'Beyond expectation': Nintendo's latest Zelda title launches to critical acclaim

If university lecture halls and offices looked a little quiet on Friday, it may be down to Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – the latest in Nintendo's long-running series of vast, life-absorbing adventure video games – has launched for the firm's Switch console to a chorus of critical praise. On review aggregation site Metacritic, it currently has an average score of 97/100, putting it comfortably in video games' top echelon. That makes it a game worth taking a day off work to play – or maybe even a week. If Mario is gaming's most recognisable face, the medium's equivalent of Mickey Mouse, Zelda is more like Indiana Jones – clever, swashbuckling and much imitated.