Review: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom lets your imagination run wild

videogameschronicle.com:

There are moments during Tears of the Kingdom where I wondered aloud if it were the best game I’d ever played.

A confluence of incredible new mechanics, over-achieving visuals, and best-in-class music come together in such harmony that you feel like you’re playing the apex of the medium. They can’t have done it again, can they? Well, yes and no.

Let’s establish this early: The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is easily one of the very best games on Nintendo Switch. We say that because it’s important to establish the game’s overall level of quality before discussing some of the frustrations that are left in the game in pursuit of another genre re-definer.

Tears of the Kingdom was first unveiled as “The sequel to Breath of the Wild”, and in some ways, that feels like a better title for the game than the one it ended up with. We’re exploring the same Hyrule, an old friend to greet us as we come to grips with the fundamental changes to Link’s arsenal. Zelda’s gone, a mysterious sludge is perforating every corner of the world, and Link’s the only one who can save the world, again.

However this time he won’t do it with his magical Wii U tablet from Breath of the Wild, instead he’s equipped with a magical Nintendo Switch, the key to Link’s new suite of abilities that make Tears of the Kingdom sing. The Ultrahand, Fuse, Ascend, and Recall abilities in unison turn Tears of the Kingdom from a game that somewhat too often flirts with being a retread of Breath of the Wild, and elevates into some truly spectacular.

Ultrahand allows Link to move most objects and stick them together, which is largely used for puzzle solving. Ascend allows Link to traverse through solid objects above him and appear on the other side, which totally