Game

At some point during 2017, more players owned a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild than owned a Nintendo Switch. It made sense back then: The hybrid console/handheld was hard to find, and Breath of the Wild was a system seller even if you couldn’t track down a system. It’s back on Nintendo Switch 2, and while you could play it through backwards compatibility, upgrading to the Nintendo Switch 2 edition for a mere $10—buying the Nintendo Switch 2 edition at retail—is worth the cost.

Fundamentally, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the same game on Switch 2 as it was back in 2017. You’re not going to find any new bosses to fight or areas to explore outside the DLC content added for the game several years ago. But that’s fine. Breath of the Wild holds up as an engrossing experience: exploration, combat (yes, even with weapon degradation), completing shrines, and solving myriad other puzzles is as fun today as it was eight years ago.

The first thing you’ll notice is how much faster you can get to that content. Thanks to the Switch 2’s faster processor and increase in memory, loading times have been reduced dramatically. You’ll only have to wait seconds to load your saved game and warp around the world from waypoints like shrines and towers. This alone makes Breath of the Wild worth the upgrade cost.

The second thing you’ll notice, assuming you have a 4K television, is the updated graphics. Breath of the Wild’s Switch 2 edition runs at 4K when your console is docked. If you prefer playing in handheld mode, you’ll still be treated to 1080p resolution.

In both cases, the game runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second. This, for me, is the most important of the Switch 2 edition’s upgrades. I visited a laundry list of areas, most with lots of activity, and didn’t encounter a hiccup in that frame rate. It’s a massive improvement considering the Switch 1 version struggled to maintain 30fps in areas such as the Korok Forest.

I fibbed a little earlier: There is new content, but you’ll need to use the Zelda Notes tool within the Nintendo Switch app on your phone to access it. Zelda Notes offers tools such as a GPS with voice direction to shrines, enemies, and more. But the bigger draw takes the form of over 100 audio logs you’ll have to hunt down if you want to listen to them. They’re great fun for anyone interested in expanding on the lore of the game, but you won’t miss out on anything major if you decide to skip them.

Really, the only downside to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Switch 2 edition is that the retail edition doesn’t include the DLC expansions. Considering the high cost of the game unless you upgrade, that seems like a miss. The DLC has always been optional, but it would’ve been nice of Nintendo to roll them into an already pricey package if you don’t already have the game.

Even with that said, upgrading to the Nintendo Switch 2 edition of one of the most influential video games ever made is a no-brainer. Everything from the higher resolution graphics and unwaveringly smooth frame rate to Zelda Notes functionality provides ample reason to return to Breath of the Wild, which, at its core, remains as fun today as it did when it changed the video game industry eight years ago.