilight - Twilight Princess
Twilight Princess is widely considered the darkest (thematically) of all the Zelda games, and rightfully so. Both the environment and the gimmicks have a weirdly twisted slant to them, and it all sort of caught the gaming world off-guard, especially if you consider that it was the console follow-up to the cartoony Wind Waker. Perhaps the best example of ambient despair is the Palace of Twilight. After the player collects all the shards to the Mirror of Twilight, it opens up the portal to the Twilight Realm, where Link must face one of the Legend of Zelda’s coolest bosses ever: Zant. Completing the dungeon grants Link an upgrade to his Master Sword and the player an experience of a lifetime. The Palace of Twilight is ๊a highlight in this dark, and fascinating explorative adventure.