15 Biggest Gaming Risks That Paid off

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Every game earns a fair amount of scrutiny when it tries to leave its comfort zone. Fans of The Legend of Zelda appreciated how A Link Between Worlds had done away with the series’ linear dungeon format. But The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a departure unlike any before.

It offered a massive open world with the freedom to go anywhere; the ability to bypass the major dungeons in the game and simply do as one pleased; cooking and stamina systems; and of course, tons of little details that are still being discovered to this day. For all of the skepticism over how well it would work, Breath of the Wild is still a triumph and a standard-bearer for the genre with nearly 26 million copies sold on the Switch.