Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the all-time highest rated games

Nintendo Switch’s launch line-up may be a little thin, but there is most certainly a jewel in its crown.

The review embargo for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has lifted, and already the adventure title is looking to be one of the highest-rated releases of all time.

At the time of writing Breath of the Wild has a Metacritic average of 98 per cent. It sits at number four in the all-time all formats ranking, with only Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV ahead of it.

It currently has 39 individual 100 per cent reviews, and not a single one scores lower than 90 per cent.

If there’s a better game out there than Breath of the Wild, I haven’t played it,” TrustedReviews said in its assessment. Nintendo has created, for me, the greatest game of all time. It’s everything I want from a game and one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.”

GiantBomb said: This sense of wonder is something that I haven’t felt so strongly since I played A Link to the Past when I was seven years old. Ocarina of Time was able to capture some of that same magic in my teenage years. Now that I’m in my thirties, I don’t think that I expected it to be possible for a game to make me feel like that again.”

Then there’s Polygon: In the end, it’s not just that Breath of the Wild signals that Zelda has finally evolved and moved beyond the structure it’s leaned on for so long. It’s that the evolution in question has required Nintendo to finally treat its audience like intelligent people. That newfound respect has led to something big, and different, and exciting. But in an open world full of big changes, Breath of the Wild also almost always feels like a Zelda game — and establishes itself as the first current, vital-feeling Zelda in almost 20 years.”

And Destructoid: This isn’t your typical boiler plate open world cash grab, rife with to-do lists and busywork. Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an evolution of the formula for both eastern and western philosophies alike, and a new blueprint.”

Zelda: Breath of the Wild arrives alongside the Nintendo Switch today.