‘The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’ Runs Rough, Looks Good (For The Switch)

Forbes Innovation Games ‘The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’ Runs Rough, Looks Good (For The Switch) Paul Tassi Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet. Following May 14, 2023, 09:28am EDT | Press play to listen to this article! Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has arrived, and there’s no disputing that it’s an extremely good game full of creative building and combat encounters, and an easy GOTY contender, if not winner.

But in terms of how the game performs, I’m mostly seeing two main thoughts: 1) It’s a miracle this game runs on Switch at all, and looks as good as it does (grading on a curve). 2) Performance on Switch is extremely rough to the point where it’s hurting the game, and actively encouraging emulation. So in effect, Tears of the Kingdom is showing us what essentially fully maxing out the capabilities of the Switch looks like after six years, including looking better than a lot of high profile recent releases like Pokemon.

But performance has gotten to a level that’s actively harmful to a game like this, 720p handheld where the game routinely dips below 30 fps and into the 20s. Of course, performance isn’t everything. I’ve heard some uh, interesting takes about how Redfall can score in the 50s on Metacritic when it’s 4K 30 fps, but at 720p 20 fps, while Zelda is racking up perfect scores.

The difference, of course, is that past performance, Redfall is a very bad game and Tears of the Kingdom is a very good game. So good in fact, that most people are going to be able to look past how poorly it runs. MORE FOR YOU Leak Reveals Secret Democrat Plan For A Game Changing U S Crypto Crackdown That Could Hit The Price Of Bitcoin And Ethereum Daniel Penny Raises $1.

3 Million On Crowdfunding Site After Being Charged In Chokehold Killing Of Jordan Neely Forget The New MacBook Pro, Apple Has Something Much Better The best take I’ve heard about Tears’ performance is that in a few years this is going to make for one hell of a remaster for the Nintendo Switch 2, or whatever it ends up being called. Even avid Nintendo players have been calling for new hardware for ages at this point. The problem with the Switch was that it launched behind the technical capabilities of even the PS4 and Xbox One, understandable given its portability focus.

But now we’re years into the next generation and the ancient hardware is proving to be a real obstacle. Again, this isn’t to say Switch 2 needs PS5 level graphics and 4K 60 fps gameplay. But it does need some significant improvements from what we have here, as low res, low fps gameplay will make any game, even a great one, feel worse.

This also manifests in different ways, like how creations you build might not save after an area transfer or death or save reload, and you’ll lose your building work. A version of this game running on upgraded hardware likely wouldn’t have that issue as often. I’ve also seen a lot of chatter about just how well the game performs on emulators.

Not that I’m condoning that, of course, but it’s a way that people who want to play the game are getting around the Switch’s severe technical limitations, and they’re loving it even more because of that. I suppose the “moral” way forward there would be to emulate, but also purchase a $70 copy so Nintendo gets their money? I’ll leave that philosophical debate for another day. So, Tears of the Kingdom is excellent, but a showcase that yes, it’s very much time for Nintendo to release new hardware to replace the Switch.

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