Playing Nintendo’s Greatest Triumph On Its Biggest Failure

As Shigeru Miyamoto ne'er really said, “A delayed crippled is yet good, but a bad crippled is everlastingly bad.” This sliding-doors conception gains an additional, poignant magnitude erstwhile considering The Legend of Zelda: Breath of nan Wild, because that game’s hold affected much than its quality. Originally planned for merchandise successful 2015 arsenic a Wii U exclusive, Breath of nan Wild’s displacement to early 2017 moved it onto nan motorboat lineup for nan Nintendo Switch. It went from propping up a grounded console to becoming nan crippled that defined nan Switch, and redefined Nintendo, for a full caller era.

That halo has made it easy to hide that nan Wii U type of Breath of nan Wild was really released. Not for nan first time, Nintendo chose a Zelda crippled to play nan dual domiciled of swan opus for 1 procreation and curtain-raiser for different (appropriately for nan Zelda series, pinch its preoccupation pinch nan closed loop of history). In 2006, Twilight Princess was released connected some nan outgoing GameCube and nan brand-new Wii. On that occasion, you could spot nan cracks. The Wii’s caller mobility controller was an awkward fresh for Twilight Princess, and nan game’s deliberate classicism fought pinch nan bright, casual, cautiously neutral artistic Nintendo was advancing pinch different motorboat titles for illustration Wii Sports. It was intelligibly a GameCube holdover successful ill-fitting clothing.

Nintendo was not astir to fto nan aforesaid point hap to Breath of nan Wild — this time, it optimized nan crippled for nan caller console and retrofitted it into nan old. Firing nan Wii U type up recently, I recovered precisely nan aforesaid crippled that had seared itself into our corporate consciousness. Producer Eiji Aonuma, head Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and their squad had taken attraction to stamp retired thing that mightiness person tied it to nan idiosyncrasies of nan Wii U hardware.

If anything, it is nan Wii U type that feels retired of place, mostly owed to its capacity issues. Nintendo took advantage of nan mini magnitude of other headroom afforded by nan Switch’s specs to output a higher-resolution image erstwhile docked, and to push nan physics motor and biology item past nan constituent nan Wii U was comfortable with. Mostly, Breath of nan Wild plays awesome connected Wii U, but it suffers from a very choppy framework complaint erstwhile subjecting Bokoblins to physics-based carnage, panning past heavy vistas of nan Hyrule landscape, aliases visiting densely elaborate locations for illustration Kakariko Village.

It’s not unplayable, but not what you expect of Nintendo; that nan institution was happy to unrecorded pinch this level of capacity says a batch astir nan grade to which it had already moved connected from nan Wii U. The crippled besides looks a small hazy and washed-out by comparison to nan Switch version, whether played successful 720p connected a large TV aliases connected nan Wii U Gamepad’s inferior screen.

Otherwise, though, Breath of nan Wild is wholly uncompromised connected Wii U. Or is it? Playing nan crippled connected a TV, pinch nan chunky slab of nan Gamepad successful your hands, you get a faint, vestigial consciousness of a much bespoke Wii U acquisition that mightiness person been. When Link collects his Sheikah Slate and downloads a representation onto it, it seems for illustration a deliberate echo of nan console’s unsocial dual-screen functionality. Surely we were meant to person nan representation unfastened successful our laps arsenic we played, aliases to beryllium navigating Link’s inventory connected nan touchscreen. In fact, Nintendo had demonstrated touchscreen features for Breath of nan Wild backmost successful 2014, but stripped them retired to guarantee full parity pinch nan Switch type — and because, Fujibayashi said, looking betwixt nan 2 screens could beryllium distracting.

Playing Breath of nan Wild connected Wii U is very nosy because Breath of nan Wild is very fun. (Have you heard? It’s a bully game.) It’s besides a small sad, because arsenic misbegotten arsenic nan Wii U was, Breath of nan Wild should person been its crowning glory. Instead, this type is simply a somewhat hobbled afterthought surviving successful nan protector of nan definitive masterwork it became connected different console. It sold 1.7 cardinal copies connected Wii U, and 32.6 cardinal connected Switch.

Playing specified a acquainted crippled successful this unfamiliar shape brought location to maine really prophetic nan creation of nan Wii U was. At nan time, it was poorly understood, but without it, nan Switch could ne'er person happened. The Wii U was almost the correct thought astatine slightly nan incorrect time. The Gamepad’s shape factor, which erstwhile felt truthful ungainly, feels wholly earthy successful nan era of nan Steam Deck. And nan magic of instantly switching your gameplay from nan TV to nan tablet successful your hands hasn’t dimmed. This is nan full conception of nan Switch, conscionable pinch nan roles reversed.

The different day, I fancied playing Breath of nan Wild in nan evening, but didn’t want to hide from my family successful my office, wherever nan Wii U was plugged in. With a abrupt jolt of delight, I realized — remembered — that I could conscionable bring nan Gamepad to nan sofa and proceed playing there. With nan Wii U, Nintendo imagined a amended world wherever your gaming could fresh astir and into your life. With nan Switch, it made that world a reality.