As owner of at least one copy of each major title of the series and the one who has played all and completed all except the first 2 Zelda games and having went out one Halloween when I was much younger as Link with a homemade Hylian Shield, Tunic, and Cap and now a critic of the series somewhat downhill decline that has effectively started since the LoZ: TP and have also gone to the Symphony of the Goddess once and a LoZ ringtone on my phone and desktop background on my computer... I do believe I am a Zelda fan.
OoT was definitely the one to define the series as we know it, but I personally look to MM and WW as two of the biggest ones in the series. Both had excellent story. The reason I'm not saying OoT had it as much is cause after I replayed it...I picked up on certain things that kind of made it feel shallow...It's weird as heck for me that after I played the game that was my first Zelda game ever...it just didn't feel as epic. Then I replayed MM and it felt massive in comparison, I can't figure it out o.o; Is it because of MM's darker theme? Idk... WW is the one that is massive if you tried to do everything. Massive world map was what stood out. LttP is the one classic that I would say defines the history of the story perfectly. TP felt cinematic and had gorgeous visuals, but lacked puzzles (or I'm now savvy on every trick the developers throw at me...) ST is an abomination where the best part was the ending. No, seriously, I loved the Final Boss and the one guy that I forgot his name that had the claw and sacrificed himself at the end...the rest of the game was far too linear...but that ending was glorious... SS was redemption after TP and ST. Puzzles and challenges galore. Story was lack luster, too cliché imo, and the map felt linear. PH, despite popular belief, actually had good mechanics and story. Not the best hand-held but a good sequel for WW. The Oracle series, OoA and OoS...were...epic. Story and mechanics all felt good. LA had an interesting story that honestly had a bizarre ending and had diamond-in-the-rough mechanics that were refined in OoA and OoS. MC...It's like PH to me. Great puzzles and a good prequel for the FS series. FSA (because I didn't really see a story in FS in of itself) was quite good. It is obvious it was designed to be a multiplayer Zelda yet it had strong singleplayer mechanics. Story was actually decent. The first 2 are the gems. AoL is crazy hard but good...and LoZ is that game where you can get lost but if ya learn what to do it then becomes really straight forward. have yet to beat these 2.
....I feel like I'm forgetting some off the top of my head yet not at the same time...