Well I understand it's hard to choose just one favourite for most people so I won't force people to vote for only one. Will do a quick count though at some point to get an idea of what is most people's fave. Rather than make a strict vote, they can just be topics for the thread from now on to keep discussion up.
For the longest time I've always said Majora's Mask is my fave Zelda, marginally. The departure from Ganon and the like was good for the series, and the dark and gloomy plot was welcoming and refreshing. They reused the same NPCs, but it gave us a better insight into their characters and personalities too. It was really interesting to delve deeper into the likes of Malon's self through Romani and Cremia, and see the fear, desire, drive and love come out of people in the events leading up to the destruction of the world. It really sent out messages to the player. And despite what people might think, there was a lot more going on with the story than first meets the eye, especially once you get to the moon and see the children with the masks.
But it wasn't just the story for me. It improved on what I think Zelda should be much more about, namely exploration and side quests. Dungeons will always be a big part of Zelda, but finding them and opening them is just as important, and has been since Zelda 1. I loved how much there was to do in between dungeons. It wasn't one dungeon after another; there was much more exploration and mini-dungeons of sorts before the big ones. And I can't forget the unique 3-day game mechanic either. Sure, it had its problems if you missed a specific event on the 3rd day and you had to rewind back to day 1 again, but for the most part, its completely new take on how to interact with everybody's daily schedules was awesome.
It's these reasons that I love MM so much and hope Skyward Sword is on a similar level.
That said, Wind Waker is very close behind. The freedom of sailing and the feeling you get is brilliant, and the cel-shaded graphics make this one of the most beautiful games in existence. Only thing that let it down for me was how easy it was, and was perhaps in need of a bigger piece of land and the extra dungeons that were cut. And despite it being Ganon/Zelda again, the story was really good.
Big shout outs to the Oracles games. Best 2D Zeldas and in dire need of another on the same level.
( Edited 20.06.2011 01:04 by Azuardo )