After Just 10 Minutes With Breath Of The Wild's Switch 2 Port, I Know I Can Never Go Back To The Original

By 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:George Foster

Published Apr 4, 2025

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is one of my favourite games o💮f all time and a true titan of ’s first-party releases. Ever since I first started Link’s genre-defining 𓃲adventure on the before eventually moving my progress to the , I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into clambering around Hyrule, cooking up Dubious Food, and failing to reflect more Guardian lasers than I care to count.

I even liked the weapon durability, 16👍8澳洲ജ幸运5开奖网:despite how much people whinged about it.

As much as I love Breath of the Wild, I’d be lying if I said it was perfect. Korok Seeds are a pain, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Shrines get samey, and the story is pretty forgettable overall. These are all complaints I’m sure you’ve heard and may not agree with, but the one thing most agree on is that BOTW was ꦬheld back by the Switch’s technica⛎l capabilities.

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Hyrule is humongous and full of detail in Breath of the Wild and,♏ while the game is still impressive thanks to its great art direction, the low resolution and choppy framerate hold it back. I’ve always wondered what Breath of the Wild (and to a lesser extent, the great-but-not-for-me ) wou🍒ld look like if Nintendo went all in on a powerful console.

That oddly specific wish of mine has finally been granted thanks to the Nintendo🍷 Switch 2 and its enha💙nced port of Breath of the Wild: a true showcase for what the can do with older games. After playing it at a recent preview, I’m ready to d🦩ive back into Hyrule for yet another console g♒eneration.

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My all-too-brief preview was split into two halves meant to show the improvements in a few different scenarios. The first, which I played in handheld mode, took me back to where it all began as Link wakes up in the Shrine of Resurrection. This meant a lot of♍ watching cutscenes I’ve seen a dozen times alr🌼eady, but I didn’t mind since the colours popped like never before.

The Shrine of Resurrection intro and the iconic moment when Link steps out to the Great Plateau has always been a fantastic introduction to Breath of the Wilds’ adventurous spirit, but it’s even more impressive now hat the world looks so damn good. Even in handheld mode, with the resolution dialled down, it’s an 💙impressive transformation.

As 🎶much as I would have loved the Switch 2 to have an OLE💞D screen, Breath of the Wild and everything else I played in handheld stꦛill looked great thanks to the more powerful tech and HDR capability.

As soon as I started controlling Link, the original Switch version’s shortcomings really stood out, and I knew I could never go back. Breath of the Wild’s framerate has always felt choppy and been one of the more noticeable technical hiccups for me, so seeing it with a smooth📖 60fps almost felt like experiencing it for the first time. At least, it was more than enough for me to know that I’ll be replaying it for the umpteenth time just to s𒊎ee it at its best.

After the opening’s lengthy cutscenes, I only had a few minutes of sprinting around before the handheldꦅ demo ended and I moved over to the second half of the preview in docked moℱde. This is where the bumped-up resolution and framerate sparkled even more, but I was also given access to a few save files that let me explore a bit more of the world to see even more improvements.

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Link running through the Korok Forest in Breath of the Wild's Nintendo Switch 2 edition.

Another issue with the original Switch release of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is the long load times, which added up if you liked to fast-travel a lot. Now, thꦡough, they’re barely there at all, with the teleporting cutscene taking longer than the fast-travel itself. It’s another minor upgrade, but one that’s appreciated ൲for someone who has already spent so much time in Hyrule.

Beyond marvelling at just how different Breath of the Wild feels with something as simple as a﷽ stabilised framerate, I spent the rest of my short demo just running around, dreading the moment the clock ran out. When it did, I knew that my fate was sealed and I was doomed to dive back in and extend ไmy already stacked playtime for the third console generation in a row.

Breath of the Wild benefits massively from the Switch 2 changes and seems worthy of the upgrade fee, even if the full🌠 retail price is a step even I’m not willing to take. My overall positive🦋 impressions are just based on theᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ more obvious changes too, as I didn’t get to fiddle around with some of the other features like Zelda Notes.

The upgrade for both Zelda games are free for Nintendo Switch Online members if they own the base game, which is a nice addition. Iꦦ wish upgrades had n🔯ever become a paid thing in the first place, but such is the gaming industry.

Sadly, I didn’t get the time to see Tears of the 🦄Kingdom๊’s enhanced Switch 2 release, but considering how much that game pushed the original Switch, I’m betting that it benefits even more from a smoother framerate and faster load times. It also seems like a greater fit for Zelda Notes thanks to the creation-sharing tools, which might be enough to encourage a replay out of me.

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kinꩲgdom are both good signs for what Nintendo can do with these enhanced editions. I hope more games get the same treatment, even if none o♉f them can benefit quite as much as this iconic pair.