The Legend of Zelda Nintendo Switch 2 Editions - Review

When Nintendo teased the Nintendo Switch 2 at the start of the year, there was very little in the way of games hinted at coming, beyond some new Mario Kart. Something that I and I assume many others thought would come, would be updated Nintendo Switch games for the platform. Nintendo did the same thing with Wii U to Switch, so it made sense for them to do it again with Nintendo Switch 2. The first two games to get this treatment were The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Are these new Nintendo Switch 2 Editions the best way to play these games, or are they just another way to play?

Going into both these games, I knew that I would not replay them from start to finish, across the pair of them I have around 360 hours recorded. So, what I knew I would be doing was taking advantage of the new Zelda Notes and then just see what other chaos I could unleash. Apart from the previously mentioned Zelda Notes, what else has been added to the game, honestly nothing. Ok, that is not entirely true as the textures have been updated, the framerate has been improved and the game now supports HDR, but in terms of new content, there is nothing. Actually, that seems like a good point to focus on for now, the updated presentation. Now both games do look great on Switch, but there is no denying that the games struggle at times and do sport some blurry and odd textures, that is no longer the case here. From the moment I jumped into Tears of the Kingdom, I could see just how richer the world was looking, there was a vibrance to everything due to the increased resolution and HDR support, but more than that, it no longer looked fuzzy with the textures.

The biggest thing that I was impressed to see, were the framerate improvements, along with the games bump up to a full HD resolution. Both games sported some pretty harsh dynamic scaling with their resolutions on Nintendo Switch and they are not an issue here, both hit 1080p when playing in handheld mode and 2160p when docked. Now you might not care about the resolution increase, but both games hit a resolution of 900p when docked before, so it is a significant jump and the end result is that you get a clearer picture on screen. That clearer picture is improved thanks to the new textures and if you have a HDR enabled display, both games look even better. Where things really shine though is that framerate, the Switch versions of the games targeted 30fps and if you were in a small area with nothing going on, it usually hit it, but some locations, especially in Breath of the Wild would struggle hard at times. Here both games run at 60fps and they stay there, could there be some random location in each game that it has issues in, sure, but I never noticed anything.

Now is when we need to talk about Zelda Notes, as it is technically the only major addition to the content of both games, somewhat. If you are not aware, Zelda Notes is an app inside the Nintendo Switch App for mobile devices that tracks your play history in the game, as well as provides extra options. For me there are two that truly matter, the first is the navigation assistance, something that many were hoping for on the Wii U release of Breath of the Wild, as it was in demo builds. With the navigation assistance enabled, you can see the locations of shrines, enemies, important locations and even sage upgrades in Tears of the Kingdom. If you need a little assistance in locating one specifically, you can enable a GPS style system and it will guide to the location. Be aware though, this system is not the best, it will tell you the general direction that you need to head, and if it’s above or below your current height. The issue is that it will not tell you if something is in a cave, so it might tell you to go down if you are standing on the icon, but it won’t say anything about how you have to do that.

The other aspect of the Zelda Notes is the Voice Memories, which are 15-30second snippets of lore. In Breath of the Wild these come from Princess Zelda, whereas in Tears of the Kingdom the princess is joined by Master Kohga and King Rauru. With the Zelda Notes app open, you can select them on the navigation and direct yourself towards them, or if you find them naturally, they will play on the device. But there are a few things to be aware of, the first is that if you are attempting to navigate to any location with the guidance active, and you stumble up a Voice Memory, it will override your GPS. The second thing is that if you are not expecting them, they can surprise you, because there is nothing in the actual game to indicate where a memory is, just via the Zelda Notes app. Across the two games there are a few hundred Voice Memories to discover and while some are minor, some do provide some great lore and there are plenty that put the pronunciation of words into speech, which should help settle those naming debates.

What these releases don’t do is make any fundamental differences between the Switch versions and the Switch 2 versions gameplay wise. While this is not an issue per say, it would have been a great time for Nintendo to take the Tears of the Kingdom inventory system and apply it to Breath of the Wild, as that is not the best. We also could have seen more tweaks or updates to the games, to give players who already own the games more to do. Now I am not suggesting that each game needed a 40-hour expansion tacked on, but a few new mini-games would have been nice. Because of the lack of new content, outside of the Voice Memories, there is really nothing here to drive players back to playing the games again, especially if you have already sunk hundreds of hours into them.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Editions for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are just the most refined versions of those games. The new 60fps mode, locked resolutions and HDR support mean that the games are running and looking the best they possibly can. The inclusion of Zelda Notes is either going to be something you want to enjoy or you care little about, the Voice Memories are great sources for lore though. With the lack of any new things to do though, returning players may not be that impressed. If you still have things to do, or are coming in for the first time you are getting the definitive versions of the games, but for those who have completed them already, this would be the time to savour the games, rather than being the saviour.

The Score

9.0

Review code provided by Nintendo

The Pros

The performance and presentation updates are fantastic, with the games looking and running their best

The Zelda Notes app does make exploring the world easier and the Voice Memories are great for lore…

The Cons

…but it does have some issues with its navigation at times, which can be frustrating

There is no new content to either game, so returning players might be disappointed