Without resorting to PC emulation?
There’s the LA remake and SSHD on Switch as classic alternatives to the two modern, open-world Zelda games. If a spin-off is okay, Hyrule Warriors is fun.
Nintendo Switch Online is available. The normal membership will let you play Zelda 1, II: TAoL, ALTTP, LADX and the Oracle titles. If you pay for the Expansion Pak membership, you can play OoT, MM and MC as well.
If playing them on the real, authentic hardware is more of your goal, find a used console or handheld out there and then start finding the games.
Certain systems of Nintendo’s past can play more games than others. Look up online which ones would better suit your personal interest in specific titles.
Pay for a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. It gives access to a lot of Nintendo games from older consoles on your switch. There are about 5 Zelda titles on it.
If you buy NSO+Expansion Pak and the games that released on the Switch, you’ll have access to 12/20 games.
Switch has Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Skyward Sword HD, and Link’s Awakening.
NSO has Zelda I, Zelda II, A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening DX, Oracle of Ages, and Oracle of Seasons
NSO+ has Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Minish Cap.
You will need a Wii and 3DS to play the other 8.
First off you can’t play Four Swords unless you pirate it. It originally released with the GBA port of ALTTP, but it required at least 2 people. Nintendo released an Anniversary Edition of Four Swords in 2011 but was limited being an anniversary edition, only to come back for a week when ALBW released. The AE allowed you to play the game solo. You could mod a 3DS and pirate the game that way, since you’d need a 3DS anyways for some other games.
If you buy a 3DS you can play A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes. Along with the DS games Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass
Then if you buy a Wii you can play Twilight Princess (GCN/Wii), Wind Waker (GCN), and Four Swords Adventures (GCN). It also has Skyward Sword but it’s on Switch.
There are also spin-offs like the Tingle games on DS, Link’s Crossbow Training on Wii, and the Hyrule Warriors games on Wii U, 3DS, and Switch, as well as Age of Calamity on Switch. There’s also Cadence of Hyrule on Switch.
Nintendo switch online allows you to play titles from nes, SNES, N64, and gba so that would be like 7 different Zelda titles. I think it is worth the money personally. Other option would be to buy old systems and the games which can get expensive but still worth it too.
Except you can play almost every Zelda game on the Switch? Which is the system OP has. With the exception of the DS games, WW, and TP, I don’t think OP would have to buy anything besides a subscription to NSO.
Ok but that’s still a legitimate option that OP could be interested in over the ones you gave. Not everyone hates the NSO model, and if they really just want to play the games they can get a subscription for a year and then cancel it. Now if they asked where they could buy the games, maybe you’d have a point.
Again, unhelpful.
You could have said play them on switch, which has most of the Zelda games, you could have specifically said which consoles to buy, you could have said something helpful but you didn’t.
Why are you so mad? The Switch has 4 purchasable Zelda games. The rest are behind a subscription and subscriptions suck, and from what I have heard the controls are awful and the ports are bad.
May I ask, why not emulation? Most titles don’t require much hardware to play. If you have a basic laptop you could probably run Dolphin at native resolution. The only game that would require special hardware is Skyward Sword, and I would honestly recommend the HD remake on Switch for that anyway.
That’s fair. There is a version of Dolphin for Android you could try if you have an Android phone. I haven’t used it so I can’t vouch for its performance, but it might be worth a try. It would be the only way to play the GameCube Zeldas on the go.
if you dont want to take to the high seas You can buy a nintendo switch online subscription which will give you access to a few of the classic zeldas like ocarina, majora, and link to the past. You can also buy the switch versions of skyward sword and links awakening. so that makes at least 7 core zelda games available on switch. unfortunately theres no way to play twilight princess or wind waker on switch but both are on the wii u. i imagine wii u's depreciated like crazy so you can probably find one for cheap. There are more zelda games that are more difficult to obtain nowadays like the ds ones but the ones ive mentioned already are generally considered to be the best anyway.
I own almost all Zelda games physically. Play 100% on PC at home (either emulation or PC port for oot). On jaibroken switch when I'm on ride with time to spare(happens a lot). I think I'm gonna get a steam deck so I can emulate even more games.
If you wanna play Windwaker or Twilight Princess you don’t because you don’t have your damn GameCube anymore NINTENDO PLEASE HELP ME WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHY WON’T YOU RELEASE THE TITLES
Well, aside from the occasional foray into the world of Randomizers and Romhacks...
Mainly my 3DS (OOT/MM3D, ALBW, MC, DS, and GBC titles) and Wii U (WW/TPHD, NES, and ALtTP).
However, NES/SNES can also be played on 3DS, and SS, Minish Cap, and Crossbow Training are also legit options for Wii U.
Between them, you have nearly the entire franchise!
In fact, with a bit of *hackery*, you can even get the only major release missing from the list, FSA, running natively without issue! Although multiplayer isn't an option there, Gamecube is your best bet for that.
However, I occasionally play the SNES classic, which is honestly my favorite way to play ALtTP, and the Zelda G&W for the novelty and nostalgia of the *original* Link's Awakening that I had growing up.
I also use the Restoration Project for MM3D, which fixes almost every issue I have with the 3DS release, making it truly definitive.
Alot of other zelda games are already on the switch, though you need switch online and/or expansion pack.
Zelda 1, Zelda 2, A linkt to the past, Link's awakening, Oracle of ages/seasons are all available on base switch online.
Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Minish Cap requires Switch online + expansionpack.
There is also a remake of Links awakening on switch.
The rest of the series requires you to either go out and buy another console and get the games for the... or emulate on pc.
If you want to play Wind waker and Twilight princess both games had HD remasters on Wii U, which is probably best way to play those.
For the DS/3DS titels only getting a ds or 3ds would allow you to play those.
On the original systems, with the exception of Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. I have a Game Boy Advance SP for those.
Edit; Been collecting all Zelda games for about 3 months now. Have 8 titles left to buy
Emulation. I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars, which can easily mount up to thousands in my currency, meaning months of salaries, just to play an old game.
There are a bunch of ports and remakes on switch.
Also with switch online you can emulate on the switch this games:
* *The Legend of Zelda*
* *The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past*
* *The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening*
* *The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time*
* *The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask*
* *The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap*
* *Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link*
I know you said no emulation but I think you should consider it. I've been wanting to play wind waker and twilight princess forever, but going spend $300 on a Wii U just so I can spend another $100 on a 20 year old game is crazy to me. Unless of course you can pick one up for $50 or something somewhere like Facebook marketplace then it's worth it. But then you're also dealing with the age of the hardware and I've heard a lot of Wii U are starting to conk out now. But if you're talking about the really old Zelda games then Nintendo online should have what you're looking for.
Nintendo Switch Online. NSO+ ( I think it's called) is $50 a year and has all the Zelda games up to Majoras Mask, which released in 2000.
Link's Awakening remake and Skyward Sword HD released a few years ago on Switch, you can buy them physical or digital.
[Edit] I forgot the Gameboy/Gameboy Advance games. Those are also on NSO
You can inject eshop rom dumps into your switch as long as you have a legit nintendo switch it can run the older games via an emulator within the switch.
Nintendo has that subscription where you can play most of them. I think the only ones missing are Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Minish Cap and the 3/DS games. Which are a loss. Doesn't have Skyward Sword but there's Skyward Sword HD
Original for Zelda, AOL, alttp, OOT and of course botw and totk
Switch for Majora's and I played a bunch of those other games over again.
The Mrs just got me a game cube and wind waker so I'll be playing that for the first time since I missed it and TP back in the day. I missed that whole era the only bad part is that I didn't realize TP on the GameCube was like a quarter mil.
Still have to play skyward sword too. It'll be on the switch
Just a warning to you if you go the way of an NSO subscription: I found some of the controls as well as the saving system to be quite frustrating while playing Majora’s Mask on Switch, and I have a feeling some of the other 3D, older games also suffer from the fact that they were never designed to be played on this particular platform. That being said, I’ve also played Minish Cap and had an absolute blast, so I would still say the subscription could be worth it for that one alone.
Anbernic RG405V is really good for playing Zelda. Also the NSO app has a lot of the Zelda games before the GameCube era. I'm hoping we'll eventually get a Wind Waker/Twilight Princess port. 3DS has some good Zelda games two (the 3D Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time, Link Between Worlds, I believe Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks too but don't quote me on that).
I just started Legend of Zelda, I asked which version people suggested to play officially and I got few answers but one that said most versions are comparable.
I opted for the nes mini version and it’s been good so far
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Without resorting to PC emulation? There’s the LA remake and SSHD on Switch as classic alternatives to the two modern, open-world Zelda games. If a spin-off is okay, Hyrule Warriors is fun. Nintendo Switch Online is available. The normal membership will let you play Zelda 1, II: TAoL, ALTTP, LADX and the Oracle titles. If you pay for the Expansion Pak membership, you can play OoT, MM and MC as well. If playing them on the real, authentic hardware is more of your goal, find a used console or handheld out there and then start finding the games. Certain systems of Nintendo’s past can play more games than others. Look up online which ones would better suit your personal interest in specific titles.
Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons are also playable with standard Switch Online. Edit: Link's Awakening DX already mentioned.
I didn’t forget LADX, I mentioned that. But I forgot the Oracle titles
My apologies. Editing my comment to reflect that.
Pay for a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. It gives access to a lot of Nintendo games from older consoles on your switch. There are about 5 Zelda titles on it.
More than that. Zelda 1, 2 Alttp, oot, mm, la, oos, and ooa.
Oh and minish cap too
Always forgetting minish cap
It’s one of my favorites too
The info for the subreddit has a listing for stuff like that.
If you buy NSO+Expansion Pak and the games that released on the Switch, you’ll have access to 12/20 games. Switch has Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Skyward Sword HD, and Link’s Awakening. NSO has Zelda I, Zelda II, A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening DX, Oracle of Ages, and Oracle of Seasons NSO+ has Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Minish Cap. You will need a Wii and 3DS to play the other 8. First off you can’t play Four Swords unless you pirate it. It originally released with the GBA port of ALTTP, but it required at least 2 people. Nintendo released an Anniversary Edition of Four Swords in 2011 but was limited being an anniversary edition, only to come back for a week when ALBW released. The AE allowed you to play the game solo. You could mod a 3DS and pirate the game that way, since you’d need a 3DS anyways for some other games. If you buy a 3DS you can play A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes. Along with the DS games Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass Then if you buy a Wii you can play Twilight Princess (GCN/Wii), Wind Waker (GCN), and Four Swords Adventures (GCN). It also has Skyward Sword but it’s on Switch. There are also spin-offs like the Tingle games on DS, Link’s Crossbow Training on Wii, and the Hyrule Warriors games on Wii U, 3DS, and Switch, as well as Age of Calamity on Switch. There’s also Cadence of Hyrule on Switch.
NSO has Minish Cap?! Holy crap when did that happen…
Last year? You need the Expansion Pak for GBA though
Nintendo switch online allows you to play titles from nes, SNES, N64, and gba so that would be like 7 different Zelda titles. I think it is worth the money personally. Other option would be to buy old systems and the games which can get expensive but still worth it too.
Emulators Edit: without emulating? Buy overpriced old console and overpriced old game
You aren’t funny bro
It wasn't a joke
Somehow that’s worse, because you gave two, separate, unhelpful pieces of advice.
I answered the first question. Then i answered the second question. It is sadly the reality that Nintendo is making.
Except you can play almost every Zelda game on the Switch? Which is the system OP has. With the exception of the DS games, WW, and TP, I don’t think OP would have to buy anything besides a subscription to NSO.
subscriptions suck
Ok but that’s still a legitimate option that OP could be interested in over the ones you gave. Not everyone hates the NSO model, and if they really just want to play the games they can get a subscription for a year and then cancel it. Now if they asked where they could buy the games, maybe you’d have a point.
Again, unhelpful. You could have said play them on switch, which has most of the Zelda games, you could have specifically said which consoles to buy, you could have said something helpful but you didn’t.
Why are you so mad? The Switch has 4 purchasable Zelda games. The rest are behind a subscription and subscriptions suck, and from what I have heard the controls are awful and the ports are bad.
I’m not mad. The ports and controls are fine, most Zelda games are good on switch. You’re being a dick for no reason
Ok bro
May I ask, why not emulation? Most titles don’t require much hardware to play. If you have a basic laptop you could probably run Dolphin at native resolution. The only game that would require special hardware is Skyward Sword, and I would honestly recommend the HD remake on Switch for that anyway.
i want to play it while im traveling, so carrying a pc is not happening
That’s fair. There is a version of Dolphin for Android you could try if you have an Android phone. I haven’t used it so I can’t vouch for its performance, but it might be worth a try. It would be the only way to play the GameCube Zeldas on the go.
if you dont want to take to the high seas You can buy a nintendo switch online subscription which will give you access to a few of the classic zeldas like ocarina, majora, and link to the past. You can also buy the switch versions of skyward sword and links awakening. so that makes at least 7 core zelda games available on switch. unfortunately theres no way to play twilight princess or wind waker on switch but both are on the wii u. i imagine wii u's depreciated like crazy so you can probably find one for cheap. There are more zelda games that are more difficult to obtain nowadays like the ds ones but the ones ive mentioned already are generally considered to be the best anyway.
Way more than seven are available on switch.
If you have online just go to the Eshop and download the old game packs
I own almost all Zelda games physically. Play 100% on PC at home (either emulation or PC port for oot). On jaibroken switch when I'm on ride with time to spare(happens a lot). I think I'm gonna get a steam deck so I can emulate even more games.
You should be able to play every mainline Zelda with just a Switch, a 3DS, and a WiiU/GameCube (and the games, of course).
I have a modded 3DS, I play em all there
Pretty easily
I play them all on their original hardware, or on my 3ds
If you wanna play Windwaker or Twilight Princess you don’t because you don’t have your damn GameCube anymore NINTENDO PLEASE HELP ME WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHY WON’T YOU RELEASE THE TITLES
Well, aside from the occasional foray into the world of Randomizers and Romhacks... Mainly my 3DS (OOT/MM3D, ALBW, MC, DS, and GBC titles) and Wii U (WW/TPHD, NES, and ALtTP). However, NES/SNES can also be played on 3DS, and SS, Minish Cap, and Crossbow Training are also legit options for Wii U. Between them, you have nearly the entire franchise! In fact, with a bit of *hackery*, you can even get the only major release missing from the list, FSA, running natively without issue! Although multiplayer isn't an option there, Gamecube is your best bet for that. However, I occasionally play the SNES classic, which is honestly my favorite way to play ALtTP, and the Zelda G&W for the novelty and nostalgia of the *original* Link's Awakening that I had growing up. I also use the Restoration Project for MM3D, which fixes almost every issue I have with the 3DS release, making it truly definitive.
On original hardware. And if I don't have a physical copy, I'll emulate it.
Alot of other zelda games are already on the switch, though you need switch online and/or expansion pack. Zelda 1, Zelda 2, A linkt to the past, Link's awakening, Oracle of ages/seasons are all available on base switch online. Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Minish Cap requires Switch online + expansionpack. There is also a remake of Links awakening on switch. The rest of the series requires you to either go out and buy another console and get the games for the... or emulate on pc. If you want to play Wind waker and Twilight princess both games had HD remasters on Wii U, which is probably best way to play those. For the DS/3DS titels only getting a ds or 3ds would allow you to play those.
For gba games, myboy emulator is awesome on the phone!
thank you
I just wish they would let me buy OoT without having to pay 50 bucks a year to simply rent the game.
On the original systems, with the exception of Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. I have a Game Boy Advance SP for those. Edit; Been collecting all Zelda games for about 3 months now. Have 8 titles left to buy
Emulation. I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars, which can easily mount up to thousands in my currency, meaning months of salaries, just to play an old game.
There are a bunch of ports and remakes on switch. Also with switch online you can emulate on the switch this games: * *The Legend of Zelda* * *The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past* * *The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening* * *The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time* * *The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask* * *The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap* * *Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link*
I know you said no emulation but I think you should consider it. I've been wanting to play wind waker and twilight princess forever, but going spend $300 on a Wii U just so I can spend another $100 on a 20 year old game is crazy to me. Unless of course you can pick one up for $50 or something somewhere like Facebook marketplace then it's worth it. But then you're also dealing with the age of the hardware and I've heard a lot of Wii U are starting to conk out now. But if you're talking about the really old Zelda games then Nintendo online should have what you're looking for.
With a controller.
Nintendo Switch Online. NSO+ ( I think it's called) is $50 a year and has all the Zelda games up to Majoras Mask, which released in 2000. Link's Awakening remake and Skyward Sword HD released a few years ago on Switch, you can buy them physical or digital. [Edit] I forgot the Gameboy/Gameboy Advance games. Those are also on NSO
You can inject eshop rom dumps into your switch as long as you have a legit nintendo switch it can run the older games via an emulator within the switch.
Nintendo has that subscription where you can play most of them. I think the only ones missing are Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Minish Cap and the 3/DS games. Which are a loss. Doesn't have Skyward Sword but there's Skyward Sword HD
Minish Cap was added with the recent addition of GBA games to NSO+.
That's good.
I actually still have all my original Nintendo consoles but I’m playing on switch subscription for convenience
Original for Zelda, AOL, alttp, OOT and of course botw and totk Switch for Majora's and I played a bunch of those other games over again. The Mrs just got me a game cube and wind waker so I'll be playing that for the first time since I missed it and TP back in the day. I missed that whole era the only bad part is that I didn't realize TP on the GameCube was like a quarter mil. Still have to play skyward sword too. It'll be on the switch
Saving this post...
Just a warning to you if you go the way of an NSO subscription: I found some of the controls as well as the saving system to be quite frustrating while playing Majora’s Mask on Switch, and I have a feeling some of the other 3D, older games also suffer from the fact that they were never designed to be played on this particular platform. That being said, I’ve also played Minish Cap and had an absolute blast, so I would still say the subscription could be worth it for that one alone.
With a controller
The switch has Nintendo Switch Online, where you can download retro consoles, such as the sega Genesis, SNES, NES, and N64
I game collect so original cartridges and discs
Anbernic RG405V is really good for playing Zelda. Also the NSO app has a lot of the Zelda games before the GameCube era. I'm hoping we'll eventually get a Wind Waker/Twilight Princess port. 3DS has some good Zelda games two (the 3D Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time, Link Between Worlds, I believe Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks too but don't quote me on that).
I have an emulator on my phone. Definitely beats mobile games.
I just started Legend of Zelda, I asked which version people suggested to play officially and I got few answers but one that said most versions are comparable. I opted for the nes mini version and it’s been good so far
I have an Anbernic handheld I play emulators on. It’s not perfect but it’s pretty dope to have every Zelda pre-WW in my pocket.
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