It’s that time again — famed 134-year-old card game company Nintendo is returning to the well to sell more Switches, and this time around, it’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Edition Nintendo Switch OLED that yearns to be in your hands and entertainment centers.
This special edition Nintendo Switch OLED features unique artwork on the Joy-Cons and dock inspired by the upcoming, highly anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Pre-orders of the venerable $360 handheld just went live, and as usual, it means themed designs for the Joy-Cons and dock, as well as cool textured patterns on the back that, in this case, looks like zen garden raking. It’s currently marked as not available for shipping, so you may need to plan on picking it up in person.
Expect stock to be inconsistent for this first run — Best Buy has text on that page indicating it’s in high demand, and will likely sell out fast. GameStop also has a store page up as of this writing, but its yet to begin taking orders.
That doesn’t mean Nintendo won’t produce more over the next weeks and months — after all, its best special edition version, the Animal Crossing: New Horizons special edition Switch, stayed available for quite a while after selling out a few times during its first few months of release. But if you’re looking to add this slick new version to your collection, you’ll want to act fast. One thing to note: As with most Switch special editions, this themed console doesn’t actually include a copy of the game.
In addition to the new Zelda Switch OLED, Nintendo has released Tears of the Kingdom-themed Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers ($75) and carrying cases ($25) for all you Triforce heads out there, both of which will start shipping alongside the new Breath of the Wild sequel on its May 12 release. The console itself comes a few weeks before on April 28.
In Tears of the Kingdom, players will once again take control of Link, the storied hero of Hyrule, battling the forces of evil in a version of the imaginary kingdom with the same cell-shaded look as Breath of the Wild and the inclusion of a new “recall” ability which expands the game’s playfield to various floating islands, which Nintendo calls “sky islands,” by allowing Link to ride chunks of rock that fall from the islands back to their place of origin above. If you haven’t watched it yet, Nintendo released a video of ten minutes of gameplay today, showing Link with several new abilities to manipulate the world around him to create new tools, structures and weapons.
The game will be the first Nintendo Switch exclusive to cost $70, although right now, Nintendo Switch Online members can still pre-order it for less if they buy a pair of Nintendo Game Vouchers for $100, which allows you to use each voucher to pick up a specific game in the Game Voucher catalog. This effectively makes the game $50 if you pick from most of the company’s first party titles or one of the pricier third party efforts.
