1.) Wind Waker
Number one because it's the one that started it all. The series was cohesive until WW came along and the series has been divisive ever since. WW was where Ninty lost their perspective, and since then - with a lamentably brief return to form with TP - they've only been getting more and more hopelessly lost.
3.) Breath of the Wild
You must be thinking, "Where's Suckward? How can Suckward not be number one or two?" Patience, we'll get to that. Breath of the Wild tried to reign it in and return to the series open world roots. Ninty was paying some bit of attention to that at least. But they forsook all other essential aspects of the series and just ended up turning the game into another bi-yearly Ubisoft game anyway.
3.) Zelda II
"What? Still no Suckward? Castle have you gone MAD???" Well, yes. But that's beside the point. You see, Zelda II is a good game and more than that an honest to god Zelda game. So what if it had side scrolling segments? So what if it had experience points? It is in every respect every bit a sequel to its predecessor and directly in line with the series natural progression moving forward. There's nothing essential about it that makes it any different to any other Zelda game at that point, nor at all remarkably different from the later entries in the series to follow (for a brief time at least before ninty got horribly lost).
Still, Zelda II was polarizing in its day and there was a time when it was considered the only black sheep in the series. *sigh* If only it had remained as such...
4.) Spirit Tracks
"Castle, you're screwing with us." Usually, but hush now. I was considering not even including ST on this list and just listing it separately as a "dishonorable mention" on account of it not being a Zelda game in any conceivable form or fashion. Well, that's fair especially in light of the point I am about to make in regards to Suckward. But I feel like ST is just such a perfectly minor and inconsequential blip in the history of the Zelda series that it can be easily overlooked for having no real lasting impact, unlike the stinking beacon of a dumpster fire that is...
5.) Suckward Sword
WTAF does Suckward have to do with Zelda? Anything? Anything at all? No. Of course not. It's a story based on a stupid inconsequential premise that for how simple and meaningless it is somehow manages to tear up established lore in ways that have done irreparable harm to major essential components of the series. Zelda isn't even a freaking princess for the first time ever. Demise utterly obliterates Ganondorf as a character. The games stylings veer so far away from the series it cannot even be considered spun off from established series trappings. The game isn't even set in Hyrule in name only. Even Waker's Great Sea had the sense to consider itself vastly removed from Hyrule and not pretend like it has anything to do with it (insufferable shoe-horned tie-in backstory notwithstanding). And that's before we even get to the gameplay, which doesn't even superficially compare to any way in which any Zelda game has ever played before. Even Wind Waker felt like a Zelda game to play, even if nothing else about it looked or read like a Zelda game.
Suckward is so far removed from anything having to do with the Zelda series that it for all intents and purposes cannot even be compared to a Zelda game. More than that, it's just a cruddy game at all. Wind Waker, simplistic as it is, is a decent game. Suckward sucks. In all respects. Suckward isn't polarizing. If anything it's the one game everyone can agree on the most. It sucks.
