This year marks the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, a franchise beloved by fans and critics alike. Since its start in 1986, The Legend of Zelda has consistently delivered innovative and popular games, beginning with a groundbreaking adventure on the NES that set the stage for decades of success.
In 2026, The Legend of Zelda series will celebrate its 40th anniversary, and many fans are revisiting old favorites or discovering games they haven’t played before. If you’re new to Zelda and not sure where to begin, a good place to start is with the highest-rated titles on Metacritic. Impressively, 16 different Zelda games have earned scores of 90 or higher on the site, making it a consistently excellent series.
Seriously, if you’re looking for top-tier games, you can’t go wrong with Zelda. Ocarina of Time actually holds the highest score on Metacritic – a crazy 99! But it’s not alone; Breath of the Wild is right up there too, and it totally changed things up for the series with its huge open world. And get this, The Wind Waker with its awesome art style is also a 96, as is Tears of the Kingdom, which builds on everything Breath of the Wild started.
List of the Best Zelda Games
- Ocarina of Time – 99
- Breath of the Wild – 97
- The Wind Waker – 96
- Tears of the Kingdom – 96
- Majora’s Mask – 95
- Twilight Princess – 95
- Collector’s Edition – 95
- Tears of the Kingdom: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition – 95
- A Link to the Past/Four Swords – 95
- Ocarina of Time 3D – 94
- Breath of the Wild: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition – 94
- Skyward Sword – 93
- A Link Between Worlds – 91
- Ocarina of Time Master Quest – 91
- Phantom Hourglass – 90
- The Wind Waker HD – 90
Most of these Zelda games are playable on Switch and Switch 2, with these exceptions:
- Twilight Princess
- Ocarina of Time 3D
- A Link Between Worlds
- Ocarina of Time Master Quest
- Phantom Hourglass
- The Wind Waker HD
All of the main 3D Zelda games have received excellent scores, with even the lowest-rated, Skyward Sword, scoring a 93. While some players found Skyward Sword repetitive and disliked its motion controls, others enjoyed them, especially the swordfighting. Many fans also consider it to have some of the best dungeons in the whole series.
Even though Metacritic didn’t exist for the earliest Zelda games, several still have scores in the 90s, largely thanks to The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition. Released in 2003 for the GameCube, this special edition included the original NES Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Ocarina of Time, and Majora’s Mask, along with extra bonus content.
So, with the GameCube, you got a version of Ocarina of Time that actually included both the original N64 game and a tougher remix called Master Quest. Then there was A Link to the Past/Four Swords on the GBA – basically the SNES A Link to the Past but with the Four Swords game added in, which you could only play with other people.
The recent, well-received re-releases of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch have slightly increased the overall high scores for the Zelda series. Even without these newer versions and other re-releases, Zelda remains the most critically acclaimed video game franchise ever. This suggests that future Zelda games from Nintendo are likely to also receive very high ratings, and fans will be eager to see what Nintendo creates next.
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2026-02-20 23:34