Every Mainline Console Zelda Game Ranked

2. A Link To The Past

While A Link To The Past might not have as much personality or charm as its 3D counterpart (having been released before the revolutionary Link's Awakening), the series' only SNES outing established the formula for more or less every other Zelda game since, not least Ocarina of Time.

Refining the gameplay of the original 1986 title, Link To The Past introduced the series' undefeated overworld-dungeon structure, giving Link tangible tasks to accomplish while traversing the overworld, rather than presenting a blank map to be explored at a player's whim with little in the way of guidance.

Shaping the franchise lore with concepts such as the Master Sword and Dark World (parallel worlds of some description have appeared in too many Zelda titles to count), A Link To The Past is without a doubt the most influential title on this list. After all, without this game, there'd have been no Ocarina of Time, and 3D gaming as we know it might have followed a different path altogether.

But A Link To The Past takes the penultimate spot here for more than just its legacy. Like its cousin Super Metroid, Zelda's third title improved on the original in every way, providing flawless and fluid no-frills gameplay that is still enjoyable to this day. Each of the game's items feel as though they have a distinct purpose, the game's pacing is immaculate (kicking off with a cinematic scene that sees Link storming Hyrule Castle in the middle of a, um, storm), and the dungeons vastly improved on those of the original.

Though its formula has since been expanded, A Link To The Past remains the most pure and refined, and downright enjoyable, Zelda experience, an almost thirty-year-old game that still looks great to this day.