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I grabbed a minecart, some glider wings, and what I thought were two perfectly placed fans. I stuck 'em all together, made sure my little Korok friend was strapped in, and proceeded to barrel off a cliff.

perfectly placed, and my adorable co-pilot threw the balance off of my "plane." The two of us were in a nosedive, headed straight for a river.

There was only one parachute between us, and guess who took it?

Needless to say, my little forest companion — who I was fully intent on rescuing — didn't make the graceful descent to safety.

That might sound like a failure, but stories like it have fueled 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

 in the first three days of its release — becoming the franchise's fastest-selling game. Much like last year's 

 lets you play your way and feel part of a community of like-minded miscreants as you do so.

Until last week, internet skeptics doubted that Nintendo could pull off a successor to the groundbreaking 

It's hard to overstate how important that 2017 game was. While 

titles have always featured huge worlds to explore — 

opened the format up more than any other. You could go straight to the final boss without completing 

That "do whatever you want" mentality fueled endless community content: Speedrunners 

, and players generally just had a great time 

Rumors of a sequel first surfaced in 2019 and sparked wild speculation. After Eiji Aonuma, the lead producer of the 

franchise, first demonstrated gameplay for 

: "$70 DLC," they said. "It's literally the same game," another wrote.

It's true that Nintendo didn't completely remake 

. They took the same game engine, crammed it with 

, and more than doubled the map's square footage. But despite the limitations of their aging Switch console, Nintendo 

Floating captivatingly above an altered Hyrule Kingdom are beautiful, intricate sky islands — their cascading waterfalls and golden trees allude to a deeper story than the one directly in front of the player — one steeped in fantastical lore that whole YouTube channels decode in 

New abilities also open the door for in-game creations that feel closer to 

. The linear plotline formula feels like a distant memory as 

opens up a sandbox with limitless toys and gadgets. How about a complex rocket? 

. Whatever ridiculous construction you can dream of, you can create.

 titles, there was usually one solution to every puzzle — bomb a wall to reveal a secret key or shoot an arrow to unlock a hidden door. In 

, there are dozens of ways to solve a particular puzzle. You 

create a makeshift glider with fans and wheels, but if that's too complicated, sticking logs together to make a 

titles have always been single-player, as ingenious and often hilarious creations flood Instagram, Reddit, and TikTok, the series has never felt more like a shared experience.

No, you can't literally play with multiple people, but you can dive into a vast sea of memes and inventions, each stranger and more illuminating than the last. It's refreshing to see 

was as good as it would get. Like the sky islands that now hover over Hyrule, 

I rewatched the final cutscenes from the prequel. In the true ending of 

, the titular princess, gazing out at her broken kingdom, says to our hero, Link: "Let's be off."

It's a line that epitomizes one of the most iconic series in video games, and 

perfectly answers Zelda's parting invitation. Adventure awaits in dark caverns below the surface and high above the clouds — let's be off and see it all.

Keller Gordon

Author

lets you play your way and feel part of a community of like-minded miscreants as you do so.

Much like last year's Elden Ring, Tears of the Kingdom lets you play your way and feel part of a community of like-minded miscreants as you do so.


The secret to Zelda's success: breaking the game in your own way

Go Deeper.

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