Gaming The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild review

The character design, the use of colour, the graphic style, the sound design, the merchandising, the marketing...

The game may (or may not) have an adult story-line ..but the games are aimed squarely at kids. That an adult may play (and enjoy) the game doesn't mean it's not still aimed at a younger audience.

Plenty of adults enjoy jelly and ice-cream with sprinkles on top...but it's still kids food.

 

If the game is good enough, then I agree that it's worth buying the console just to play that title. For example, I bought a SNES just for Super Mario World, a Megadrive just for Super Ghouls n Ghosts, and an Xbox just for Halo. In each case, I have no regret: The games were sufficiently good.

 

Well, Yahtzee didn't totally hate the game so thats fairly high praise: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...ntendo-Switch-Zelda-Breath-of-the-Wild-Review

 

I think it's worth mentioning that the Switch not only costs a couple hundred bucks, it also isn't a quality piece of tech on its own. There are more that a few shortcuts Nintendo took to cut costs and raise profits. Just look at the plastic touch screen or the way the screen scratches against the dock.

Then there is the fact that Zelda is a WiiU game as well, for which there are emulators that work just fine. In a few months one will be able to play the game in native 1080p and a higher framerate without the hassle of a console riddled with problems and design flaws.

Note: I am not saying one should pirate the game. But it's a valid point when a median earner has to consider the mind boggingly asking price of £340 for one game.



I should probably shut up now, I buy every gameboy just for Pokemon.

 

Completely disagree.

I have a PS4 - I only have it to play FIFA 17 with friends on the odd occasion, I've no other games, I don't use it for media as I stream through KODI, and I do any other gaming on my PC.

It depends on the metric you're using to work out "value". We've currently played FIFA and used my PS4 on 4 occasions, that's a cost of about £50 a pop, which is cheaper than a night out, cheaper than a trip to the pub, cheaper even than the board games nights that have come roaring back into fashion because we end up buying a new board game every time and they all cost £30-50 now! What's the price of the equivalent entertainment really?

 

The Xbox One S including a proper controller and three games for £274.99 do make it look like bad value.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xbox-FIFA-Ghost-Recon-Wildlands/dp/B06XGD6565

Switch £279.99 (if you are willing to wait for normal shops to get stock again and aren't going to pay the premium by the scam artists who caused the stock problems in the first place by hoarding supplies)
Pro Controller £59.99
Legend of Zelda £59.99
= £399.97

 

You'll like a right tit carrying that on the train for a quick gaming session on the morning commute though.

 

Nah, the Zelda series never piqued my interest.

 

But people will pay £700 plus the cost of the PC underneath it to play a game at 60 FPS with 4k resolution.

https://www.overclock3d.net/news/so...omeda_will_play_at_4k_60fps_on_a_gtx_1080ti/1

In fact, most of the people I have seen buy a 1080ti so far have done so off the back of paying £600 for a 1080 what? a year ago?

£300 or less to play the latest Zelda game doesn't sound so bad then. Especially when you consider that most people upgrade their GPUs all of the time for the game they are playing at that time, that they want better performance from.

And Nintendo games have, and have always had, a certain magic about them. Two weeks ago a mate of mine said he was feeling suicidal. I didn't hear from him in nine days, then he tells me he bought a Switch and has been playing Zelda solid.

I've never been a Zelda fan but I did used to be a massive Mario fan and I bought every console up to the Gamecube just to play Mario. IIRC my import N64 (by the time it was converted to RGB) cost me around £450, with import games costing £120-£150 at that time.

But I did it, because the games were worth it. Nintendo lost me with Mario Sunshine (I thought it was crap) but almost sucked me back with Mario Galaxy. I did buy a Wii, but never did get into the game (even though it was fantastic, I think I have just outgrown it finally is all).

So yeah, IMO £300 for a game that's utterly mind blowing is more than worth it. I saw people throw thousands at their PCs to play Crysis and it wasn't anything special.

 

If I recall the Xbox One was £429 when it launched in 2013. It's since seen a slim release and the removal of its kinext functionality, so it's perhaps a little unfair to compare its current price to a console that was only released two weeks ago.

Also, if I recall, the Xbox One and PS4 had few great exclusives during the early part of their lives. It's only in the past year or two that games like Horizon: Zero Dawn have been released. It'll be interesting to see what the Switch's game situation is like in two years time - whether this console will have caught on.

Most importantly, as others have noted, it's the only hardware you'll be able to play Nintendo games on (mobile ports aside), making it a great third console (especially with its portability) or a great companion to a powerful PC system.

 

Like others, I bought a 360 to play one game, I figured there would be others ended up being 2 games, perhaps considered poor value by some but the hours I sunk into PGR and Forza were worth it, I almost picked up an Xbox One for similar reasons but as I was able to pick up titles overpriced on PC I did that instead because proper 4Ks.

 

Consoles have always had killer apps. Exclusive games that you buy the console for. The rest are just a bonus IMO

I can't tell you how many of my friends bought a PSX/PS2 just to play Gran Turismo. Like literally just to play that and never bought any other games.

Oh, and my brother bought a console (can't remember which one, possibly a PSX?) just so that he could play Brian Lara's Cricket. My brother is not a gamer at all, but he also bought his own Megadrive (because he hated me so much when we were kids that he wouldn't ask to use mine ) just so he could play the PGA Golf games.

 

Kids game

 

...well it went right over your head there didn't it

 

I'm not sure your statement applies to everyone but let's run with it for now.

So how would Nintendo producing a TV locked AAA grade console improve the choice of games? You'd get the latest C.O.D, Battlefront & Assassins Creed etc. on yet another platform and the Nintendo exclusives would have some nicer shaders and shadows. I don't see it widening the selection of games.

Allowing big games to be played at home or when mobile isn't a shameful thing for Nintendo to aim for.

I for one would love a shift sized device that could play PS4, XBone or PC games on the go... even at Switch levels of graphical fidelity.

Maybe the switch will do well in time, but for now (IMHO) it suffers from a massive shortage of top grade titles.

 

Well would you buy a Switch if it didn't have any games developed for it? Like absolutely nothing developed for the platform.

The console will dictate how the games are made, that's all really.

We all know Nintendo is much more than just hardware, there's no reason why Ninty devs couldn't produce an even better game on beefier hardware. Clearly they believe that too else we wouldn't get any technological improvements at all, rather than smaller ones.

In the case of this Zelda, they could have a larger draw distance and detail be part of the gameplay experience. Wind could be used in even more interesting ways, or secret routes to unexplored territories made even more elusive and special through different reveals.

What they have done though, is made a device that doesn't really excel at anything. Cheap construction, poor battery and clunkiness make it not very good for mobile use. Lower power and reduced capabilities make it not very good for simply sitting on the shelf at home.

The only selling point from that perspective is the idea of playing a very select few games on the go during fairly short journeys. I don't know but to me that doesn't seem worth sacrificing all those other opportunities for. I'd rather just play pokemon on a DS.

 

I don't think the statement was relating to having another console - personally I love the movement into a mobile console, however knowing that the console is basically a slightly modified android shield it shows Zelda could have been made and run on Android - imagine if the switch was instead the most powerful Android tablet out and you could run Android apps on it

 

Trust this review, I am a big PC fan and was considering purchasing a gtx 1080ti to gain an ok performance boost over my gtx 980ti, instead I have saved a bunch of cash and purchased a Nintendo Switch and Zelda. I have not put Zelda down since I purchased it as the game is so vast and has soooo much polish its mind blowing. I told a friend to buy the machine just to play Zelda as it is genuinely worth it.

Oh also did anyone mention it has a shiny processor from our friends at Nvidia!!!!!

 

Come again?

I still don't think the Switch is the console to bring me back to Nintendo. I have a Wii... somewhere, I just cannot find any reason to use it. The WiiU I won't even talk about. And, on a side note, there is no Quake Champions on the Switch.

 

Its worth raising since almost all reviews I have seen fail to mention it - Breath of the wind is still available on the wii u where it runs almost as well as the Switch, plus you can now pick up for around £120-£140 second hand - if you're not going to be using the switch out and about and you pick up a spare PSU/dont mind moving the console to the bedroom if you want to play on the controller on your bed its worth considering