Nintendo has done it again. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launched today on Nintendo Switch, and early reviews are setting records: a Metacritic of 96, near-unanimous perfect scores from every major outlet, and an opening weekend that saw over 10 million copies sold globally — the fastest-selling Zelda ever. The sequel to Breath of the Wild didn’t just meet the hype. It exceeded it.
Tears of the Kingdom takes the open-world design philosophy of its predecessor and expands it in every dimension — literally. The sky islands, the underground Depths, and the completely redesigned surface of Hyrule create a world of exploration that feels bottomless. The new Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, and Recall abilities enable a level of emergent physics-based creativity that makes every player’s journey genuinely unique.
Critics are calling it not just the best Zelda ever made, but potentially the greatest open-world game of all time. The emergent storytelling that results from player-driven contraption building has produced thousands of viral moments already. Nintendo’s R&D team has quietly built something that will be studied by game designers for a decade.
2023 is already a legendary year for gaming. Tears of the Kingdom sets the bar impossibly high.
Source: Nintendo