ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM: BUILD YOUR WAY TO THE SKY
9.5 of 10 bananas. A towering sequel that turns Hyrule into a sandbox of glue, wheels, and sky islands. Elite, with small scars.
By the Alpha. Switch game card listing. Updated Oct 17 2026.
Honest note: This is not a fresh hands-on playtest. I built this verdict from launch reviews, critic consensus, update history, and what is known about the game today. If I put real hours in on stream, I will update the score and say so.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, and it also plays on Switch 2. The Amazon button is the US Nintendo Switch physical release (Nintendo, released May 12 2023). At my Oct 17 check it was not sold by Amazon.com: offers came from third-party sellers in the mid fifties, one of them shipped by Amazon. Check the seller before you pay. A separate Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and an upgrade pack are sold too; this button is not that edition. No PC, PlayStation, or Xbox version exists.
Get Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo Switch on AmazonSit with me a moment. I watched a young gorilla glue a fan to a plank, add a steering stick, and fly across a canyon. He laughed so hard he fell off. That is Tears of the Kingdom. It hands you tools and trusts you to be clever, then lets you fail in the funniest ways.
What It Wants To Be
Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to Breath of the Wild. Link explores Hyrule again, plus islands floating in the sky and a vast dark world below. New powers shape everything: Ultrahand to grab and glue objects into bridges and vehicles, Fuse to bolt items onto weapons and arrows, Ascend to rise through ceilings, and Recall to rewind an object through time.
What Works
The building is genius. Few open worlds let you solve a problem ten ways, and players have built machines the designers never imagined. The sky, surface, and depths stack into one huge map that rewards curiosity. Critics gave it some of the highest scores of its year, and the listing banner notes its 2023 Best Action Adventure Game award. The Amazon listing shows 4.9 of 5 from more than 24,000 ratings.
What Breaks
Listen well. The surface reuses much of Breath of the Wild's Hyrule, so returning players see familiar ground. Weapons still break, which some love and some hate. Building with Ultrahand can get fiddly with the Joy-Cons. On the original Switch the frame rate dips in busy scenes; Switch 2 owners may prefer the paid Switch 2 Edition, which this button is not. Amazon.com was not the seller at my check.
Who Should Play
Play it if you love exploration, puzzles, and tinkering. Bring patience and curiosity. Skip it if you want a tight linear Zelda with classic dungeons first and freedom second.
STRENGTHS
- Ultrahand building freedom
- Sky, surface, and depths
- Countless creative solutions
- Plays on Switch and Switch 2
HONEST COSTS
- Reuses much of the old map
- Weapons still break
- Fiddly building controls
- Third-party sellers at my check
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