3LL's 25 Favorite Legend of Zelda Songs

To me, the Legend of Zelda series is video games. Everything I love about video games and everything I feel videos games should be are characterized in Zelda. Unquestionably, it's my favorite series of all time. If you were to ask me my top five favorite games of all time, three of them would be Zelda games (A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask, in case you were curious which three). I've been playing games all of my life, and nothing invokes a more overwhelming sense of nostalgia in me than Zelda music. That's why, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda, I decided to compose a list of my 25 favorite song in the series.

Given the breadth and richness of the Zelda soundtracks, this was obviously no easy task. There are certainly a great deal of wonderful songs that I couldn't fit into this list, and perhaps even more that slipped my mind to even consider. I selected these songs not based on which I think are generally the best or greatest, but on which I have the deepest personal connection and reverence to; simply put, my personal favorites.

The name of each track is a link to a YouTube upload of the song. I only ordered the top ten songs, the rest are in no particular order.

#25 - #11, in no particular order

Mabe Village (Link's Awakening)

Realm Overworld (Spirit Tracks)

Hyrule Field (Ocarina of Time)

Ocean (Wind Waker)

Shop (Ocarina of Time)

Guessing Game House (A Link to the Past)

Overworld (Adventure of Link)

Title Theme (A Link to the Past)

Calling the Four Giants (Majora's Mask)

Windmill Hut (Ocarina of Time)

Game Over (Legend of Zelda)

Clock Town Day 3 (Majora's Mask)

Mini Game (Ocarina of Time)

Hyrule Field (Twilight Princess)

Opening Demo (A Link to the Past)

#10) Clock Tower (Majora's Mask)

More so than any other video game (much less Zelda game), Majora's Mask brings you into its world and compels you to experience every emotionally resonant trial and tribulation of its characters. Despair, hope, sadness, love, longing, loneliness, mortality, redemption, and much more in between. In one of the game's early moments, we are treated to this piece. You'll recognize the Song of Healing within it, which serves as a sonic and thematic motif for the rest of the adventure.

#9) Linebeck's Theme (Phantom Hourglass)

Link has had a lot of sidekicks in his quests over the years: Navi, Midna, and even Zelda herself. My favorite, though, is Linebeck from Phantom Hourglass. His theme is just like his character: boisterous and adventurous, but with an underlying goofiness. Even though his grandson, Linebeck III, makes an appearance in Spirit Tracks, hopefully we'll see the original show up in a game again at some point in the future.

#8) Kokiri Forest (Ocarina of Time)

Whenever I hear this song, I'm taken back to the first time I picked up Ocarina. Just running around exploring Kokiri was an amazing experience. It's a wonderfully care-free few moments before you have to leave Kokiri and the story expands considerably in both scope and stakes.

#7) Hyrule Castle (A Link to the Past)

All good video game music is supposed to set a certain mood, and this theme undoubtedly accomplishes that goal. It sounds just as you'd imagine an enemy stronghold would: imposing, with a militant drive that conjures up images of a conquering army. The song certainly adds a sense of urgency when you know you're in the middle of the castle, surrounded on all sides by guards.

#6) Kakariko Village (A Link to the Past)

A perfect town theme; calm, serene, and soothing. A welcome escape from the danger that seems to lurk around every bush of Hyrule. The tune is reprised a few more times in later Zelda games, serving as a de facto town theme, and it's great in every iteration.

#5) Dragon Roost Island (Wind Waker)

Wind Waker was such a departure from previous Zelda games that it took everyone a little while to accept it, much less love it. But once most people got a chance to play it, that's just what happened. The spirit of WW, I feel, is captured in the Dragon Roost Island theme. It's breezy, organic, and unlike anything you've ever heard before in a Zelda game. I defy you to listen to it and not find yourself whistling along (unless you can't whistle, of course).

#4) Palace (Adventure of Link)

Although Adventure of Link has gained a reputation as being the outcast game of the series, this song has endured as one of its finest. It's dynamic, and you can just feel the action in the music. The side-scrolling style of Adventure of Link emphasized action game elements a lot more than its predecessor, and the Palace theme certainly reflects that.

#3) Overworld (A Link to the Past)

What do I really need to say about this one? It's one of the most recognizable and iconic songs in video game history. In my opinion, it was never more powerful than in A Link to the Past, so that's the version I included on this list.

#2) Dungeon (Legend of Zelda)

The perfect sonic manifestation of exploring a dark and ominous cavern. It sounds like you're delving deeper and deeper into a winding labyrinth, which is accentuated by a foreboding sense of dread brought on by the the bass. No dungeon/temple/palace/whatever theme has yet matched this arrangement.

#1) Dark World (A Link to the Past)

An absolute masterpiece. My favorite song from my favorite game of all time. Powerful, iconic, exhilarating... there is no praise too hyperbolic for this song. Incredible.

There Is Indeed a Master Timeline to Zelda, Says Aonuma

Congratulations Hyrule historians, all of your countless hours of research and theory have not been in vain. A true master timeline to the Legend of Zelda series does, in fact, exist according to Eiji Aonuma. He says in a recent Official Nintendo Magazine interview, via ZeldaDungeon.net:

“Yes there is a master timeline but its confidential document!” explains Aunuma-san. “The only people to have access to that document are myself, Mr. Miyamoto and the director of the title. We cant share it with anyone else! I have already talked to Mr. Miyamoto about this so I am comfortable in releasing this information – this title [Skyward Sword] takes place before Ocarina of Time. if I said that a certain title was ‘the first Zelda game’, then that means that we cant ever make a title that takes place before that! So for us to add titles to the series, we have to have a way of putting the titles before or after each other.”

So there you have. Will the timeline ever be revealed to us? Probably not, but I'm sure a lot of Zelda fans will take solace in the fact that it exists at all.

Look Back: The Bosses of Zelda Twilight Princess

Last week at E3, we all got our first look at The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Wii. Technical issues during the press conference notwithstanding (I still feel bad for Miyamoto), it looked fantastic. With the next console Zelda on the horizon, it's a great time to take a look back at the last iteration of the great franchise, Twilight Princess, and its awesome boss battles.

Now, if you consider yourself a gamer of any credence, chances are you've played Ocarina of Time. Hopefully you have finished said game, in which case you've experienced the epic final showdown with Ganon. So far, nothing has come close to topping that as far as boss battles in Zelda games are concerned. However, if you consider all of the bosses throughout the game as a whole, I think you'd have to give the nod to Twilight Princess as tops among Zeldas. I mean, OoT is an amazing game certainly, but do you remember the water temple boss? The development team must have phoned it in the day they came up with that thing...

But, what I want to talk about here is Twilight Princess' bosses. They're easy to dispatch once you figure out their patterns/weakness, yes, but they are well-designed and make for some memorable moments. So with that said, let's take a look at some of those big bads:

Forest Temple - Diababa

To start things off, the first boss you encounter is this giant plant thing (technical term). It's pretty a decent take on the plant-type creatures that show up throughout Zelda games, though not exactly awe-inspiring as an ultimate embodiment of evil among floral folk. For a first boss, though, it wasn't bad at all. Use the gale boomerang to carry bombs over to it and wham-bam-boom, it's dead. Solid design, first dungeon, pretty good.

Goron Mines - Fyrus

First made famous for his appearances in E3 trailers and demos, this big burning dude is the next foe. For you Lord of the Rings fans out there, he's essentially a Balrog. Arrow to the face, drag his chains while weighted down with the iron boots, and he's a goner. Simple, easy, but the scale of this boss lends a certain level of epicness (another technical term) to the game that will build up as you progress.

Lakebed Temple - Morpheel

OK, now we're talking. This is where I think the quality in the boss designs starts to really pick up. It first appears to be some kind of lame squid thing, but after a couple of eye pokes, it busts out from under the sand and OH SHI-. There's definitely some inspiration taken from Majoras Mask's water dungeon boss, but this one dwarfs it in scale and impact. Swim around, clawshot onto its back, and take that sucker down. I think you'd have to consider this one of if not the best boss of a water dungeon in Zelda history. But the hits just keep coming, because next up...

Arbiter's Grounds - Stallord

... you come face to face with this dude. Seriously, this thing is huge. In an inspired use of the spinner gameplay mechanic, you ride around on the spinner until you get behind Stallord, then you launch yourself at its spine and knock it down a peg. After a couple of strikes, it crumbles and a giant pillar emerges from the ground. You head over to the, uhh, head, only to have it come back to life. This is where this boss gets even more awesome; you engage the skull in a high-speed chase while on the spinner, jumping from wall to wall as it tries to hit you with its fireballs. Really fantastic sense of scale with some great action to boot.

Snowpeak Mansion - Blizzeta

In this case, it's not the boss itself that makes this great; it's the means by which you take it down. With the floor covered in ice, you look at the reflection on the ice of Blizzeta to determine where she will strike. It also didn't hurt that you used the game's most awesome item, the ball and chain, to defeat it.

Temple of Time - Armogohma

For the boss of the famed Temple of Time, one of the most sacred and important places in all of Zeldadom, the boss is... a giant freaking spider! Somehow I was expecting more than a giant spider for the Temple of Time. What was it even doing in there to begin with? Well, I guess as far as giant spiders go, this was a pretty good one. It was bigger and badder than the one in OoT, and to boot, you use the dominion rod to have giant statues to crush it. Thumbs up for that.

City in the Sky - Argorok

Now, you knew who the boss here was the moment you launced up to the City when Ooccoo pointed out, you know, the immense dragon terroizing the rest of the Oocca, but that didn't detract from the battle. In fact, it actually built up a little bit of suspense and dread. Once you finally get up to the top of the structure, it's go time. In order to take him out, you have to double-clawshot your way up two of four skycraper-sized chain towers, then clawshot onto it and put on the iron boots to pull it down and break its armor. After that, floating plants will rise up and circle the middle of the airspace. Using those to Spiderman your way around the dragon (while he's shooting fireballs at you, BTW), you take him out in the same fashion as before. Best boss fight in the game, I'd have to say. Such an epic scale for a dungeon boss.

Palace of Twilight - Zant

Zant! The mighty Zant, the boss of bosses in Twilight Princess. Well, it's not quite the Zant we all came to know and loathe. Prior to your confrontation, he goes a little bit insane. It kind of makes the boss fight itself rather pitiful in a way that almost makes you sorry for the guy. There's some great irony in him being built up as such an ultimate badass, only for him to reveal that he's just a power-hungry average joe who was being used by Ganondorf in order to make his evil return. Still, it would have been cool to actually have a new villain in the Zelda series to save us from Ganon fatigue. Oh well...

I think I'm going to stop there for now, lest I get into too deep of spoilers for some of you out there. I know it's an almost four year old game now, but I've made my point by now, right? Twilight Princess bosses... good. Now, I do know that there's a bit of a controversy about the final boss fight, Ganondorf, and how it failed to live up to the expectations of some. So, possible material for a future blog post? Perhaps...