Breath of the Wild
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 12 action adventure games
Recommended for its large handcrafted open world, artistic craft, and strong performance on limited Switch hardware; critics call it overrated, derivative, and poorly optimized.
Recommended for its large handcrafted open world, artistic craft, and strong performance on limited Switch hardware; critics call it overrated, derivative, and poorly optimized.
35 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 27
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 27 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Large handcrafted open world
“pretty much every inch of that map has been handcrafted by a team of dedicated humans”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “No Man's Sky Cosmos” “I never seem to get tired of it, as there are infinite ways to approach it.”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “Ask HN: What game have you replayed more times than any other?” “Breath of the Wild for the open world experience”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: The Zelda timeline to catch up before the Ocarina of Time remake” Strong artistic vision and craft
“Breath of the Wild is very clearly a more fully realized version of the same core vision that guided the design of the original game”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser” “artistic vision that spoke to me hard, even though it was released on specs that are 1-2 generations behind”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Max Payne – two decades later – Graphics Critique” “I love how Breath of the Wild did this.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Outside, Dungeon, Town: Integrating the Three Places in Videogames (2024)” - Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Craft software that makes people feel something”
Runs well on Switch
“a technical marvel comparable to the original Rollercoaster Tycoon considering how well it runs on the severely limited architecture of the Switch”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “KOReader” “While some scenes are a bit choppy on Switch 1 it's never in the way of gameplay”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2” Reinvented Zelda for fans
“Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom are the Zelda games we wanted on n64 as a kid, I love those games”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible” “virtually reinvented the franchise and brought a huge number of new fans”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Overrated and derivative mechanics
“BOTW was okay , but clearly overrated by people who had never played any sort of open world game before”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “TIL: Parental Controls Aren't for Parents” “breath of the wild etc mechanics are almost all pulled directly from other open world games”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “StarCraft returns in 2030 as an open-world shooter” Poor frame rate on Switch
“padded out, clunky, with some of the worst mechanics in games (weapon stamina) on undercooked hardware”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software” “Even the Switch 2 version isn't nearly as good as the one you can get from emulating.”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Jailbreaking the Switch 2” “It can’t even maintain a stable 30fps on its own target hardware.”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “KOReader” Timeline and plot inconsistencies
“I was surprised ToTK had the same plot as BotW.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Outside, Dungeon, Town: Integrating the Three Places in Videogames (2024)” “Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom cannot make its mind up about such a timeline”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: The Zelda timeline to catch up before the Ocarina of Time remake” “they really weren't worried about the timeline internally”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: The Zelda timeline to catch up before the Ocarina of Time remake”
Other action adventure games people recommend
The four most recommended other action adventure games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breath of the WildThis page | 27 | 8 | 77% | 9 | — | Approved |
| The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time | 17 | 3 | 85% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Shadow of the Colossus | 14 | 2 | 88% | 4 | — | Approved |
| God of War | 12 | 6 | 67% | 6 | — | Approved |
| The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | 12 | 6 | 67% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
33 of the 36 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I consider it and TOTK to be the worst games in the series”
“Even the Switch 2 version isn't nearly as good as the one you can get from emulating.”
“Both BOTW and TOTK are amazing games and twice better on the Switch 2.”
“they really weren't worried about the timeline internally”
“Breath of the Wild for the open world experience”
“Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom cannot make its mind up about such a timeline”
“Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom games really throw a wrench in the works.”
“breath of the wild etc mechanics are almost all pulled directly from other open world games”
“pretty much every inch of that map has been handcrafted by a team of dedicated humans”
“Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a positive counter example.”
“Compare the "value" of NES + Mario Bros with Switch 1 + Breath of the Wild.”
“because I had bought the DLC and the DLC license check couldn't pass, I was locked out of playing at all”
“it's genuinely my favorite game of all time”
“It can’t even maintain a stable 30fps on its own target hardware.”
“a technical marvel comparable to the original Rollercoaster Tycoon considering how well it runs on the severely limited architecture of the Switch”
“padded out, clunky, with some of the worst mechanics in games (weapon stamina) on undercooked hardware”
“virtually reinvented the franchise and brought a huge number of new fans”
“I never seem to get tired of it, as there are infinite ways to approach it.”
“it's quite an enjoyable experience”
“launched with Zelda BotW which was an epic title”
“Breath of the Wild when that came out only reason I would have bought a Switch”
“While some scenes are a bit choppy on Switch 1 it's never in the way of gameplay”
“Unless its been a decade in production like Breath of the Wild of GTA 5 i just dont expect much.”
“Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom are the Zelda games we wanted on n64 as a kid, I love those games”
“Breath of the Wild is very clearly a more fully realized version of the same core vision that guided the design of the original game”
“BOTW hit me like a truck.”
“artistic vision that spoke to me hard, even though it was released on specs that are 1-2 generations behind”
“BOTW was okay , but clearly overrated by people who had never played any sort of open world game before”
“I was surprised ToTK had the same plot as BotW.”
“I love how Breath of the Wild did this.”
“it took me a couple months to get complete and it was great”
“This game is so well crafted”
“I found the gyro both precise and intuitive.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.