This article is part of a directory: The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom - Complete Guide And Walkthrough
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There's a rumbling in the distance. Booming footsteps rattle the ground beneath us. Mountain Dew shakes in our Nintendo branded cups. There's a colossus on the horizon, a young man with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a green tunic. Shield in one hand, sword in the other, he's coming to slay all of our free time for the next month, and it seems the other monsters have taken note. Everyone is running scared of Zelda. No one wants to go toe to toe with Tears of the Kingdom.

We've just enjoyed a fairly fruitful April, which gave us the Minecraft Legends, Dead Island 2, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp, and Honkai: Star Rail as the big feasts on offer for your thumbs to devour, while indie side dishes like Coffee Talk 2, Teslagrad 2, Cassette Beasts, The Last Case of Benedict Fox, The Mageseeker, and Bramble: The Mountain King packed a punch too. I had my eye on Afterimage, which fizzled and failed to live up to my expectations - but that hardly mattered when there were so many other great games around.

Related: Tears Of The Kingdom Is Giving Me Flashbacks To The Best And Worst Of Elden Ring

Likewise, as I've already written about, June is crammed full of games too. Street Fighter 6, Diablo 4, and Final Fantasy 16 all land within a couple of weeks of each other, peppered by Crash Team Rumble, Goodbye Volcano High, Park Beyond, and Crime O'Clock. Then there's May, sitting in between these two thick slices of buttery bread is a thin sliver of baloney. Aside from Tears of the Kingdom, the only major releases are Redfall (launching right at the start of the month under a cloud of always-online gameplay and framerate issues), and Gollum (launching right at the end of the month after several delays).

zelda tears of the kingdom hylia

I mean no disrespect to either of these games, nor to any of the indies which do have May release dates. I said months ago that After Us looks pretty neat. But there's a real sense that May belongs to Zelda and nothing else. Of course, Zelda is not a thin sliver of baloney. The game will likely take around 40-60 hours to beat, if we imagine it's similar to Breath of the Wild, but many will play for over 200 hours and still find something new. It's not like you'll have nothing to do in May - Zelda has enough in it to rival Minecraft Legends, Dead Island 2, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor combined. Our reviewers took 6, 15, and 30 hours to beat those three games, putting them at a combined time of 51, versus Zelda's 40-60, and that's if you rush it. Obviously our experiences aren’t universal, but May isn't empty... at least, not if you like Zelda.

I love that everyone loves Zelda. I think it's magnificent that the two games we seem to universally agree are the best examples of what gaming can do are Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring, two titles way more experimental than your average triple-A offering that respects the player enough to let them play their way and doesn't insist on hand-holding or railroading. For me, Breath of the Wild just didn't quite click though, and I don't expect Tears to fare much better. I'll try, but I'm going in with low expectations.

A Crying Princess Zelda With A Man's Hand On Her Shoulder

Even if I do bounce off it, there are plenty of games for me to check out. I haven't finished A Space for the Unbound or Pizza Tower, I've been meaning to pick up Dredge, and April was too full for me to play Minecraft Legends or Coffee Talk 2. That 30 hour reviewer on Star Wars was me. My point in all this is, May might seem empty, but that's only true if you look at it week by week. This year we've had a couple of flashes where a lot of games have arrived at once, and that won't let up until at least August, although by then you figure new games will have been announced.

If Zelda just isn't your thing, May need not be an empty time. It's the perfect month to catch up on everything that's come out this year, and then there's the fact December 2022 had a boatload of games too, and we all have backlogs stretching back into eternity. May is a win-win. If you like Zelda, there's nothing else that will be getting in its way. If Zelda's not for you, it's the ideal chance to see what you've missed out on. Just get everything sorted before June, because that won't give you a moment to breathe.

Next: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Board Game Is Compelling, And Rigged