Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild is one of the headlining games of the Nintendo NX launch, but it may not be the best platform to play it on. As we recently reminded our readers, Breath Of The Wild is also being released on Wii U. Here are five reasons to buy the current-gen version instead.
1) Lower Cost To Invest: If you’re playing Breath Of The Wild on NX, it’s likely to be more expensive than its Wii U counterpart. We don’t truly know how much the NX will cost yet, but, considering it’s a brand new console, one can expect it to require anywhere from $250 to $500. Especially for those that already own a Wii U, that’s a lot of money. Nintendo has confirmed that both versions will be exactly the same, so paying more for the game plus an NX may not make sense for everyone.
2) It’s The Source Platform: Breath Of The Wild was initially developed as a Wii U title, and the NX port emerged later. While we don’t know for sure what impact this will have on either build, it stands to reason that the current-gen version could perform better. After all, code that was natively designed for specific hardware has a tendency to function best.
Ports are essentially conversions, and, like we’ve seen quite frequently on PC, not all conversions work out well. At some point, all of the next-gen Legend Of Zelda content had to be migrated from Wii U. Nintendo is historically great at making sure its games are polished, but there just seems to be more room for error because of that extra step. The bottom line is Breath Of The Wild was originally intended for Wii U, so it could play better there.
3) New Hardware Shortcomings: Aside from being less stable on the software end, the new NX hardware might also wind up being problematic for some players. New devices often encounter issues after launch and it’s almost inevitable that some manufacturing issues could sneak through the cracks.
At launch, some PS4s suffered from HDMI problems and quite a few Xbox Ones had faulty disc drives. It’d be a shame to invest in an NX only to not be able to play its highest-profile game right away because you inadvertently bought launch lemon hardware.
4) It May Be Smart To Wait On NX: Considering how much the Wii U, GameCube and even the N64 struggled in the sales department, it may be smart to wait on investing in NX in general. If the NX is the handheld-console hybrid that many believe it to be, there are lots of key questions that need answering before we can gauge its value in the market.
Is a device like this something that the public at large even wants? Sure the Nintendo faithful will eat it up, but what we’re getting is a totally new kind of system that might not woo everyone despite its assumed versatility. Then there’s the mystery of third-party support. The rumored NX appears markedly different from PS4 and Xbox One. Will developers put in the extra time to make content for it? Nintendo could absolutely strike it rich with NX, but, within Breath Of The Wild’s launch window, we won’t have any idea how successful its flagship machine will be.
4) We Know What To Expect: The major point to really drive home is that we already know exactly what Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild looks and plays like on Wii U. Between its lengthy appearances at E3 and other conventions, there’s enough there to be confident in. Framerates are smooth, graphics fidelity is solid and gameplay mechanics are top-notch.
If the NX actually launches in March as intended, the fact remains that we’ll have seen a lot less of that version when it actually arrives at retail. With fewer hands-on reports to gauge, it may be harder to tell what performance problems, if any, exist in the next-gen build. Why take a gamble on that when the Wii U version is certified solid?
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild comes to Wii U and NX in 2017.
Which console are you going to play Breath Of The Wild on? Do you consider the NX hardware or this version of the game to be a gamble? Tell us in the comments section!
