Foolz said:

I thought people weren't that into NSMB Wii U?

I've seen it be argued it's better. On some levels it might be right, but it's like some artists making a painting with superior tools that may look better but it didn't have the soul of what came before.

7. The Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening and A Link to the Past

While Super Mario Bros. was the first game I really ever played, it was The Legend of Zelda that was my first love. No other game is more responsible for my lifelong hobby of gaming than the first classic. It's a game I practically know by heart, a game I tend to play every two years or so (takes me about two hours to beat so no big deal), a game that created the ideals I hold most dear in games. Zelda was about adventuring, the spirit of going out into a bold fantastic world and fulfilling that heroes journey, growing as you went with new items and powers that helped you explore even deeper. It is the grandfather of the action adventure genre, mixing action, puzzle solving and exploration in a way never done before. Back then most games were no open ended, the few that were didn't have the fluidity in action Zelda had, it was a truly groundbreaking experience, one signified by it's glorious gold cover.

I can't recall when we first got Zelda. I can't recall the first time I played it. My memories mostly come from me replaying the game over and over and over again as I grew up. It is easily my most played NES game, while I admit SMB3 is the best NES game, Zelda 1 is my favorite. There was something about the structure of that game, the music, the look, I loved it all. I don't remember even learning its secrets, I guess I would watch my brother play or read Nintendo Power because as far as I remember I always knew where to bomb, where to burn what bush and how to find all dungeons. There were a few spots that would surprise me over the years, a place I missed or maybe forgot. Still my strategy with the game was always the same, I had a path I would follow and sequence of when to get what.

The beauty of the first Zelda game was it's freedom; it had the 9 dungeons and hidden items in each but you could do them in any order assuming you had the tools you need. It is possible to run to dungeon 8 early on and get the master key so that keys are never an issue again. This freedom made the game feel free in a way no Zelda game did until BOTW. The combat and puzzles were rather simplistic but they worked great at the time. A room full of darknuts was always terrifying, the final dungeon could be brutal but that's what made it so fun, later Zelda's became a cake walk, Zelda 1 challenged you. Every time I beat it I felt accomplished, every once and a while I would go for the super hard second quest which I did not know as well. There is something about Zelda that brings me peace, when I think of childhood memories a certain calm washes over me when I recall playing Zelda in my old room.

This is where things get weird with my history of Zelda. Being that I went the Genesis route I missed out on ALTTP despite it being the game I probably wanted to play most. I did have friends with it and I would play parts of it at a time. I would read magazines about all the new moves Link has, at how grand the adventure was, it looked like a dream game. But I didn't get to fully play it for many years. Meanwhile in the late 90s my sister goy a Gameboy color which I quickly made my own cause all she wanted it for was pokemon and a few games she hardly played. Link's Awakening had come out many years prior and again no Game Boy so I missed out but I did not miss out when Link's Awakening DX came out so LA was my next real Zelda experience, not ALTTP.

I was blown away at how incredible this game was. It took that simplistic NES Zelda formula and kicked it up a notch with a living breathing world, a whole cast of interesting and funny characters that sort of new they were in a video game. The game was quirky in all the right ways and had a sense of  energy to it that kept pushing you to the next area and dungeons. This game was the first to let the player choose what both items Link could use so it is possible to take away the sword and combine different items for new powers like the running shoes with the jumping cape, yes JUMPING. LA has some basic platforming, it even had side scrolling levels with Mario characters in it. All these powers came together in the great dungeons and excellent boss battles. To this day I feel LA is the best portable Zelda and is up there with the best the series has including ALLTP.

Just this past year we got to revisit Koholint island on the switch with the remastered version and it's still as great as it ever was. What a breath of fresh air to get a tightly designed game that lasts a good 12 hours and packs tons of great content with no padding. The remaster reaffirmed my love for this game, one of the all time greats.

Finally in the late 90's, before I fully got to play OoT even though it was out for some time I was able to borrow a SNES and play ALTTP from start to finish. Even though I was familiar with the game and even though we were already deep into the 3D era what I experienced is easily the best 2D action adventure game of all time. The presentation holds up today, a stormy dark night, a uncle killed, a hero being thrust into a grand adventure, it was Nintendo just showing off at how much better they were at making games than everyone else. That world map is so perfectly designed, sections just out of reach slowly open up like a perfectly paced book. All the new abilities work together with the world to make it feel like an interactive wonderland, knocking on trees for fruit, dashing into a bookshelf to knock down a book, diving into the river ways to find secret areas. It was all so fulfilling, the game simply plays like a dream and its designed like one too.

The core Zelda formula that basically every Zelda game adhered to until BOTW was created by ALTTP. Yes the game got a bit more linear but they still offered so many secrets and let you find your own way that the added structure vastly benefited the formula more than took away. The dungeons became a bit more themed, multistory puzzle factories filled with traps and always a new item that opened up a new gameplay mechanic for use all over the game. Bosses filled the screen in epic battles. Just when you feel wow this game is ending, oh it only just begun.

The dark world opens up a whole new map and a game wide shifting between two worlds. tons of new dungeons to complete, way tougher enemies, grittier environments, its the kind of twists that legendary games are made of.  This is the greatest franchise in gaming for a reason, because no matter the era, a Zelda game stood as the best of the genre. A Link to the Past is probably the tightest and most pure fun Zelda game to play. To me the greatest 16-bit game of all time.