Art Style In The Zelda Games

[DMiller]

Well I'm almost finished with Twilight Princess, and thought a discussion about the art style of the Zelda games was warranted. Most of the games have been incredibly artistic even when they weren't testing the technical limits of graphical capabilities at the time. Anyway, here's how I would rank the games:

1. Wind Waker
2. A Link to the Past
3. Link's Awakening
4. Twilight Princess
5. Majora's Mask
6. Minish Cap
7. Ocarina of Time
8. Oracle Games
9. Adventures of Link
10. Legend of Zelda

I think the art in Wind Waker blows them all away, and I only wish the difficulty had been up to par with TP. I kind of group LttP and LA together as the art style for both games is very similar, but those two games are what I think of when I think of 2D Zelda. The twilight realm in TP is very cool, and the characters all have distinct personalities without even talking to them. This is similar to Majora's Mask. Minish Cap had a cool style, but I prefer the style from LttP and LA. OoT was obviously a great advance for the Zelda series, but while the game was incredible I don't think it compares artistically to some of the other Zelda games. Of course, it is still leagues beyond most other games out there, but Zelda games have a higher standard when it comes to artistry.