Nintendo finally revealed a name and a release date for the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a game that defined the Nintendo Switch and quickly became one of best-loved, most critically acclaimed titles of the modern gaming era.
It’s been a long wait, but there’s only a little bit more waiting to do: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will hit the Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023, a day that many a TechCrunch writer will be out sick with a sudden and vicious stomach flu (no further questions please).
The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!
The Legend of #Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches on #NintendoSwitch 5/12/23. #NintendoDirect pic.twitter.com/qkGnFYFXNs
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 13, 2022
The company introduced Tears of the Kingdom during a Nintendo Direct event Tuesday. From the looks of the brief teaser, the new game builds on Breath of the Wild’s gameplay, which saw sword and shield-toting silent protagonist Link scaling mountains, hang gliding through the skies and solving brilliant if occasionally maddening puzzles in shrines scattered throughout the map.
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Nintendo’s promotional teaser begins with a fire-lit view of ancient engravings that depict various ominous prophecies and/or historical events before Link dashes through the scene and dives right off a cliff, catching a ride on a bigger, eagle-shaped hang glider and some kind of rock elevator suspended in the sky in the process.
We don’t learn much from the short video but it looks like the free-roaming mobility that helped make the first game such a hit is back and then some. At least some of Tears of the Kingdom appears to be set among the clouds, with floating islands that could introduce even more verticality than what we saw in all of that huffing and puffing up mountains back in Breath of the Wild.
Watch Zelda’s directors go deep on creating the masterpiece that is Breath of the Wild
