You owe it to yourself to play Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Switch OLED — trust me

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom running on a special edition Nintendo Switch OLED

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Link’s latest adventure is an utter delight. If Tears of the Kingdom is the last major hit for its handheld hybrid before the much-rumored Nintendo Switch 2 is announced, you couldn’t ask for a better swansong. Despite my love for Tears though, it initially left me cold. Mainly because I’m an idiot.

What We're Playing

Welcome! This column is part of a series in which members of the Tom's Guide staff share what they're playing and enjoying right now, with the goal of helping you find great games that you may have missed. Be sure to check out our previous entry where we also talk about the joy of building Lego Star Wars sets from the Mandalorian.

Alright, a bit of context is required. When I first started playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I wasn’t in the best place… even though I was in the best place.

I first downloaded Link’s open-world wonder while on holiday in Honolulu, over some extremely shoddy hotel Wi-Fi. My beloved Arsenal had just blown the English Premier League title after being smashed by Brighton, and the glacial download worsened my already stinking mood. None of this is obviously TotK’s fault.

Big isn't better

Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED — (Image credit: Future)

Fast forward a couple of weeks and an equally jet lagged me tries (and fails) to get back into Zelda a few days after getting home to Scotland. Spoiler: it doesn’t go well.

Firing the game up in Portable mode, my eyes are instantly offended by the game’s 900p resolution and lack of anti-aliasing. When you’re used to playing the best PS5 games in 4K on a 77-inch LG C2 OLED, it’s hard to stomach sub-1080p on such a gargantuan screen.

Thankfully, that’s not where the journey ends. A few days later (and with a couple of decent nights’ sleep under my belt), I start playing Tears in Portable mode on my Nintendo Switch OLED and everything suddenly clicks.

That pin-sharp 7-inch screen instantly elevates every second of Tears of the Kingdom. Delivering punchy colors and vibrant contrast, the Switch OLED’s superb 720p display is the must-play way to experience Link’s epic quest. I may own one of the best OLED TVs you can buy in 2023, but I’d much rather play ToTK on Nintendo’s upgraded Switch in Portable mode.

Size clearly isn’t everything — a relief, considering I’m only 5’ 8 (that's 172cm for my American colleagues). Almost every great moment I’ve had on Switch is because of that awesome little display. When you play ToTK on the Switch OLED, any concerns about resolution or anti-aliasing melt away because the images the handheld serves up are so sharp.

Handheld in the highest regard

Due to its technical limitations, Nintendo’s console isn’t overly suited to big-screen gaming; yet that OLED screen makes the higher-end Switch ideal for handheld play.

Now that my snobbish tech hang-ups have faded — I did tell you I was an idiot — I’m free to enjoy TotK for what it is: a stone cold masterpiece.

The sequel to Breath of the Wild is sensational. With a welcome return to more traditional dungeon design and that gloriously playful Ultrahand ability, I’m beyond besotted with this all-time great.

I’ve played Tears of the Kingdom for at least five hours every night for the past week. It’s such a pleasure to get lost in that colossal fantasy kingdom again. And those Shrines? Fuhgeddaboudit. Link’s wonderful Ultrahand makes bashing bits of wood, metal and primitive motors together a DIY delight — creating impromptu vehicles out of odds and sods reminds me of 2008’s unfairly lampooned Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

So thank you, Switch OLED. Your wondrous screen just saved me from turning my back on the best game I’ve played since Elden Ring.

More from Tom's Guide

What We're Playing

Welcome! This column is part of a series in which members of the Tom's Guide staff share what they're playing and enjoying right now, with the goal of helping you find great games that you may have missed. Be sure to check out our previous entry where we also talk about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and how it's a game all about breaking things.

Dave is a computing editor at Tom’s Guide and covers everything from cutting edge laptops to ultrawide monitors. When he’s not worrying about dead pixels, Dave enjoys regularly rebuilding his PC for absolutely no reason at all. In a previous life, he worked as a video game journalist for 15 years, with bylines across GamesRadar+, PC Gamer and TechRadar. Despite owning a graphics card that costs roughly the same as your average used car, he still enjoys gaming on the go and is regularly glued to his Switch. Away from tech, most of Dave’s time is taken up by walking his husky, buying new TVs at an embarrassing rate and obsessing over his beloved Arsenal.