It's Zelda's 40th anniversary – if you only ever play one game, it should (controversially) be this one

When a series as sprawling and storied as The Legend of Zelda celebrates a major milestone, people tend to notice – so you may have already spotted that the nearly peerless Nintendo franchise turns 40 this week. That's a staggering timeline, going all the way back to the NES, and underlines that it's one of the most important and influential gaming series of all time.

As that big birthday got closer, it had us thinking here at T3 about the Zelda games that we love the most, and while I don't ever want to be accused of recency bias, there was really only ever going to be one pick for me.

In an era when most Nintendo gamers probably have the easiest access to either a Switch or Switch 2, if I were going to recommend a single game from the series to either a new player or a returning one, there's no doubt in my mind that it would be Tears of the Kingdom.

As the latest mainline Zelda game to be released, it makes sense that it's the most modern and polished, but I also think it's by far the most complete package Nintendo's ever made – something quite close to a forever game, building on everything that came before it.

There's a pretty tired line of debate about which is better: Tears of the Kingdom or its predecessor, Breath of the Wild. I'll absolutely agree that timing makes the first game the more influential by far, with an impact that lasted for years, but having sat and played both through for a second time when they got their Switch 2 versions last year, I'm amazed anyone would actually rank BOTW higher in pure quality terms.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #3 - YouTube

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That's mainly down to a world that's drastically more populated with activities, quests and characters, rather than the admittedly tonally consistent emptiness of Hyrule in BOTW. Plus, the toolkit that you're given in TOTK is far more responsive and enjoyable to use for exploration.

Going back to BOTW's movement mechanics feels like stepping into a tarpit, and while plenty of people have taken aim at clumsy controls in TOTK's building mode, I've never got the hate. Sure, it can be fiddly, but you only have to engage with it to the extent that you want to, and I found my ugly creations memorable and charming.

More to the point, in 2026 and with the benefit of the massive visual upgrade brought by the Switch 2 upgrade, this is the best-looking Zelda game ever made, and there's a sprawling, hours-long soundtrack that sounds astonishing at various points to augment things, too.

It might not have the quirky visual design of Windwaker, but TOTK's vistas are often stunning, and the way it takes motifs inherited from previous games and makes them even more staggering has my jaw on the floor at times. The first time I saw a dragon take a nosedive into the depths, for example, I felt like a 10-year-old again.

So, if you have a Switch 2, you owe it to yourself to try this one – you might just find it sucks up a hundred hours or more if it hits you the right way. Frankly, it's a masterpiece on the original Switch, too, and my top pick for the series' best entry.