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 Nintendo’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 this 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 to 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 BAD: Jabu Jabu’s Belly - Ocarina Of Time
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, searching for the exit.
15 GOOD: Moon Dungeon - Majora’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. Each 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: Tower 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 Gohdan, and eventually open a portal to Hyrule, 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 Tower - 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 using 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: Skull 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 uninteresting boss fight agianst 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 Deku Tree dungeon, and even obtain the Fairy Slingshot—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: Skyview 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 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 wouldn’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 GOOD: Palace 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.
6 BAD: Sand Temple - Spirit Tracks
The Sand Temple. How do we even start with this one? … firstly, the travesty that was 2009’s Spirit Tracks on the Nintendo DS was absurdly risky and it didn’t pay off in the slightest. After the semi-successful Wind Waker inspired title Phantom Hourglass on Nintendo’s mobile platform, Spirit Tracks took all the ingenuity of the Zelda team and through it under the bus—or the train in this case. The Sand Temple is the location of the Bow of Light, a must-have item in the fight against evil, but the real evil is an adventure game where 60% of your in-game time is spent travelling on tracks via train. And let’s not even get started on the fact that the titular princess of Hyrule is a freaking ghost. The Sand Temple is boring, the puzzles to gain access are childish, and the entirety of the experience is laughably poor.
5 GOOD: Deepwood Shrine - The Minish Cap
The Minish Cap is usually the answer I give when people ask me what my favorite Zelda game is. I know, I know, it seems like I’m just trying to be cool. But in all honesty, it is. It’s a refreshing tale, has a cast of interesting characters, and explores a Hyrule with meticulously small details (get it? … haha). The Deepwood Shrine is the first dungeon in the game and is forest-themed (like most first dungeons in Zelda games). The player obtains the Gust Jar during the trials, and defeats one of the Zelda franchise’s silliest bosses in The Big Green ChuChu pictured. It’s a frolicking good time and has some pretty strong puzzles for a first dungeon in a Zelda game. The Minish Cap isn’t a game that should be slept on, and I would highly suggest heading to the Deepwood Shrine prepared for an unforgettable experience.
4 BAD: Water Temple - Ocarina Of Time
It’s HERE! The Water Temple! The one Zelda dungeon that literally every player would include in their own list. And to anyone that wants to huff and argue about it, we’ve got two words for you: IRON BOOTS. For those of you that had to play this game through on your Nintendo 64 when it came out, I’m terribly sorry (I’m one of them). But this dungeon is so bad, and hard, that the developers actually made it easier when they re-released Ocarina of Time on the GameCube (Master Mode) and on the 3DS (remake). The 3DS’ touchscreen made for quick work of item switching, so it wasn’t a complete nightmare, but as the dungeon’s main gimmick is the wearing and removing of heavy boots to make Link sink, the start menu (and accompanied hatred) are burnt into the minds of those that played the original release.
3 GOOD: Level 1 - The Legend Of Zelda
This list really wouldn’t be worth its salt if we didn’t include the very first Zelda dungeon ever. The 1986 masterpiece that broke apart the world of gaming forever holds a very nostalgic ticket on the train to most of our hearts. And it’s here, alone in this confusing maze of screens that we find Level 1, the first instance of a dungeon in any Legend of Zelda game. It’s not the most intriguing, but it does house some secrets, and eventual series mainstays like the Boomerang and the Bow. Also known as The Eagle, Level 1 sees Link travel into an old tree (much like other games’ first dungeons) and so the story was set, and the adventures of Link within Hyrule were cemented in the annals of gaming history.
2 BAD: Hyrule Castle - Breath Of The Wild
Breath of the Wild shook the gaming world last year, and it may forever change the landscape of this beloved franchise forever. But one thing it failed to do was compel us through the final act. After hundreds of hours spent adventuring through the most robust and rich version of Hyrule ever, the game offers up to Link a completely skip-able final dungeon. That’s right. You can easily get directly to the main chamber of Hyrule Castle and fight Ganon in both of his forms without ever setting foot in the famed royal paradise. I would, however, suggest searching throughout the castle, as it holds many interesting collectibles, as well as unique items and rare gemstones. But come on Zelda developers! The climax of the most important and gigantic Zelda game ever should be astounding, not floundered.
1 GOOD - Literally Every Shrine - Breath Of The Wild
This one is a bit cheap, but we just couldn’t help ourselves. Breath of the Wild has one hundred and twenty shrines throughout its enormous map, and they are used to gain heart pieces and stamina chunks for Link to better prepare for the aforementioned anticlimactic final tout. What’s insane about the shear number of these shrines is that they never get boring. Whether it’s a tricky, head-scratching puzzle needed to even gain access to the shrine, or a finely-tuned puzzle within, each one of the shrines in 2017’s Breath of the Wild is unanimously the best thing that has ever happened to dungeons throughout the Zelda franchise. Even the dreaded “Test of Strength” shrines that pit you against a deadly Guardian of various strengths are enthralling. What a treat. And well worth the obsessive search for each and every one of them.
