I truly didn't know how Nintendo could top Breath of the Wild. I was nervous in the week leading up to this games release because I was plagued with the thought of "what if it's not as good as the last one? I don't like crafting/survival games. What if this is the first Zelda game that just isn't for me?"

Oh, how good it feels to be wrong.

This is, quite possibly, the best video game I have ever played. Tears of the Kingdom doesn't just clear the bar set by its predecessor – it flies high over it, expanding on the world of Hyrule in ways that I thought weren't originally possible. The sandbox elements of TOTK's world always had me wondering what contraption could be made to solve an issue or what bizarre combinations were possible through fusion. It frequently elicited moments where I asked myself "did the devs intend for me to do that?" and the answer was often "no, but I bet they created this toolkit with infinite possibilities in mind."