What is the most fulfilling top down Zelda to complete (and play?)

I personally enjoyed A Link Between Worlds the most, despite it being easy and short, but the others will always have a very special place in my heart. If you enjoy one, play all. Also, you forgot Minish Cap. Great game as well.

Most people will not vote for the DS games. I enjoyed them (a lot, actually), but way too many here categorize them as the worst of the series.

My favorite is Link's awakening, followed by Oracle of Ages. Both are awesome.

Phantom Hourglass was mediocre for one reason: Temple of the Ocean King. Without it, the game is actually really, really great, but that one flaw nearly killed the game for me. Everything else was really well designed, though. Spirit Tracks was really awesome, though, easily one of the best, naysayers be damned.

the NES one :P

A Link Between Worlds because it was the only one that I played to completion and enjoyed.

Can't leave out Minish Cap for GBA! While ALttP will always be my favorite, Minish Cap is highly underrated and under appreciated.

I'm in the middle of ALBW and Awakening right now, both are REALLY good too.

And I agree with Turtle... The Temple of the Ocean King ruined Phantom Hourglass. Couldn't even finish the game because I just couldn't bring myself to go through it again...

Link Between Worlds is overrated a bit. Don't get me wrong, it was really good (especially liked the open ended exploration) but people calling it the best 2D game in the series are wrong. It's very easy (even for Zelda standards), which was the biggest issue. None of the dungeons (including the final dungeon) took me more than 30 minutes to complete. But yes, Link's Awakening and Minish Cap are both amazing. LA is my favorite 2D game, and Minish Cap easily has the best production values on the GBA (graphics are jaw dropping with their animations and stuff).

Glad someone agrees with me about the Ocean King. I've heard a lot of people say that it's not that bad, but it actually is. Like I said, it nearly ruined the game for me. It got to the point where I actually dreaded finishing a dungeon because I knew I'd have to go through that goddamn dungeon another time.

Minish Cap is the best that I've played, but there I still have a few to get through.

Spirit Tracks had the same problem. They tried to streamline it, but it was still the same fundamental problem, a boring central dungeon that must be revisited every time an objective is completed. That's just one of the reasons why Spirit Tracks was a game I found to be worse than Phantom Hourglass.

As for which is the best... I'm currently playing Zelda II and it's really fulfilling to progress in that game although only the world map is top-down. My favorite is still aLttP though.

@turtlethetaffer: I agree ALBW is pretty easy. Got stuck a few times in dungeons but nothing too serious. I'm still really enjoying it nonetheless.

Hard to pick. I enjoyed Oracle of Ages the most I believe but I love them all.

But the thing about the central dungeon in ST is that none of the content is repeated. You don't need to play through all the challenges you've already beaten to get to the new stuff after every dungeon.

I know we've already had this discussion before turtle, but my problem wasn't the repetition of the central dungeon in PH because each time to get to the new rooms was faster than the last because I could cut my time down for each route because I knew what route to take and the solutions to the puzzle. The problem with the central dungeon was the concept of going back over and over to the same dungeon after a main story event was finished and the drab theme of the dungeon.

In Spirit Tracks those issues weren't removed, and while I didn't have to retread my tracks like in PH upon each entry in the dungeon, there were more floors to the temple of spirits (I think there's about 30 while in TotOK there are 14).

You just cant beat the classic quality of a link to the past, its fun and always will be. The other games lack point, rhyme, and reason.