Legend Of Zelda: Ranking Every Ganon From Worst To Best

There’s a trope in pop culture franchises wherein an exciting new baddie will wreak havoc and turn the hero’s life upside down, appearing to be an unstoppable force. Then, just as the hero finally turns the tables, they reveal that they were merely a puppet for the series’ mainstay villain. Any guesses as to which giant pig monster popularised this cliche?

A Link To The Past is a fantastic game, remaining the favourite for many Zelda fans, but really, was there any need to chuck Ganon into the mix? For much of the game, Link matches strength with the wizard Agahnim. He’s sinister, he has intriguing motives, he more than does the job.

After a while, though, Nintendo play their trump card: Agahnim is, in fact, Ganon himself! (Though in some translations, he’s a pawn or servant of Ganon; even the creators don’t seem quite sure on this one.) The game then proceeds as normal: scale the tower, fight the demon, save the day.

There’s far more to A Link To The Past than Ganon, of course, but Nintendo had the perfect opportunity to set up a whole new threat, and instead they stuck to what they knew. It did the game little harm - but set up an unfortunate trend.