By: Daniel "DSCUBED" Friedlaender
Our oft-contributing friend, Mr. Andrew Caplan, is at it again. This time, as we approach the release of Skyward Sword, he takes a look at some of the most most memorable Zelda games and stages. However, he does this from the perspective of their music, an often overlooked quality that makes a particular stage, above and beyond its graphic design, stand out in one's head.

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By Andrew Caplan
To celebrate the release of Zelda within a month I have written this article. This time I put together a top ten list of the best Zelda music of past and present (well actually the most recent past). This is what I came up with:

Honorable Mentions:
Hyrule Field (OoT)
Shadow Temple (OoT)
Twinrova (OoT)
Hidden Village (TP)
Title Screen (LoZ)

Top Ten
10. Kakariko Village (OoT)
9. Fairy Theme (LttP)
8. Horse Race (OoT)
7. Hyrule Castle (ZII)
6. Temple of Time (OoT)
5. Dragon Roost Island (WW)
4. Astral Observatory (MM)
3. Gerudo Valley (OoT)
2. Zora’s Domain (OoT)
1. Water Temple (OoT)

Discussion
The Legend of Zelda has impacted my life in many positive ways, but Ocarina has most of all. So it only makes sense that I chose most of the songs from it. Why not more from the retro Zelda games? To be honest, I was not raised on them (I didn’t have any sentimental feelings from these games.) I decided to only choose one song from Majora’s Mask and Wind Waker, however they were very high on my Top Ten. Both MM and WW had few very great songs in the entire game, but these two songs were my home run hitters from both games. This brings me to Twilight Princess. If I graded TP by its music I would give it a C-. The only stand out song from TP was Hidden Village. Although TP was a let down music wise it made up for it with the game play. A dungeon as the top Zelda song? Why not? People overlook the brilliance of the music in dungeons. Also, the Water Temple had the biggest impact on me as far as OoT goes. Hear me: the battle with Dark Link was the best aspect of the game.