2023 – Year of the Zonai

If you were to sum up the year 2023 for most Zelda fans in four words, then these words would be "Tears of the Kingdom". After five years in the making, the sequel to Breath of the Wild finally arrived this year, on May 12th to be exact. And as the next big 3D Zelda game it really has left an impact, where it was the sole focus for the series in 2023.

We already knew about the release date when we went into the year, and to keep us invested until then Nintendo released two trailers, as well as a gameplay presentation by Mr. Aonuma himself, which gave us a first peek at the mind-blowing abilities.

However, already in February the artbook for the game got leaked in its entirety, revealing many details about what it's going to offer three months in advance, where fans had to be careful if they didn't want to see potential spoilers. Things got even worse when the entire game found its way onto the internet at the beginning of May...

The release of the game was a big one, checking off almost all possible boxes. It all started on April 28th already, two weeks before the launch of Tears of the Kingdom: Nintendo finally put a Zelda edition of the Nintendo Switch on the market, after six years of waiting. Better late than never. The Nintendo Switch OLED Model in the "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Edition" is a looker and probably got many fans to replace their old Nintendo Switch systems, unless they have been waiting for this long... But Nintendo really wanted you to double-dip with this one.

If you wanted some merchandise around the game, then Nintendo had you covered as well. It got a Collector's Edition, containing the aforementioned artbook, a steelbook, a steel poster, and some pins. There were a variety of (pre-order) bonus items, most notably a coin and a medal. There was a new amiibo of Link from the game. If you wanted to put your new Nintendo Switch into a matching carrying case, you could do that as well. And finally, the game even got a Pro Controller of its own. There was everything...

Well, almost everything. The one thing Nintendo didn't want to do with Tears of the Kingdom was making DLC for it, so there was no Expansion Pass, nor free updates, or anything alike. And that's okay, it's admirable to get a full package these days, where a game is completely done and polished on its launch, but it became a lot more silent around Tears of the Kingdom in the second half of the year. There were two additional amiibo in early November, based on Zelda and Ganondorf from the game, but that was it. (We never even got a Tears of the Kingdom theme for Tetris 99, which is a shame.)

The game itself impressed with its mechanics, first and foremost all the possibilities that come with Ultrahand and Fuse, but also its completely seamless world and the huge amount of things to do, where you might be still playing it to date. Being based on Breath of the Wild and its game world, it doesn't achieve the same level of novelty and sense of wonder, however.

In any case, it was a successful title, which has sold over 19.5 million copies according to the last report in November. By now, after all the sales for Christmas, it certainly has crossed over the 20 million mark, making it clear that the new direction for the Zelda series is on a whole other level and is here to stay, whether you like it or not.

In November we also saw the announcement of an upcoming Zelda live action movie, directed by Wes Ball. There wasn't really anything to go by here and it will probably take years before we see some first footage, but it was good to know nevertheless. It was just a small distraction in a year that was all about the newest game in the Zelda series.

If you were looking for more distractions by Nintendo, then the year 2023 offered a variety of things to get you covered. There were some small Zelda cameos in both the remake of Super Mario RPG and the new Super Mario Bros. Wonder, with Link still sleeping and Manbo's Mambo respectively. And speaking of Mario, if you're still taking the Master Cycle (Zero) to the race courses of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, then there were 24 more courses and eight new characters to choose from, thanks to the 2nd half of the Booster Course Pass. Plus, The Super Mario Bros. Movie also was very entertaining and should make you less worried about the upcoming Zelda film.

Fans of Nintendo's Action Adventures in general also might have been interested in Metroid Prime Remastered or Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, both of which came out in the first quarter of the year and were therefore excellent choices for passing the time until Tears of the Kingdom.

Outside of the Nintendo bubble, Super Dungeon Maker did a good job at showing us how a 2D Zelda Dungeon Maker could have looked like... And Baldur's Gate 3 made it together with Tears of the Kingdom one of the strongest years in gaming to date, where both games put the player's freedom and creative problem solving first, in means that will be remembered for years to come.