In the years since The Legend of Zelda's 1986 release, director, producer, and co-designer Shigeru Miyamoto has described the game as an attempt to replicate what he felt during childhood explorations of the countryside outside of Kyoto, Japan, where he was raised. In making the first installment of what would go on to become one of Nintendo's most beloved series, his foundational memories of inspecting foreboding caves or happening upon unexpected lakes provided a framework for what would become a global sensation. Three decades later, when a team at Nintendo sought to rethink Zelda's design ethos after years of working within an increasingly calcified format, its members returned to that first game and its sense of free-spirited exploration for inspiration. The result was 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which, more than any series entry before it, imparted a feeling that players were wandering an expansive fantasy world as awe-inspiring and invigoratingly dangerous as the mental landscape of a great childhood adventure. Breath of the Wild tweaked the past games' more confined environments and gauntlet of clockwork puzzle levels--dubbed "dungeons" by players--by offering a sprawling landscape dotted with smaller, discrete challenges broken up by long periods spent simply figuring out how to climb mountains or descend into far-off valleys.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is perhaps the most anticipated addition in the popular series - and it's easy to see why. The epic earthy adventure takes gamers to new heights by literally spanning across both land and sky to uncover the secrets in the kingdom of Hyrule. Much like the predecessor Breath of the Wild, gamers step into a world of discovery and exploration, but now hero Link is given the ability to harness new powers. These new abilities allow our protagonist to fuse together a variety of objects to build vehicles - from cars to rafts, gliding jets and even hot air balloons. One gamer even recreated a Trojan horse for Link to hide inside and avoid enemies nearby.

The release of a new Zelda game is always a major event worldwide. Ever since 1986, when famed Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto first attempted to capture in code some of the wonder he experienced exploring the Kyoto countryside as a child, Zelda games have been pushing the boundaries of what's possible in virtual worlds. Look at any best-games-of-all-time list and you'll see Zelda in the Top 10, often more than once. But 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was particularly special. Launching alongside the Nintendo Switch console, which has since sold more than 125m units, it was perhaps the best realisation yet of the promise of boundless freedom and adventure that video games have been dangling in front of players' noses for decades.

The denizens of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are waiting for me to save Hyrule, but I've been slightly preoccupied. A generous breakdown of how I've spent my time so far is something like this: 5 percent on main storyline, 10 percent on side quests, 85 percent on deranged, barely working experiments--like a little kid glueing Legos together. I haven't been a particularly proficient builder. I attached a rocket to a tree trunk, thinking I could magic-carpet myself across the map; I flew off the back immediately. I created what I thought was a sort of "air raft," trunks with fans on every conceivable corner to hover me away; it was as effective as a handful of helium balloons.

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.

A six-year wait has come to an end for "Zelda" fans across the world following Nintendo's release of the long-awaited next instalment of its 40-year-old gaming saga. The series featuring the exploits of Princess Zelda and the elf-like warrior Link has sold 125 million copies worldwide since its first edition in 1986. But its main challenge this year will be to boost earnings for the Japanese gaming giant and prolong the life of its Switch console, which experts say is in its dotage after seven years on the shelves. In Paris, fans who lined up late at night applauded as a shop opened. They streamed in – some clutching Link toys or wearing elfin ears – to snap up the saga's latest instalment, Tears of the Kingdom.

Purchases you make through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission. "Breath of the Wild" fans, rejoice: The Blood Moon rises once again. The next game in Nintendo's "The Legend of Zelda" franchise, "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" arrives tomorrow. Make smart choices without hours of googling. In "Tears of the Kingdom," players will return to Hyrule and follow up on Link's story in the wake of "Breath of the Wild."

Games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild don't come along often. The 2017 title came 31 years into the franchise's history and somehow felt familiar while simultaneously remixing or entirely removing core tenets of the series. To put it mildly, the changes worked. Breath of the Wild is the biggest-selling Zelda game of all time and was an unqualified success with critics and players alike. What in the world do you do for an encore?

This Friday, after years of feverish anticipation, Nintendo is finally set to release The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – the much-hyped sequel to its acclaimed 2017 epic, Breath of the Wild. Six years in the making, Tears of the Kingdom is set to be one of the biggest instalments in an already iconic, generationally beloved franchise, building on a predecessor that radically reshaped the conventions of the series and introduced scores of new fans to the fantasy world of Hyrule. Befitting a tentpole release, Tears of the Kingdom has already been subject not only to swathes of online discussion, but also to two leaks: first of the game's art book, a few months ago, and then of the full game itself, late last month. Still, anticipation for the release is at fever pitch, thanks to its predecessor's reputation as both one of the best games in the Zelda franchise and one of the best video games of all time. Ed King, a popular Zelda YouTuber who posts under the username Zeltik, says that Breath of the Wild sparked "a renaissance for Zelda, just because of how accessible that game is".

If you were hoping to avoid spoilers before playing Nintendo's highly anticipated follow-up to Breath of the Wild, that goal just got a lot harder: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been leaked. Physical copies of the game appeared on sites over the weekend, apparently selling for up to $300 each. Now, digital copies of the game have shown up online. Some who have downloaded the pirated files have streamed footage of the game's intro and gameplay. How this all happened still isn't completely clear.