Zelda: Breath of the Wild on WiiU

[Orion's Islands]

Just jumped off a cliff with Zelda: Breath of the Wild.....
(Actually I meant as a gamer but you can do that in the game too...!)


(Screen capture in the opening scenes from our WiiU)

Pretty much no one in my family has ever played a Zelda game. I have always noted it in the pop culture background but it never made it into my gaming buys...until now.
We have the WiiU and have recently been tempted by the Switch. In evaluating the Switch and deciding on the pro's and con's, I caught alot about this newest Zelda game. It embraces the open world concept with both arms and a few of the more 'modern' gaming styles, which apparently is a bit of a jump for the Zelda franchise. The reviews have been glowing and my own observations were encouraging enough for me to seriously consider it.

I picked up Assassin's Creed III for the WiiU a year or two ago but haven't gotten that into it (No direct shot on the game as my time has been at a premium). The gameplay is cool but it just didn't grab me. I have been looking for a title that would ease me through the technical with some distracting charm, beauty and/or mystique so I could re-up my participation in some of the more modern gaming.


(screen capture from our WiiU)


(I gotta say...Zelda:BOW has given me that! and, if my son's frequent requests to monopolize the console are any indication, him too. My wife has even tried her hand at it.)
So as we explored our options about the SWITCH, Zelda:BOW began to rise as a possibility to re-engage with a state of the art open world type game. In the end, Being a WiiU owner presented us with the option of sidestepping the SWITCH (for now).
As it solidified that we would wait on a SWITCH purchase (time for the bugs to be stamped out of the system, console game bundles, deeper library), the WiiU version of Zelda became a viable option to make the move on.
This Zelda was originally designed for the WiiU and then adapted somewhere along its development cycle to be ported to the SWITCH. As a result potentially, the game quality on the WiiU promised to be quite high. Screen comparisons between the two versions seemed pretty close. Finally, the actual game reviews have been, I think it safe to say, glowing! So...if I was gonna give big open world gameplay a try...Why not shoot for a widely acclaimed winner?
In addition, the reality is that the WiiU system has finished its primary lifecycle. Zelda looks to be the last major release for it. Personally, my family and I have been quite pleased with it. We purchased it to support our 'Skylandic' Adventures, beginning with Swap Force, I believe. It has a been a champ and we got games like Mario Kart8 and Splatoon to boot! And, I almost forgot: side bonus---no online gameplay costs. So for us finishing with Zelda means we finish our WiiU game Library strong, with a game that adds a whole dimension, a whole facet of the gameplay diamond to the WiiU's utility for us: namely, a real good Open World Playground.
Final Result: Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in, The SWITCH will wait.

[Orion's Islands]

(Screenshot from our WiiU, PS. The Sheikah Slate was apparently made to resemble the WiiU gamepad!! Pretty funny that...I know they tweaked it a bit when they decided to SWITCH-I-FY the game)

Well that was the history, the real time reality: We have had it for @3days and I gotta say...Wow! It is good.
Just what the doctor... well, I don't know about ordered but certainly what I wish the doctor would have in his waiting room.
The overall vibe is...well...just pleasing. Its a bit Zen. Quiet and immersive, it really gives you the experience of stepping off into another dimension for some R and R. The minimal soundtrack adds without distraction. The promise of high adventure is heralded by the immediate realization that this world...is...huge! Really huge in its bigness. Sorta like, "Here's your backpack, there's the Grand Canyon and we will pick you up on the other side in a month or two" huge. The vista's are wide and freeing....sorta like this game is open to the sky.
Complimenting this feel is the ease with which you move about...seemless....no lag times and I haven't noticed any dropped frame rates. (Not that i am a gaming expert who might have the experience to recognize such things easier.) Want to move over there...go. Climb that rock face...have at it. Burn that bush....Light it up.
The open gameplay works for me. Example is my son loves to turn-n-burn, go hit up the objectives, skip that pickup...move along. I, on the other hand, love to explore, delay the next objective, check out what's over that next ridge.

[Orion's Islands]

The exploration continues...and so does the fun!

My prayers are sometimes answered...

[Orion's Islands]

Still enjoying the game...
I'm just about ready to take on GANNON....the BIG Boss...
IT has been fun so far....and I have the DLC expansion to look forward to...

Tell me this guy isn't cool...!!!

(I don't want to spoil anything0