Wondering if Nintendo should turn the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie to other cherished franchises like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? You're not alone.
"I have to say, I am interested. For sure," Tears of the Kingdom producer Eiji Aonuma said to Polygon. "But it’s not just me being interested in something that makes things happen, unfortunately."
"Maybe the voice of the fans is what’s important here," added game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, suggesting that it may be helpful if fans made sure that Nintendo knows exactly how excited they'd be if a Zelda movie came to fruition.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is finally here, and yes, it's already the best-reviewed game of 2023, topping the charts on aggregate sites like OpenCritic and Metacritic, rated 97 and 96 respectively. Consequently, industry experts are already wondering how Tears of the Kingdom will impact the charts not just over the next few weeks… but even over the next few years.
"Sometimes I wonder if a game can last a few months on the top 20 best-seller charts," industry analyst Mat Piscatella tweeted. "In this case, I'm wondering how many years it'll be."
In our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom review, we called the open-world opus "a rich, robust experience that builds on what came before" and awarded it 4.5 stars out of 5.
"You make the vehicles you want, fight with the weapons you choose, and explore whatever section of the world appeals to you," we wrote. "Sometimes your tinkering is a success, and sometimes you fail spectacularly, but it never stops being fun.
"Tears of the Kingdom sets a standard for immersive gameplay that most major games don't even try to achieve, let alone match. So yes, though almost intimidatingly big at times, Tears of the Kingdom manages to keep focus and provide a rich, robust experience that builds on what came before. I've basically done nothing but play the game for two weeks, and even now I have no intention of stopping any time soon. What better recommendation could a person give?"
Even legendary producer, Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida - producer of Final Fantasy 14 (and the upcoming Final Fantasy 16) can't get enough of it. Instead of sitting down as normal and providing his usual greetings to fans in the last Live Letter from the Producer, he dropped in while playing Tears of the Kingdom on the new, special edition Zelda-themed Switch.
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