It's a special kind of brilliance that Nintendo has. They took a game that was already beloved as both evolution and revolution, Breath of the Wild, and upped the ante. And they did with the same casual abandon that makes sense a Mario game. You know all those mechanics from Breath of the Wild (not weapon durability, that's still here, and I still like it. Stay mad.) they just ditched them. Just like that. Gone.
And what did they replace them with? Oh, just a physics engine that lets you build simple machines or oversized death contraptions that you pilot. Oh, and the ability to reverse time for an object so you can exploit puzzles with repetitive motion or simple lob a rock some enemy tossed at you like an angry, but otherwise untroubled god. Oh, and your weapons, shields, and arrows can now be fused to almost EVERY object in your inventory. Oh, and you know how in Breath of the Wild you climbed everything? Well in this game you don't sully yourself with climbing, you teleport from the bottom of almost any obstacle to the top of that obstacle. It's like a cheat code.
Oh, and while they were at it they went and added two tiers (get it - Tiers of the Kingdom) to the already impressively large map. Want to cruise the sky above the map? Go for it. Want to plumb some depths? There are so many depths, get in there.
It's just remarkable what Nintendo achieved here. I somehow have the tools to be more engaged, more creative, and more free. It is as if they discovered a 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith that granted them the ability make go from climbing trees to sailing the skies in our very own airplanes, glued together with whatever our imagination told us the game would let us do. And it all runs on the Nintendo Switch. Let that sink in for a bit.
I felt while playing this that it was a game that only exists because Nintendo seems to steadfastly only want to make games that have new, interesting things for the player to do. They keep succeeding in that, and here, they reached heights that I only thought couldn't be reached. That is until I look at what was around me and in my inventory, and got playing.
And what did they replace them with? Oh, just a physics engine that lets you build simple machines or oversized death contraptions that you pilot. Oh, and the ability to reverse time for an object so you can exploit puzzles with repetitive motion or simple lob a rock some enemy tossed at you like an angry, but otherwise untroubled god. Oh, and your weapons, shields, and arrows can now be fused to almost EVERY object in your inventory. Oh, and you know how in Breath of the Wild you climbed everything? Well in this game you don't sully yourself with climbing, you teleport from the bottom of almost any obstacle to the top of that obstacle. It's like a cheat code.
Oh, and while they were at it they went and added two tiers (get it - Tiers of the Kingdom) to the already impressively large map. Want to cruise the sky above the map? Go for it. Want to plumb some depths? There are so many depths, get in there.
It's just remarkable what Nintendo achieved here. I somehow have the tools to be more engaged, more creative, and more free. It is as if they discovered a 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith that granted them the ability make go from climbing trees to sailing the skies in our very own airplanes, glued together with whatever our imagination told us the game would let us do. And it all runs on the Nintendo Switch. Let that sink in for a bit.
I felt while playing this that it was a game that only exists because Nintendo seems to steadfastly only want to make games that have new, interesting things for the player to do. They keep succeeding in that, and here, they reached heights that I only thought couldn't be reached. That is until I look at what was around me and in my inventory, and got playing.