The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 4 of 12 action adventure games by recommenders
Fans recommend it as a fun, large open-world Zelda game with plenty to discover; the most common caveat is performance trouble on the Switch 1.
Fans recommend it as a fun, large open-world Zelda game with plenty to discover; the most common caveat is performance trouble on the Switch 1.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 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
Strong Zelda game for fans
“so many games I've enjoyed recently (Donkey Kong Bananza, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, etc)”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Thankful For?” “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” “That 90's Zelda does nothing for me anymore, but TOTK does.”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “I Love the Computer” - Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Landmark L.A. jury verdict finds Instagram, YouTube were designed to addict kids”
Open-world exploration and discovery
“It's a beautiful, simple fairytale told through the medium of a huge open world game”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: The Zelda timeline to catch up before the Ocarina of Time remake” “It really is fun finding new holes into the underworld from a cave”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Outside, Dungeon, Town: Integrating the Three Places in Videogames (2024)” “The sky islands are much nicer.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Outside, Dungeon, Town: Integrating the Three Places in Videogames (2024)” Fun, polished, bug-free open world
“TotK feels like it should be a skyrim-like bug ridden experience but it isn't.”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Jailbreaking the Switch 2” “Both BOTW and TOTK are amazing games and twice better on the Switch 2.”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: The Zelda timeline to catch up before the Ocarina of Time remake”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Messes with Breath of the Wild continuity
“Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom games really throw a wrench in the works.”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: The Zelda timeline to catch up before the Ocarina of Time remake” “ToTK can't even commit to really being a chronological sequel to BOTW”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: The Zelda timeline to catch up before the Ocarina of Time remake” Seen as overrated, worst in series
“I consider it and TOTK to be the worst games in the series”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “Genie 4” “I also think BOTW and TOTK are wildly overrated”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software”
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 Wild | 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 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the KingdomThis page | 12 | 6 | 67% | 6 | — | Approved |
| God of War | 12 | 6 | 67% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
18 of the 19 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”
“TOTK requires too many button gymnastics”
“TotK feels like it should be a skyrim-like bug ridden experience but it isn't.”
“Both BOTW and TOTK are amazing games and twice better on the Switch 2.”
“ToTK can't even commit to really being a chronological sequel to BOTW”
“Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom games really throw a wrench in the works.”
“it's like almost everyone underwent extensive lobotoby between the games and forgot 99% of what happened”
“It's a beautiful, simple fairytale told through the medium of a huge open world game”
“I also think BOTW and TOTK are wildly overrated”
“That 90's Zelda does nothing for me anymore, but TOTK does.”
“so many games I've enjoyed recently (Donkey Kong Bananza, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, etc)”
“TOTK has major performance issues on the Switch 1 though IME”
“I loved Zelda tears of the kingdom”
“Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom are the Zelda games we wanted on n64 as a kid, I love those games”
“Hallucinated ingredients, out-of-nowhere recipes, and transposing Breath of the Wild recipes”
“how empty the game world was, how janky the construction mechanics were for those silly machines”
“The sky islands are much nicer.”
“It really is fun finding new holes into the underworld from a cave”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.