Now that we know that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is going to be featured on both the Nintendo Switch and the Wii U, the company has shed some light on the similarities and differences between the two versions. We already knew that the Switch will render at 900p (on TV) vs 720p on the Wii U.
The company released some other comparisons that hadn’t been widely known to IGN recently and among those comparisons was the revelation that Switch will have better environmental sounds. The company has said this means that the “sound of steps, water, grass, etc. are more realistic and enhance the game’s Open-Air feel.”
Certain icons will be different between the two versions and the special edition and master edition of the title will not be available on the Wii U. All of that seems to indicate Nintendo knows the Wii U is officially on the way out.
Differences between the Nintendo Switch And Wii U versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
- Both launch on the same day, March 3.
- Both have a frame rate of 30fps.
- Both versions of the game offer the same content.
- On a TV, the Nintendo Switch version of the game renders in 900p while the Wii U version renders in 720p.
- The Nintendo Switch version has higher-quality environmental sounds. As a result, the sound of steps, water, grass, etc. are more realistic and enhance the game’s Open-Air feel.
- The physical copy of the Wii U version will require 3GB of available memory on the Wii U system or an external drive.
- Some icons, such as onscreen buttons, differ between the two versions.
- A Special Edition and Master Edition of the Wii U version are not available.