Few games have been more hyped and anticipated than the latest Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Since the original announcement trailer for the game all the way back to E3 2019 , Nintendo has been treating it with great secrecy. But with Tears of the Kingdom launching on December <> , Nintendo is finally ready to give gamers a preview of Link’s next adventure.
Last week, Nintendo invited Insiders to a demo of Tears of Kingdoms. This is the first time the press has played with the game, and probably the first time for anyone outside of Nintendo. For about two hours, I tested out the game’s new mechanics, solved puzzles, and even fought a boss–who kicked my ass in no time.
Here are my thoughts on “Tears of the Kingdom,” both good and bad.
The Good Guys: ‘Kingdom of Tears’ Tests Your Imagination
Compared with its predecessor, “Tears of Kingdoms” encourages experimentation and creativity more. Much of the game’s time is spent simply coming up with cool ways to get from one place to another. You can walk, climb, glide – or if you’re me, strap five rockets to a log and pray. No matter which path you take, you’ll discover new enemies, characters, puzzles, and more. The crazier your ideas, the better. There is no wrong way to play.
The game’s biggest new feature is “Ultrahand,” an ability that lets Link glue items (including creatures like Korok) together to build vehicles and other contraptions. Although this ability seemed complicated at first, I was pleased to find that building was easy and fun. While some vehicles are better than others, almost everything you build will have some use.
The building system even has a nice tactile element: When you want to separate one object from another, you wiggle the joystick quickly, like you’re trying to pull something out of a can of sticky glue. It’s delightful.
If you don’t want to spend time building things, there is an option to make the process faster and easier. It’s another way the game lets you play however you want.
There are more enemies too! Breath of the Wild’s four basic enemy types are supplemented with a bunch of new creatures and bosses. I spent over 15 minutes fighting a new boss called “Flux Construct” and still don’t know how to beat it.
Before we got to play, a Nintendo rep demonstrated some key features with the controller in hand. He casually attaches the rocket to the raft he’s building – and the raft suddenly lifts into the air, causing him to cry out and knock Link out of the way. I immediately wrote in my notebook: “People are going to break this game. If the game’s systems are so complex that Nintendo employees lose control of them, you can trust hardcore fans to push things further and find even the developers Strategies no one thought of.
It feels like players will immerse themselves in this game for hundreds of hours and still not be able to find all of its secrets. I’m eager to see viral clips, shabby vehicles and fast-running tiers that will pop up once it hits the shelves.
Cons: Poor performance and shallow mechanics can break immersion
Kingdom of Tears is clearly testing the limits of the six-year-old Nintendo Switch . Using your abilities in crowded places, running in tall grass, and climbing trees all caused severe lag when I played the game, reducing performance to about 10 FPS. It’s not as bad as other Switch games, but it’s an otherwise ugly flaw in an otherwise beautiful game.
I’m also skeptical about Link’s other new ability, “Fuse,” which lets you combine a sword and shield with almost any object in the world. Some combos give your weapons special abilities, like turning your shield into a flamethrower. It also gives you a way to repair weapons, addressing one of the most common criticisms of Breath of the Wild.
But this feature also seems disappointingly shallow. Most fusion combos will only give you a slight attack boost, and even combos that cause special effects are heavily recycled. While it’s fun to come up with creative ways to deal with enemies, you can get through most combat without thinking. I wish there were more unique combinations in the full game.
Finally: the controls of the game are complex . Most buttons serve at least three purposes, depending on where you are and what other buttons you have. Expect to have a hard time remembering how everything works, especially if you come from other open world games like “Elden Ring”.
My Take: Tears of Kingdoms hype
It’s been four years since Nintendo first released Tears of the Kingdom. After my short game, I’m more excited than ever.
“Kingdom of Tears” is huge, and despite some performance issues in my sessions, it’s engaging enough that you can play for hours without knowing it. When it comes to enemy variety, map size, and story, it’ll look bigger than Breath of the Wild, which is already a massive game. There’s more we haven’t seen yet!
I’m ready to immerse myself in this game for a few days. If the rest of the game is as good as this demo, it might just be the best game of 2023.