20 Nintendo Games You Must Play Before You Die
11. Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (Switch)
Link finally came of age in Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. This was the moment when Nintendo ditched the series' tried and tested template and went full open world.
There's brilliance to be found in every corner of the game's rich sandbox, whether you're lost in off-the-beaten-track exploration or ticking off the story quests. Where Breath of the Wild borrows existing ideas, it polishes and perfects them. The rest of the time it's introducing players to all-new ones.
The Zelda series had already raised the bar staggeringly high, but with Breath of the Wild and its sandbox of delights, Nintendo did what was seemingly impossible by taking the franchise above and beyond.
This fresh approach was as bold as it was necessary. In a world where The Witcher 3 and Skyrim had already happened, the Big N needed to reinvent Zelda to keep it relevant, and the way it went about that was both evolution and revolution in motion.