The Legend of Zeldais one of the most beloved video game series ever, thanks to its mix of thrilling combat, engaging exploration, and mind-boggling puzzles. Each Zelda game is also filled with minigames, some harder than others.
Minigames are essential to the Zelda experience, adding side challenges that reward you with crucial items, upgrades, or many Rupees. However, beating these minigames can be soul-crushing, given their steep difficulty. With that in mind, here are the ten hardest minigames in The Legend of Zelda series.
10Bombchu Bowling
Ocarina Of Time
InOcarina of Time’s Bombchu Bowling, you must use moving bombs known as Bombchus to hit far-away targets. These targets get increasingly harder to hit at each stage, as Blade Traps and Cuccos are added as moving targets that can explode your bombs.
What makes Bombchu Bowling particularly tough is how erratic Bombchu moves. These mobile bombs can also climb walls and the ceiling, changing their direction. So, since you only have ten bombs to hit all three targets, you must perfectly calculate the trajectory of the Bombchu and hope nothing gets in its way.
The best way to win the Bombchu Bowling minigame is to make your bombs move through the ceiling to avoid every obstacle.
9Cucco Wrangling
The Minish Cap
The Minish Cap has the hardest version of the Cucco hunting minigame in the entire series. There are ten difficulty levels that must be completed to get all the minigame’s rewards, each more complicated than the other.
In the first levels of The Minish Cap’s Cucco wrangling, a lenient timer and a surplus of birds available enable you to make mistakes. On the final levels, you’ll have to find all the Cuccos hidden in hard-to-reach corners of Hyrule Town while fighting against the clock in a race where every second counts.
The final stages of the Cucco Wrangling minigame can only be beaten if you have collected every main item in the game, such as the Pegasus Boots and the Flippers.
8Sinking Ships
The Wind Waker
Also known as Swuid Hunt, The Wind Waker’s Sinking Ships is the Zelda version of the Battleship board game. In the game, you have 24 shots to find four giant squids that are randomly hidden in a 64-square board. Each giant squid occupies four squares, which means you must make every shot count.
Since the position of the squids is random at each new match, winning the Sinking Ships minigame demands a lot of luck. To make this minigame even harder, the rewards you get depend on how many shots you have left after finding all the giant squids.
The Sinking Ships minigame is so famously hard that there’s even acommunity-created online toolto help you solve it by calculating the probability of each shot.
7Swamp Shooting Gallery
Majora’s Mask
Majora’s Mask Swamp Shooting Gallery has you struggling against the Nintendo 64-era rudimentary aiming to hit moving targets with your bow and arrow. In each match of this minigame, groups of Deku Scrubs, crows, and wolves will pop onto the screen. To win, you must react quickly and hit the targets before they disappear.
To get the last reward of the Swamp Shooting Gallery, you need to get a perfect score, hitting every single target in the match. Since aiming the bow and arrow is somewhat complicated, memorizing the target patterns can only take you so far, making this one of the hardest minigames in The Legend of Zelda series.
6Horseback Archery Drill
Breath Of The Wild
Breath of the Wild’s minigames reward no significant items,only cosmetics and extra Rupees. Yet, you will probably spend a long time trying to beat the Horseback Archery Drill for pride alone.
The concept of the Horseback Archery Drill is simple. While remaining on the back of a horse, you have a limited time to hit targets with an arrow. Dismounting your horse for any reason disqualifies you from the challenge, and you can only use the equipment you have with you at the time. Since arrows are pretty rare in Breath of the Wild, losing the Horseback Archery Drill means spending a valuable resource for nothing.
5Dodoh’s High Dive
Skyward Sword
Dodoh’s High Dive minigame inSkyward Swordhas you skydiving through colorful circles and landing on a spinning wheel. The spinning wheel of Dodoh’s High Dive contains different Rupee values and a Loser Space. Depending on where you land, the Rupee value will be multiplied by the number of rings you pass through.
Getting a perfect score in Dodoh’s High Dive is infuriating because you must pay attention to the circles while evading floating obstacles that decrease your multiplier. Then, you must land exactly on the 50 Rupee case in the spinning wheel.
4Rollgoal
Twilight Princess
As a Wii title,Twilight Princessplayed around with motion controls in some of its minigames. The biggest offender is Rollgoal, in which motion controls are used to guide a metal ball through a maze. The twist is there are no walls in the maze, meaning it’s really easy to drop the ball.
Even if you play the minigame with a regular stick control, beating all eight unique levels of Rollgoal is quite challenging. However, winning all levels only unlocks the same levels mirrored and with 20 fewer seconds in the timer to get to the finishing line. This loop goes on until you have completed 64 levels of Rollgoal. Only then can you consider you are done with it.
3Octoball Derby
A Link Between Worlds
Inspired by baseball, A Link Between Worlds’ Octoball Derby has you using a bat to hit balls and break targets. you’re able to adjust Link’s position and the bat height to control the ball’s movement. While that’s relatively straightforward, the positioning of Link is so sensitive that it’s excruciating to aim each ball.
Each regular target grants you a single point, while golden targets grant you five. Hitting three targets in a row also makes a bird appear, which it hit grants you 20 points. To win the ultimate prize, you must score 100 points or more with only 30 balls, one of the hardest challenges in The Legend of Zelda series.
2Cucco Dash
A Link Between Worlds is a delightful game filled with wonderful secrets. Yet, its minigames are overall tougher than other The Legend of Zelda titles. In Cucco Dash, for instance, your goal is to avoid touching any flying Cuccos while trapped in a small grid.
The ultimate challenge in Cucco Dash is its infinite mode, whichhas you dodging Cuccoswhile a timer counts your progress. To beat the challenge, you must survive for 999 seconds, more than 16 minutes, without being hit even once. Fortunately, that’s an optional challenge that grants you little more than bragging rights and some lovely Easter eggs.
1Goron Dance
Oracle Of Ages
Oracle of Ages’ Goron Dance might be the most infuriating minigame in the entire The Legend of Zelda series because it’s mandatory for progression. There’s just no way to beat the game without proving you are a dancing master to the Goron tribe.
The game has you pressing buttons in rhythm while following the instructions of a dancing tutor. Each round gets more complicated, with more buttons and varied rhythms to press them. There are eight different rounds in the Goron Dance, and three mistakes will kick you out of the competition, blocking your story progression until you master the minigame.
