Zelda Games of the 90s: A Beginner's Guide

The Legend of Zelda spent the 90s on two platforms at once: a console entry that's still widely cited as a genre highlight, a Game Boy adventure built for a much smaller screen, and a closing 3D entry that arrived right at the end of the decade.

Release order

• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (November 1991 Japan, April 1992 North America, SNES)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (August 1993, Game Boy)
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (November 1998, Nintendo 64)

Handheld vs. console adventures

Link's Awakening scaled Zelda's overworld-and-dungeons structure down to the Game Boy's screen and hardware, and became the series's best-selling handheld entry to that point. A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, on consoles, could support larger, more detailed worlds.

Puzzle and combat styles

All three games share the same core loop: explore an overworld, find item-gated dungeons, and use each new item to solve that dungeon's puzzles and reach its boss. Ocarina of Time adapted this into 3D with a targeting system (Z-targeting) built specifically to keep 3D combat readable.

Which to try first

A Link to the Past is a common recommendation for newcomers to the series's classic top-down structure: a self-contained story and a design that's still frequently cited as one of the strongest in the franchise. This is our framing, not a claim about sales figures.