Yeah it's fairly ass. I actually ended up signing up for Amazon Prime just to get the discount on new games. Bring $80 games down to $63, the price from a couple years ago.

I might have to get a dumb switch before I intended to for this game. Probably later this year during the summer when the avalanche of games calms down

@teddie: Thanks for linking that. I have been waiting to see something like this to make sure the Wii U version was ok.

98 metacritic huh? Well it is Zelda so you kind of have to take that with a grain of salt, nevertheless Wii U is at like 6 or 7 exceptional games at this point; might actually have to buy one. Metroid Prime numbers, but Zelda - 10 is usually more accurate to the actual quality of the game.

Yep, every site I visit gave it a ten. Wow. I'm not sure if I'm entirely surprised that it's getting ten's, though. Jeez, I wanted to get the Switch tomorrow with Zelda, but now I think I'll wait, unfortunately (at least, I want going to try to). I just got Nioh and Horizon Zero Dawn the other day, and I believe I'm half way through Nioh. It's a great game. I haven't even touched Horizon Zero Dawn yet. A lot of seemingly great games are coming out (and out already). I'm going to save up a little more money and finish these games, then I'll go get a Switch and Zelda. I really hope they have one when I want to go grab one. Nioh is good and I just got done with what was probably eleven hours of playing it with little interruption. I hope I don't get into that 'let's hurry this along' phase because I want to play Horizon then Zelda. I haven't felt it yet.

It's nice to hear the Wii U version is almost identical to the Switch. I'm incredibly excited for this game, but I cannot justify paying 660$ after taxes (Canada) for a Switch, pro controller and Breath of the Wild. Not being interested in Fire Emblem Warriors or Splatoon 2 would mean it would go unused until Super Mario Odyssey.

Holy moly this bit from Austin's review has got me extremely excited

https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/breath-of-the-wild-is-the-zelda-adventure-ive-always-wanted?utm_source=wptwitterus

• I once spent an hour looking for a certain type of sword because a nice boy in one of the game's more bustling villages wanted to see things from the outside world. By the time I'd finally found it, it was sailing through the air and skidding down the side of a massive cliff: I'd knocked it from the hand of a skeletal foe (and I'd knocked said foe's head down the cliff soon after). I hopped on my shield, using it like a snowboard, and followed after it, only to be slowed down by a different skeleton which had picked up and put on the head I'd knocked down there moments earlier. After dispatching that enemy, I looked down into the deep ravine to see only fog and the faint outline of a distant river. "Why not," I told myself, and leapt, gliding down and looking for the telltale glint of the blade. Nothing… until there, in the grass, a few feet away from the river that would've stolen it away, a shine. The blade.

...

For all of these reasons, Breath of the Wild feels like a descendant of games like Far Cry 2 and Dragon's Dogma, games that emphasize making player expressivity joyful even (especially?) when things are going poorly. It lets me "break" the game with my nonsense in a way that reminds me of Morrowind's spell creation, and it rewards me for internalizing how the enemies and environment work the way Shiren the Wanderer once did. I do not make any of these comparisons lightly. It does not just aspire to be like these games that are in my personal canon of favorites, it does not only remind me of them, it belongs with them

hell yeah! man friday can't get here fast enough.

It performs pretty poorly on the Wii U (looks fine though) and I havent found a way to use the the second screen for anything other than switching the entire game to play it there.

Which sucks since I would really like to have my map and inventory there, I thought that was the whole pitch for Zelda on the Wii U initially.

Oh well, i'm enjoying the game but I get the feeling they stripped out features to keep parity with the Switch version. (or to make that one seem better) *dons tin foil hat*

(minor gripe but I really wish the controls could be reconfigured, swapping the jump and sprint doesnt do any good when they're vertically opposed to each other)

Well, I admit, I'm not overly keen on Dan in general but, mostly, I've found I tend to agree with Jeff's views on games. I've seen a lot of people grumble and talk shit, calling him cynical and asking why he doesn't go do something else since he "clearly hates game" and the like, but I appreciate Jeff's more grounded, objective opinions, his willingness to, say, call Fallout 4 on its bullshit and not give it a pass because he loves the series. When Jeff is stoked for a game and sings its praises I'm more inclined to believe it's something special.

@cursethesemetalhands: I feel like that's a bit unfair to Dan. Yeah sure he can be incredibly enthusiastic and he is being with Zelda in particular, but I have never once got the impression that he wouldn't call a game out on it's bullshit just because he really likes it. It's all relative I suppose, if Dan wasn't that bothered by Zelda's frame rate issues, I don't take that to mean he's giving the game a pass, it's just that for him personally the game was good enough to outweigh those problems.

It's fair enough if your tastes align more with Jeff's and I do agree that when Jeff is very enthusiastic about a game it feels like it must be special.

@ntm said:

How far are you in Nioh? I found myself thinking I was at the end a solid 10 hours before it was actually over.

On Zelda, I couldn't be more excited. I'm going to a midnight launch and I haven't done that for a console in years. It's gonna be awesome.

Holy moly am I glad I finally bought a Wii U.

The quick look made me want to buy a Switch just for Zelda (and Mario down the line)

Damn, that's some game.

Guess I'm going with Zelda for now. I'll have to pick up Horizon some time later. Both look excellent. I need to find out first hand what they changed in Zelda to get such raving reviews. A game that can surpass OoT for me, like some of the reviews are saying, is something I can't pass up on!

Confession time, I've never played a Zelda game before, but Breath of the Wild looks right up my alley. However, I might just find a cheap Wii-U to play the game, rather than drop 300 on a Switch.

I bought a GC for Wind Waker, which was the best Zelda game at the time (don't like Ocarina). Now I'm buying a Switch for the greatest Zelda.

@liquiddragon: you buy whatever you want for whatever game you want. There have been several console purchases I had made in my life because I wanted to play one game for it.

@golguin: Wind Waker HD is on the Wii U, not the Switch.

@cerberus3dog: weirdly enough, Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword are the only Zelda games I have played that I didn't like.

OOT 3D was my first attempt at a Zelda game (I had always wanted to play Wind Waker but never had a GC.) I beat it but didn't enjoy it at all so I resigned myself to just never understanding why people love Zelda so much but then, years later I played A Link Between Worlds and it finally clicked!

Since then I have played and loved the hell out of, Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD and Majoras Mask 3D. While I didn't like OOT at all I always understood it's cultural significance because of what it did for games.

I could not be more excited to play Breath of the Wild!

You can always try to pick up on Jeff's opinion through the bombcast and other content (possibly the release day stream?). I'm sure with a game this big he's not going to avoid making his opinions on it known at some point. It just won't be in official written form like Dan's.

These are some fucking crazy reviews. Can't wait to get this and then a Switch much later.

Played 20 minutes at a Switch event and I got a small taste, and it really seemed like I could do whatever the hell I wanted (aside from the Nintendo rep funneling me to get a bow).

@csl316: This does seem like the type of game that would demo really, really poorly. It requires an hour or two of screwing around without someone egging you into getting a bow to really enjoy it.

Well my WiiU version is in the mail and should arrive tomorrow. I really want to give it a try but have some reservations. I simply hate weapon durability and that may actually kill this game for me.

@mikelemmer: Oh, for sure, a strict 20 minute time limit made you rush and blow past all sorts of stuff. But it left both of us wanting to just get lost in it.

I kinda wish Jeff reviewed it and gave it a 4 so we could have some good old Zelda forum review score backlash. Just doesn't feel like a major Zelda release without it...

Don't give a shit about Nintendo, and this doesn't change anything.

If this were available on PC or ps4 I would buy it, but I'm not going to get a console for one game.

@xanadu: would have been nice to see Jeff review it, because let's be honest, Dan is a fanboy.

@pompouspizza: Ha it seems that we had the same experience just with different games! Wind Waker was my first Zelda and I thought it was pretty good, then I tried Twilight Princess in 2006 and didn't even finish it. Then on the Wii, I finally decided to try OoT on the virtual console. I played it my first time in 2009 and was blown away. The dungeons were more complex and interesting, I felt really tense at night with the skeletons, kid link turning into a bad-ass adult, the ocarina was awesome, and the world felt huge and mysterious. OoT means so much to me because it held up so well IMO and it still floored me. The idea that reviews suggest that Breath of the Wild captures those same elements of mystery that I felt in OoT really excite me.

In Breath of the Wild, I hope we both find those same experiences that make Zelda games so great!

@cerberus3dog: Maybe I should go back and try and play Ocarina now that I have beaten and loved multiple Zelda games. I have been curious for a while because Ocarina was my first Zelda experience and I didn't really get the logic to the puzzles if that makes sense? I got so mad when I gave up and looked at a guide only to realise that I had to shoot arrows into the fucking sun! Like how was I ever supposed to figure it out?!?! And beyond that, I got stuck on so many puzzles because I just didn't get them.

But since then I have grown to love Zelda's very unique puzzle and dungeon design and I haven't used a walkthrough once in all the other games I played and they were some of the most rewarding game experiences I have ever had.

I wonder.

@thecitizenkaneofthings: You asked, so I checked how far I was, and nope I'm not half way through. I'm only at the mines (mission five), where I have to turn off the poison. I just got there earlier and quit there; I'm going to jump back in soon. About five missions short of half way. I believe I'm level 50 and twenty plus hours in. I'll have to check how many hours as I'm not entirely sure about that. Man... That's a lot of hours to go. There are a lot more regions than I thought.

GTAIV was the game that made me not trust reviews anymore. I would probably rate that game a 6 out of 10, even at the time.

I'm really concerned about Zelda. Yes, the reviews are great (like all Zelda games), but the framerate looks inexcusable. The constant dips below 20 are going to annoy the crap out me.

I feel the same. The dude is a Zelda fanboy, so I always knew this would be rated well. I mean he still really likes Twilight Princess and that's a terrible game!

Jeff would have been more objective.

@cursethesemetalhands: @horseman6: i think dan's review was a great read and effectively captured his delight with the game while at the same time relaying a few valid caveats despite the glowing review and score. i think it did fine and he is far from a blind nintendo fanboy. jeff's terrific and our tastes cross over quite a bit, but i don't necessarily think he was a better choice.

(i'll be honest though, i'm of a slight suspicion those who wanted jeff to review it just wanted him to cement their already dissenting opinion ;) )

After playing more than 20 hours on the wii u version and also seeing the switch version, few things I must say:

1.If you own a Wii U do yourself a favor and stop thinking about waiting for the "definitive version", the difference are so minor that you forget about which version you on the second you launch the game.

2.I feel like people are overacting on the framerate drops Waaayy more than they should, yea I had those for a few moments at the villages at a certain point of view - it was playable and those are rare. It actually amazing what the wii u can handle.

3.There is no second screen functions at all, you either play on the TV or at the gamepad screen, you can only tap the touch screen to switch between them.

well at least early adopters of the Switch actually have a good game to play at launch. Still getting the Wii U version though.

@husky: thanks for sharing your experience of the WiiU version. There isn't much info on the WiiU version right now. That's the one I'll be getting.

Have you seen the frame rate drops on the Breath of the Wild quick look? Is it similar to that on the WiiU? Any other differences you could spot?

I wonder how someone who has never played a Zelda game before would have reviewed this. Its interesting seeing all the reviews drawing parallels to the pedigree. Im curious if this game is propped up by its predecessors, and if that really affects s a players enjoyment of it.

@cerberus3dog: Peter Brown from gamespot who reviewed the game said he found no noticeable differences in 2 hours with the wii u version ^_^

https://mobile.twitter.com/PCBrown/status/837483318492844032

Which is good cause I was going to download it tonight! So excited! :D

@giantlennonx_x: Thanks for the info. That tweet from him is insane.

@cerberus3dog: I barely saw the quick look because of dan pushing towards hyrule castle (ffs it's a quick look!) and i really want to experience everything myself.

What i can tell is the game looks and runs identical 99% of the time from what i saw (final versions). 2-3 fps and a few more pixels on the lens flare is not worth 300$, Bottom line is -

if you own a Wii U - get the game for the Wii U!

@husky: Cool! Thanks for the advice.

@ntm: Yeah, it's a surprisingly huge game? I saw people like Polygon reporting 80 playtimes without a lot of side content and I was skeptical but it definitely has an enormous amount of missions, far more than I expected.

This argument falls apart a bit as maybe people want to be able to take the game to other places, plus you might as well just buy a Switch now if you're going to want one for Splatoon or Mario later this year. Splatoon playtest is in 3 weeks too.

I'm looking forward to having Zelda, Shovel Knight, Yooka-Laylee, Mario Kart and Fast RMX playable anywhere.

It's the most immersive game I have ever played. Been playing all night, wake up alarm just sounded. Haven't connected it to the tv yet, only used it as a handheld.

The game is like a dark soulsy metal gear mordor zelda and playful in away that I've never experienced before. It's like the fantasy of a fantastic game I would make up as a kid. What an achievement. It's like experiencing the beatles. Or Charlie Chaplin. But in my time.

And the sound design. Wow.

I'm so happy that I bought this stupid switch. Nintendo <3

Skyward Sword is sitting at a 93 on Metacritic and that game is a pile of shit so I'm not putting much faith in Zelda review scores. The quicklook left a very positive impression, though.

Lots of game journo hyperbole going on. This is why it's so hard to take them seriously. Remember GTAIV and "Oscar quality writing"? Yeah...

Perfect example right here.

@kishinfoulux: so instead of that let's be bitter and curmudgeonly and demanding. hell it works for jim sterling!

or *gasp* we can enjoy something at face value for once!

@thecitizenkaneofthings: That said, that last mission (with the poisonous centipede [or The Great Centipede]) was really short; if other stages are similar, it might not be too long. I was at 22 hours when I started the mission when I checked last night. I was partially reading Game Informers review last night a bit after I commented on here, and it said he beat the game after 40 hours. It did say of the 'story campaign', though, so maybe he was reducing it to the time spent on the story. I don't know why he'd do that, though.