Zelda was a fine cartoon for the era and the company, but I think the Link and Zelda episodes of Captain N are much, much better. What bugs me is that all these so called gamers nowadays expect every video game based cartoon to be an anime. And honestly, their track record hasn't been that good either. F-Zero was the dullest thing I've ever seen... sort of a cross knockoff of Robotech and Speed Racer with no charm from the other 2 series in it. I am diappointed there hasn't been a Link anime at all (Mario starred in a Japanese movie and a series of DTV Reading Rainbow style animated projects where the characters were plunked into Japanese and Western Fairy Tales). Of course, I like his Captain N design a LOT more than that little Elfin guy Nintendo uses all the time.
That said, I still say the best Videogame based cartoon has to be Earthworm Jim. They managed to make it not a blatant commercial, yet keep the spirit of the game series... plus, it was good enough to stand alone as a cartoon series. Too bad they didn't give it a good chance on its second season, though.