You’re playing Tears of the Kingdom, right? Everyone seems to be playing it. Even people who I didn’t even know were into video games have asked me if it’s as good as they were hoping. I was on the BBC News at Six talking about it, which delighted me because, for many, many years, the BBC didn’t pay attention to video games unless someone had claimed they were destroying children’s lives or deemed them opaquely responsible for a violent event. I had a fun conversation about it on NPR’s Consider This. I’ve written about five articles about it in the past week and, apparently, I still haven’t exhausted the topic.
It is pleasantly surprising that the world at large has taken such an interest in Tears of the Kingdom, because for most of the 30-odd years that I’ve been playing Zelda games, they have been the nerdy connoisseur’s choice from the Nintendo canon. When I was a teenager, the only other people I knew who loved Zelda were fellow geeky kids who were into fantasy novels. A huge proportion of game developers and critics love Zelda, but the games have never been bestsellers. Indeed, before Breath of the Wild, the leading Zelda game was the 2006 emo-era classic Twilight Princess (my least favourite, don’t @ me), which sold around 9m copies.
Ocarina of Time, which still regularly tops best-games-of-all-time lists, sold “only” 7.6m copies. Most of the nailed-down classics of the series have sold between 5m and 9m copies, which is a lot but nothing close to what Nintendo’s big moneymakers Mario and Pokémon have managed. Then Breath of the Wild came out in 2017 and sold 30m, and now Tears of the Kingdom is Nintendo’s second-biggest launch in UK history, after Wii Fit and its balance board in 2008. (Remember that?)
So why now? Why is this the Zelda game that has gone mainstream from the off? If anything, it’s the most complicated, involved game in the series, so it’s not because it’s the easiest Zelda to understand and get into. It’s unbelievably good, but most of these games are unbelievably good, even the deep cuts. (If you’ve never played A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS, or Oracle of Seasons/Ages on the Game Boy Color, find a copy and thank me later.) And it hasn’t had the kind of ostentatious marketing blitz that Sony is given to.
The obvious answer is the Nintendo Switch, which has sales of of 125m and counting – behind only the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s own DS in lifetime sales. That’s a much bigger audience for Tears of the Kingdom. And it’s not just more players, but different kinds of players: the Switch’s versatility as handheld and home consoles make it equally appreciable by both families and older players trying to squeeze a little bit of joy into their commute, like the painfully relatable man in Nintendo’s most recent Zelda advert, taking on a hinox while crammed on to a bus.
But there’s something else at play here, and that advert – though it came in for some mockery – gets at the truth: are we not all that tired-looking grey dude on the bus, at least some of the time? Is it not easy to forget about making time for joy and adventure in adult life? Video games are one of the surest ways to access our inner playfulness, and this is why billions of us play them. We need this escapism, this enriching sense that something exciting lies ahead of us, rather than just an endless loop of work, eating and sleeping.
Zelda games have always been about the wonder of exploration, of figuring things out for yourself. When I played Zelda as a kid, it made me feel like a grown-up, able to hold my own in dark, scary dungeons and chart my own path through foreign lands. Now that I am a grown-up, it makes me feel like a kid, out on some fun escapade and leaving my real-world responsibilities behind for a bit. All adults need this feeling, whether it’s from music festivals or novels or video games or training for a triathlon.
Let’s not forget that last year, there was another unexpected fantasy bestseller in the form of Elden Ring, which sold 20m copies. We talk a lot about how games are too long these days, demanding tens of hours from us, but people want games that offer you a world. It’s not that people don’t want to spend 50 or 100 hours playing a game, but if that’s what you’re asking of them, you’d better make it worth their while and give them more than just busywork to enjoy. Both Zelda and Elden Ring justify the time they ask of us, offering us self-determination and a sense of achievement and, frequently, a genuine experience of awe.
Tears of the Kingdom’s instant popularity is a reflection of its quality, for sure. But it’s also a reflection of the importance that video games as a whole now have in our cultural lives. It’s a tough world out there, and there’s not a single person among us who couldn’t benefit from taking some time away from it and going on an adventure.
What to play
Tears of the Kingdom is almost inexpressibly wonderful but it’ll take the average player months to get through. Sometimes you just need something more manageable. Happily there are several other, less life-consuming Zelda games available on Nintendo Switch.
There’s Skyward Sword, which was Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi’s directorial debut, and contains several interesting ideas that I can see echoes of in the newer game. Via Nintendo Switch Online, you can play some of the older entries: Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask. But my pick would be the 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening, a tight Game Boy game brought up to date with all its classic puzzle and combat design intact and a new toylike art style. Modern Zelda might be boundless, but classic Zelda still has that sense of adventure.
Available on: Nintendo Switch
Approximate playtime: 15 hours
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