PARIS: Video game fans around the world flocked to shops on Friday to get their hands on the new edition of “Zelda”, one of the most successful franchises in history and now central to the success of Japanese giant Nintendo.

Gamers queued hours before shops opened in cities from Paris to New York and Tokyo, desperate to be among the first to play “Tears of the Kingdom”, featuring the exploits of Princess Zelda and elf-like warrior Link.

Standing in line outside a Paris store before midnight, 19-year-old Taylor Meguira said the previous entry in the franchise’s storied cannon, 2017’s “Breath of the Wild”, had been a “real revolution”.

“Knowing that there is a sequel coming out in an hour or a little less, it’s just incredible, it just makes me so happy,” he said. In Tokyo, Yutaka Hirai, 30, queued with dozens of others, said the seemingly endless scale of previous Zelda games helped draw him in.

“I want to find the same wide open spaces and adventure in this game as in the previous ones,” he said, confessing he had played the previous title for “over 100 hours”.

Early reviews have gushed about the game, giving it a score of 97 out of 100 on metacritic, a site that compiles ratings from reviewers.

The Zelda franchise has sold 125 million copies worldwide since its first edition in 1986.

It helped forge “open world” games where the player is free to roam in virtual landscapes — an idea later taken up by titles ranging from “Grand Theft Auto” to “Skyrim”.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2023