A truly brilliant successor to the outstanding Breath of the Wild and one of the most ambitious games ever made, were it not for some unnecessary bloat and more than a touch of repetition both as a sequel and standalone adventure it would be even better than its more pioneering predecessor.

It took me over a year to complete this game, such is the expanse of the map which is around 3x the size of Breath of the Wild - and that was by no means small. Unfortunately this is somewhat artificial as the underworld is essentially a gloom infested mirror of the overworld with diminished detail, and the more interesting yet sparser sky islands are appropriately less abundant. That time span is also in part simply the reality of not having as much available to play games now. Usually I would ignore such a gigantic landscape and open world setting due to time constraints but the brilliance of Nintendo’s latest Zelda adventure has me reconsidering that assumption.

I truly loved 90% of my time with this game. It is iterative of course, and directly builds on the much more novel release that was Breath of the Wild, but I think that was a justified decision. The star performance this time comes in the form of your powers inherited from the Zonai (the story is convoluted but also very simply Zelda, so you shouldn’t expect anything drastically new). The Fuse power in particular - which allows you to bond items to weapons, arrows, and shields - drastically alters the way in which you approach fights and how you traverse the environment. Alongside this is the ability to essentially craft vehicles and objects with the correct pieces. This ability completely transforms how you solve puzzles and dungeons. Stupidly I did not seek to complete the quest which provides you with the Autobuild power until I was well into my adventure. I advise completing this quest as soon as possible.

The shrines in Tears of the Kingdom are vastly improved from the previous game. I enjoyed completing every one I found. They adeptly taught you how to utilise these new powers and provided you lessons on how to approach challenges in a more varied way. I only wish the much more box tick element of the light roots in the depths had more of this quality.

Unfortunately I found almost every boss this time round lacking in challenge and not that interesting. It’s true Zelda games vary a lot in this regard but for me this is one of the worst crop in the series. The 5 quests to unlock the Sages which will help you defeat Ganondorf are also not as creative as was the case last time round. I only truly enjoyed the wind and water sage dungeons, the others were a bit of a slog - in particular the Gerudo quest.

The overall similarity of the sage/guardian main quests in the last two games feels a bit jarring generally. During my quest with Prince Sidon I kept feeling a distinct sense of déjà vu, so much so I felt confused as to who was who in this narrative. This is not to say they are not great escapades, it just feels too familiar and lacks the freshness we found in Breath of the Wild.

The staggering conquest of this game arrives when you first leap from a sky island or launch out of a sky tower to the world below and if you wish - through a chasm into the depths. All of this occurs seamlessly in extravagant colour which the Switch handles without difficulty. A wonderful testament to the brilliance of this hardware. Is it disappointing that a new Zelda game looks the same graphically as a game designed for the Wii U from 7 years ago? I suppose a touch, but you hardly dwell on it. This is a verdant and enthralling art style that will stand the test of time.

Tears of the Kingdom is one of this generation’s must play games and I am excited to see what they think of next. You just never get a bad Zelda (well, maybe Zelda II) an incredible consistency that few developers can begin to match.

Might I end by noting my confusion as to why it took so long for a game to realise a power in which you can rise through ceilings would be highly useful. It genuinely is revolutionary.

I do not have a great deal of interest in remakes for the most part. Undoubtedly it's difficult not to play them nowadays as it seems every third release is a remake in one sense or another. Yet, as reinventions of once compelling titles go, this is very good.

The nostalgic hit of youthful memories is provided adequately without resting too much on the laurels of simply putting on a new skin. The gameplay and dynamism of Tony Hawk's original campaigns are recaptured and updated with enough contemporary additions to make the fun feel fresh and exciting.

I am not entirely sure I had any great desire to actually revisit Tony Hawk's Pro Skater but the time I spent with this reimagining was enjoyable and worthwhile. It also reminded me that far too few games just give you simple high score goals anymore - there's a freedom to it that remains captivating.