Daily Debate: Where Does Tears of the Kingdom Rank Among Nintendo’s Most Graphically Impressive Games?
Posted on October 03 2023 by Rod Lloyd
Tears of the Kingdom is undoubtedly a gorgeous game to look at. It not only inherited the slick naturalistic beauty of its predecessor Breath of the Wild, but it expanded the pallet with new visually distinct areas such as Sky Islands and the Depths. I admittedly had to stop at several points in my adventure just to take in the scenery, such as when the sun set over the Great Sky Island or when I first saw the Fire Temple lit up among the darkness of the Depths.
But for all its graphical strengths, where does Tears of the Kingdom rank among Nintendo’s most impressive-looking titles?
This entire query came to me when I booted up Metroid Prime Remastered for the first time earlier this week. That game, despite its designation as a “remaster,” might be the best-looking Nintendo game I’ve ever seen. The high-definition paintjob on top of the strong visual design of the original Metroid Prime really helps to make this Switch re-release stand out. And it got me thinking: what other games stand alongside Prime Remastered as Nintendo’s best in the graphics department?
Other than the aforementioned Tears of the Kingdom and Metroid Prime Remastered, a quick survey of the Zelda Dungeon staff highlighted Pikmin 4, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Super Mario Odyssey as Nintendo’s best-looking games. While I think that the latter two mentioned benefit from a more stylized, cartoonish look, I have to agree that those five titles are among Nintendo’s best, graphically speaking. But where Tears of the Kingdom stacks up is up for discussion.
What do you think? Where does Tears of the Kingdom rank among Nintendo’s most graphically impressive games? How does it stack up to the games mentioned above? Is there a Nintendo game that wasn’t mentioned that looks better than the rest? Join the debate in the comments below!
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
