Legend of Zelda! (& life update lol)

SO GUYS, I have a confession to make:

I've never played any of the Zelda games. Ever.

The thought dawned on me when I was playing as Toon Link in Super Smash Bros Brawl, taking a break from my main, Pikachu. I did pretty well with him, and he's more useful as Pikachu. As I battled a L8 Zelda and Link in a free-for-all battle, I was able to beat them both. Then I thought to myself: "I really should get myself into the series." Honestly, I am more of a Mario fan than any of the Nintendo game series.

So...for those of you who are Zelda gamers (or Zelda fans, I should say)...which game should I start first? It doesn't matter if I have to start from the older games...as long as I can learn more about the franchise! Gonna get back into gaming finally lol xD

Okay, so... life update kinda: Almost 5 weeks left till the semester ends, and after this week, I'm about to enter the brutality that is FINAL EXAMS. Those are during the first week of December, but I've been given a ton of papers to write, and projects to do. So I've been doing those and getting those out of the way :D

Also, I've started NaNoWriMo for the first time and because of schoolwork, I'm stuck at almost 2000 words in my story and there is nooooo way I'll get it done in time. xD But I think I'll manage, at least it keeps me busy while I'm not MSN/IRC/skyping anyone during the time. But I also blame roleplaying too because I roleplay too much nowadays.

I've played almost every Zelda game with the exception of Spirit Tracks, Zelda II, and The Minish Cap. It along with Pokemon and Halo are the three franchises that pulled me into loving video games.

As for what you should play, it really depends. If you prefer Mario style games, I'd suggest the very first one or A Link to the Past. Also if you prefer the more side-scroll element, Zelda II might be the one for you, though it does deviate the most from the Zelda franchise's general gameplay style. As there's so many of them and most (in my opinion anyway) lack a significant plot, you could probably go with just about any of them though.

Now, if you're looking for the more recent ones that add the third dimension as well as the most in-depth stories, MY personal favorites are Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess. However, I'd really suggest starting with Ocarina of Time or Skyward Sword for a 3D Zelda game, as they establish strong plot elements that are present in Majora's Mask (I mean heck, MM is a direct sequel to Ocarina), Twilight Princess, and even Wind Waker. The order here I'd suggest would be: Ocarina, Majora's, Twilight Princess (Gamecube version, as I dislike the clunky Wii controls for it), Wind Waker, and finally Skyward Sword.

Also: good luck with finals. I too am about to hit the final stretch in about two weeks, where I'm gonna have to buckle down and really get crap done eue

I'm the same Meganium. GO Mario!!

Stand Alone linked me to this post, and I've got an addition to make as a Zelda-gamer myself.

While agree mostly with what Stand Alone said, I would also like to suggest the Oracle (Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons) games. They're "easy" to get into and they have a lot of dungeons/puzzle solving/enemy defeating stuff that made the Zelda series so popular.
If you're looking for a game that has a nice story as well as gives that typical Zelda game with more advanced graphics (GBA), I would suggest going for Minish Cap.

Minish Cap is what got me into the Zelda-universe, so I would deffinitally recommend it.

Kotowari is right, that if you want an easy start, the oracle games are probably a good starting point, though going from the games I myself enjoyed the most, A Link to the Past and Wind Waker are both fun games with an ok difficulty. Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are definitely two of the best games in the series, although they've got hard and annoying puzzles at points, and I did the mistake of starting out with those games and never really making it any far, so I don't know if they're any good to start with unless you're good with puzzle solving.

If you want to get into the story too, then Ocarina of Time would be a good game to start with, since the story going across most of the Zelda games centers in that one, and it'll help you understand a lot of things in the newer titles, which you wouldn't really otherwise.

Thanks so much, guys! Especially to Stand Alone and Kotowari. I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Any game that'll keep me busy and puts my brain to work will work for me. :D I appreciate all the suggestions! ^____^