The Legend of Zelda is heating up again! Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and Twilight Princess – hype builds for Switch 2
In spring 2026, chatter about The Legend of Zelda is popping up all over the games industry. The spark? Eric Barone (ConcernedApe), creator of Stardew Valley. The moment he declared in an interview that “for me, the best Zelda is Twilight Princess,” timelines across social media were instantly bathed in twilight hues. For those used to the boundless Hyrule of Breath of the Wild and beyond, those gloomy, weighty dungeons and the bond with Midna still feel incredibly vivid.
In Barone’s words, “Zelda has always kept presenting the ‘prototype of adventure’.” And it’s true – the evolution from 2006’s Twilight Princess to 2017’s Breath of the Wild and then 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom isn’t just about better graphics. It’s about how to break down the “walls” of the game world – remember that rush when you first stole the skies with the paraglider? The freedom of crafting and material fusion easily soared beyond the usual action-adventure boundaries.
18 months on from Tears of the Kingdom: Switch 2 rumours and “another Zelda”
It’s been about three years since Tears of the Kingdom launched. And fans are still posting discovery videos like “I can’t believe you can do this with Zonai devices” – that’s Nintendo’s real strength. Meanwhile, industry buzz is gradually shifting to the next-gen hardware, the “Switch 2”. I haven’t had my hands on a real unit yet, but whispers among several dev sources suggest “a new Zelda title is being prepped as a launch game.”
- A 60fps, high-resolution version of Breath of the Wild (a so-called “DX edition”)
- Additional scenario DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, exclusive to Switch 2
- An entirely new The Legend of Zelda, rebooting the style of past entries
For now, all of this is just “rumour”. But for longtime fans who, like Barone, love the linear dungeon design of Twilight Princess, a tighter experience that isn’t all about open world can feel very appealing. In fact, I recently revisited Twilight Princess HD on my Nintendo Switch Lite, and the contrast of the Twilight Realm in handheld mode brought a fresh tension that felt different from the console experience.
Why Zelda, right now? The “timeless design philosophy” behind Barone’s words
Barone goes on: “Zelda never just leans on its past legacy. Breath of the Wild smashed the series’ conventions, and Tears of the Kingdom went even further beyond that smash.” In other words, if Twilight Princess was the pinnacle of “traditional 3D Zelda”, then the games since have made “breaking free from tradition” the very core of their design.
From that perspective, just imagining what the next Zelda might look like gets the heart racing. Perhaps it’ll fully leverage the Switch 2’s new features (rumoured “camera-linked controller” or “high-speed streaming assist”) to deliver an unprecedented paradox of “building and destruction”. Or maybe they’ll deliberately refine a weighty, linear story in the vein of Twilight Princess with cutting-edge tech.
Either way, the Legend of Zelda series never loses that thrilling sense of “you never know what they’ll do next”. Right now, even on a Nintendo Switch Lite, you can easily carry both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom with you. Barone’s passionate nod to Twilight Princess while still praising the innovation of the latest games is proof that “every Zelda is part of my own youth”.
So, how about stepping into that vast Hyrule once more? Who knows – by the time the Switch 2 is officially announced, there might be one more “legend” added to the list.