The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Review

This review is for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. It focuses solely on the changes and new features included in the upgrade pack for the original Nintendo Switch game. Our original review still applies to the majority of the game. If you haven’t played Tears of the Kingdom, please note that this review contains a spoiler for a location that may be considered significant.

Nintendo had a problem after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — how do you follow that up without spending another ten years developing an entirely new game? So we got another Zelda set in the same Hyrule, using the same map, but — like the game’s core mechanic — with a lot more glued onto it.

Tears of the Kingdom not only introduced the building Ultrahand mechanic, which somehow worked flawlessly despite its complexity, but also added two entirely new maps — one in the sky and one below ground. The game was far denser and larger than Breath of the Wild, pushing the Switch to its absolute limit. You could almost see the system struggling as it assembled wild creations or tried to keep up with your companions in battle. All of that is resolved here in the Switch 2 Edition.

Like Breath of the Wild, the game now runs — for the vast majority of the time — at a silky 60fps, with a higher frame rate and HDR support, and it just looks superb. Loading times have also been dramatically improved — so much so that loading screens could almost disappear entirely. It’s remarkable how much a stable frame rate improves the experience; building is easier, and you can use the gyro controls to whip objects around without waiting for the game to catch up.

Some parts of the game still show their age — certain locations and textures remain a bit simple or underdone — but under that 60fps shine, it’s hard to complain. The game’s vistas and sunrises pop with HDR; it’s all just magical. If you only played Breath of the Wild and skipped Tears of the Kingdom because the building mechanics put you off, now might be the perfect time to give it another shot.

The second part of the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Tears of the Kingdom is the Zelda Notes feature, accessible via the Nintendo Switch app on your phone. It includes newly recorded voice memories that add more context to locations in the game, along with extensive gameplay stats, amiibo tracking, item and photo sharing, and more.

When Tears of the Kingdom first launched, it came out at such a busy time—and after already exploring every inch of Breath of the Wild’s map—I didn’t dive into exploration as much as I had before. This time around, though, with the Navigation feature built into the app, I’ve been going back to finish all the Shrines and uncover tasks and missions I never would have found otherwise—without being shown the way.

Would I recommend using it on your first playthrough? No way—it spoils the sense of discovery. But if you just want to see what’s still out there, having a list really helps.

I’m not one of those people constantly whining, “What happens when they turn the servers off?” — but all of these features will eventually disappear into the cloud server in the sky when the Switch era is over. It’s a bit sad they couldn’t build this functionality directly into the game itself.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom didn’t sell as well as Breath of the Wild, and if you have to pick only one, you’ll probably go with the latter. But if you haven’t played it at all, now’s the perfect time to check it out at its silky smooth best on the Nintendo Switch 2. Hyrule in Tears is a world worth exploring again.

Rating: 5/5

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is available at retail as a separate release; the Upgrade Pack for the Nintendo Switch 2 will download automatically when the game card is inserted. You can also purchase the Upgrade Pack separately for $20 AUD, or if you’re a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscriber, the Upgrade Packs are included free for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.