The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally arrives tomorrow, with today seeing Nintendo fans stocking up on snacks, clearing their schedules, and preparing to step back into Hyrule for the first time in six years. Expectations are sky-high for the Breath of the Wild sequel, and it’s likely to dominate gaming discussion for the rest of the year.
Well, the already white-hot hype fires have just had gasoline poured on them, as the review embargo has just expired, and it seems Tears of the Kingdom has lived up to expectations and then some.
The Metacritic rating is at a sky-high 97, and the reviews suggest it will absolutely be one of the best-reviewed titles of the year so far. Opencritic also has it at 97 from their “Top Critic Average’ and reports that 100% of all critics recommend it.
Here’s a selection of critics’ takes:
Gamespot gives it a straight 10/10, calling it a “triumph of open-ended game design“.
IGN also give it a 10/10, dubbing it a “masterpiece” and saying it raises “the bar ever higher into the clouds”.
Eurogamer has given it four out of five stars and say it’s “Hyrule reborn bigger and busier“
Nintendo Life gives it yet another 10/10: “It’s also impossible to overstate just how much there is to do in Hyrule this time around.“
Polygon says “The brilliance of Tears of the Kingdom lies in how well it imparts the fantasy of player freedom.“
With another perfect 10, Destructoid says: “Tears of the Kingdom will be talked about for years on end.”
The Guardian gives it a perfect score and says “It is easy to forget how to find the fun in adult life. Games such as Zelda help to remind you that if you look at things the right way, it’s everywhere.“
The Telegraph also gives a perfect score: “I felt like a hero at every moment.“
Despite the almost unanimous praise, there is some criticism of the game’s performance on the ageing Switch hardware. Nobody was expecting Tears of the Kingdom to run at a locked 60 FPS, though it seems that it often slips below the targeted 30 FPS when the action heats up. That said, Breath of the Wild suffered similar issues and that hasn’t stopped it from topping many ‘greatest game of all time’ lists, so we don’t expect it to be a major factor going forward.
What’s clear is that Nintendo has taken the incredible foundation set by Breath of the Wild and expanded on it in many fascinating ways. We can’t wait to get out there and explore this wonderful open world for ourselves.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrives on Nintendo Switch tomorrow, May 12.