It's been a long time coming, but The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's release is finally here. The highly anticipated follow up to Nintendo's smash hit game from 2017, early reviews for Tears of the Kingdom have already been showering praise and tease another wondrous good time in the land of Hyrule. Just as Breath of the Wild kicked off the Nintendo Switch's lifecycle with a bang, it seems almost fitting that another Zelda game is here towards the end to serve as a swan song in the console's twilight years.
That being said, Breath of the Wild wasn't the only blockbuster success on the Nintendo Switch in 2017. As a one-two punch, Nintendo's other iconic mascot Mario also graced the platform in the latter half of the year with the outstanding Super Mario Odyssey. This combination of two Game of the Year worthy titles available in one year worked wonders for the Switch last time, so it would be wise (and almost fitting) for history to repeat itself in these final moments of the Switch's lifespan to help the platform go out with a bang.
2017 - The Year of Zelda and Mario
Breath of the Wild took the world by storm in early 2017 and was the talk of the industry for weeks, and even months after release. While other noteworthy and great games were released in the same timeframe such as Horizon: Zero Dawn and NieR: Automata, Zelda seemed to completely dominate the conversation. Breath of the Wild was appropriately considered a breath of fresh air not only for the Zelda franchise, but the open world adventure genre as a whole. Not willing to rest on its laurels, Nintendo had another ace up its sleeve set for October of the same year.
Just as the hype for Breath of the Wild was finally beginning to calm down, Nintendo maintained its firm grip on the attention of gamers everywhere with the infectiously joyful Super Mario Odyssey. While not a complete reinvention of its series as Breath of the Wild was for Zelda, Super Mario Odyssey was the Mario formula fine-tuned to absolute perfection. Both of these games dropping in one year and being released far enough from each other made Nintendo a formidable player once more after the woes of the Wii U era.
Mario is the Perfect Compliment to TOTK
Although Nintendo is home to many iconic faces such as Samus Aran and Donkey Kong, it is hard to deny that both Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda serve as the company's bread and butter. Nearly every installment has raked in multiple accolades and huge profits, still remaining relevant in the public eye for over three decades. While Nintendo hasn't unveiled its plans for the second half of 2023 (which looks pretty barren as of the writing of this article) it's hard to believe that the company has nothing planned at all after Tears of the Kingdom releases.
Gamers will likely be hungry for more Tears of the Kingdom in the months ahead in the form of DLC content, and what better way to buy time than to launch a brand-new Mario adventure. Even without a new video game, the mustached plumber is still the talk of the town with The Super Mario Bros movie making a billion dollars in revenue at the box office. It is hard to think of a better platform to build on to launch a new Mario game, satisfying Nintendo fans that are craving something new after Tears of the Kingdom.
What kind of Mario game this could be would be purely based upon speculation at this point. A sequel to Super Mario Odyssey has been rumored for a long time, so that could be a potential release, or even a remaster of an older title in the style of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe would suffice. Nintendo has all the pieces, it's just a matter of putting them into position.
The Legends of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches for Nintendo Switch on May 12.
