Nintendo shows Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay, announces limited-edition Switch OLED console

The Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED releases on April 28, 2023 and will cost $360. The high-profile game, meanwhile, will release on May 12.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes out for the Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023. (Nintendo)

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Nintendo has released 10 minutes of gameplay footage from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Tears of the Kingdom will launch as a Nintendo Switch exclusive, perhaps one of the year’s most-anticipated games. The Japanese giant is slowly building momentum around the high-profile title, which is coming to the Switch on May 12.

The company on Tuesday held a virtual-styled Direct event where it showed 10 minutes of new gameplay and the first look at the game in action. The footage, which was narrated by series producer Eiji Aonuma, gave a preview of Link’s new abilities in detail “There are lots of ways to reach the Sky Islands, so we hope you’ll try a few different methods,” Aonuma says.

These abilities impact both combat and traversal: Recall, Fuse, Ultrahand, and Ascend. Nintendo has not revealed a lot about the plot of the game. The Mario maker describes the upcoming Breath of the wild sequel as an “epic adventure across the land and skies of Hyrule.”

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Also read | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Everything you need to know about Nintendo’s big Switch title

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be priced at $70, the company’s first game to surpass the $60 price mark. During an interview with the Associated Press, Nintendo president Doug Bowser clarified that not every first-party game will start at $70.

Alongside the big reveal for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo revealed a limited-edition Zelda-themed edition of the Switch.

The Switch’s dock has beautiful golden runes on a white background, matching the pattern on Link’s Hero’s Shield. The console itself mixes gold and green, which are also the theme colours of the game. The special-edition console will retail for $360 and will sell without the game. Separately, Nintendo plans to sell a new Zelda-themed controller and carrying case.

The Nintendo Switch OLED has a bigger screen than the original Nintendo Switch and comes with 64GB of storage space and an improved kick-stand.

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Despite continued chatter on the next-generation Switch console online, Nintendo maintains that its hybrid console is only “in the middle of its lifecycle.” The sales of Switch have reached over 120 million units, making it the second bestselling console in Nintendo’s history.

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