I haven't played any Zelda game until now because I've never had a nintendo console until recently. Now I've got a 3DS and a WiiU, where do I start?

I'm kind of inclined to go with Twilight Princess, I just like it's aestethic. Or do I need to have played previous games to understand the lore? All I know is that zelda isn't a dude.

I also heard some of the HD remakes managed to look worse than the original games, which ones do I avoid?

WiiU (including VC games):
Link To The Past > Minish Cap > Windwaker [HD remake] > Ocarina of Time > Twilight Princess [HD remake] > The Legend of Zelda > Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link

I never played Majora's Mask, but most people seem to place it between Windwaker and Ocarina.
I never played Skyward Sword because it uses the stupid WiiMote wiggle for sword attacks, though, beyond that, everyone says it's not very good.
I never played the portable ones (except the GBA one on VC included above).

Start wherever you want, they're all separate 'stories'.
I think originally there wasn't even a timeline for the series.

I dislike the graphical changes to Wind Waker, though of course it is a matter of taste.
You don't need to have played any previous Zelda games for any game in the series except one, just pick up Twilight Princess.

I came here to pretty much say this.

Get an emulator on PC and try them all. The ones i personally liked are the two titles for N64, Ocarina and Mask.

Hmm... Zelda 3 - A Link to the Past, from the eShop! (not sure it's there :s)

If it is not...

Twilight Princess HD for your WiiU seems the best pick, or Ocarina of Time on 3DS

I'd suggest OoT either on Wii U VC or 3DS depending on your preferences as a good starting point. Or you could go a step back and get a Link to the Past on either system's VC. I wouldn't recommend the NES ones as a starting point unless you are used to games from the mid-80s. I wouldn't recommend the GB(C) ones as a starting point, but you definitely shouldn't write them off as "some kind of handheld spinoffs". Link's Awakening is a masterpiece and the Oracle games are pretty great too.

I also wouldn't start later than OoT to be honest. WW and TP both rely a lot on coming after OoT so I don't know whether you'd appreciate them fully. Also I think TP was a pretty lacklustre game so I don't think it's a good representative of the series. There was a timeline at the beginning - Zelda II is a direct sequel and aLttP was a prequel. Even back then that relationship existed, it just wasn't important.

My experiences, for what it's worth:


NES Zelda: Really fun game. I finished it. It took me a long while.
NES Zelda 2: Really hard. I can't get anywhere in it.
Zelda 3: Didn't hardly play. I was turned off by it for some reason, but it's often considered the best 2D Zelda, if I'm not mistaken.

All the 3DS titles: Never owned a 3DS

Ocarina of Time: Simply and amazing game. I loved it. It uses the elements of NES' Zelda and gives them a bit more depth. The characters are all rather shallow compared to many other games, but their elemental qualities give them so much more meaning (almost like Greek gods -- you don't really know-know them, but they are elemental enough that you understand them and can get drawn into their story).

Majora's Mask: A direct sequel to Ocarina of Time. It has one of the hardest. most repetitive beginnings of any game I've ever played. But the reward is worth it. It's probably my favorite Zelda game. But it took me a while to even like it a little bit. Also, I was surprised at the potential emotional depth that was not capitalized.

Twilight Princess: I really enjoyed the game for a long while, but it ended up losing its appeal. It felt repetitive and overly drawn out. I never finished it.

All the others: I've played small bits and pieces, but that's it.


What I would do, if I have access to everything, is to play all of the games in order of their creation. Don't play them in "chronological" order (the most accepted chronology has some breaks in the tree and the chronology is actually better to learn after you play the games than before, IMHO).

When the game gets too boring and hard or crappy, learn a bit about it on YouTube then move to the next game.

Provided you have the Wii motion controllers for your WiiU, then I'd say start with Skyward Sword. Don't listen to what everyone says about the game, most people haven't even actually played it- they just think it's bad because it uses motion controls. Actually, it's one of the finest action adventure games ever made. The motion controls are directly proportional to in game moves and don't just replace a button press.

Also Skyward Sword is actually the Legend of Zelda origin story. It is a tough game though in some parts- I played it directly after Dark Souls and found the boss fights harder in Skyward Sword!

Twilight Princess is DULL.

My favorites are Zelda 2 and Majora's Mask. I also really like Link to the Past.

A few notes:

Zelda 2 is the oddball of the series. Unlike the rest of the series, it's a 2D platformer. One *really* nice thing about the game is that it doesn't waste your time (though be aware that the Japanese version has load times due to being released on a floppy disk).

Zelda 1 has traditional 2D gameplay, which is continued into Link to the Past. (If you play Link to the Past and like it, you might look at Link Between Worlds, which is similar, to the point of even having the same world map.)

Link's Awakening is still 2D, but note that the game is far more puzzle-focused and linear. It also is where you start to see annoying cutscenes (other than the one at ALttP).

Ocarina of Time is the first 3D game in the series. However, with the 3D comes more cutscenes, much slower gameplay, minigames, and, of course, the one think I hate most about the direction the series took, mandatory stealth sequences.

I've only ones I've properly played are A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, and the GB ones (Oracles and Links Awakening), but both aLttP and OoT were incredible games , so I'd not recommend missing them out, whatever you choose. The GB ones were great fun while I was playing them, but didn't really stick in my memory.
I'd suggesting skipping the first 2 games unless you're a hardcore gaming historian or something, though.

I should probably keep an eye on this thread for which I should play next, if it ever comes to that-unfortunately, I don't own (and probably don't plan to own) a Nintendo console beyond the ones I currently have (GB, GBC and GBA).

This seems to indicate I wasn't entirely wrong.

Also, don't start with the CD-I ones.

I tend to agree with this. If you *don't* have access to everything, or want a bit more freedom in picking a game, there are a few specific cases where you might want to stick to the order of release:

* Play Ocarina of Time before Majora's Mask. MM is a direct sequel to OoT; and although there aren't a ton of tie-ins story-wise, it will be helpful to have learned the general mechanics in OoT first.
* Zelda 2 plays quite differently to all the other games in the series, is by far the hardest of the games, and it's very safe to put it off for later, or even play it in bursts between other games.
* A Link Between Worlds is technically a sequel to A Link to the Past, as they're set in the same overworld (though quite far apart in terms of time), so you might want to play LttP first.
* If you're going to play the spin-off Hyrule Warriors, you might appreciate it more if you've at least played OoT, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword (since you'll know who people are). There are plenty of callbacks to other games too, though, so if you can do more before playing this, that might be a good idea.