What is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild?

It is a 2017 open-world action-adventure game, the 19th main Zelda title, and the launch game for the Nintendo Switch. It ignored the series' usual linear structure and let players approach dungeons and the final boss in any order.

Where did The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild come from?

Eiji Aonuma announced the project during a Nintendo Direct on January 23rd, 2013, and Nintendo revealed the 'Breath of the Wild' subtitle in a June 14th, 2016 trailer.

What does The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild mean?

The subtitle, revealed in Nintendo's June 2016 trailer, points to the game's wind-swept open-world design across the Hyrule setting. Online, the title is also shorthand for the fan jokes and parody videos the launch generated, like ClickHole's Pearl Harbor video.

How do you use The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild?

In meme form, people share clips of nude Link runs, screenshots of the 98 Metacritic score, and ClickHole-style satirical readings that treat mundane game details as world-historical reveals.

Is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild still popular?

It is a classic reference point for Switch-era gaming, since the launch earned near-universal critical praise and the game kept selling as the Switch's defining release.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

2017video game / viral discussionclassic

Published October 2, 2026

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 2017 open-world Nintendo title that launched alongside the Switch and drew near-universal critical praise, which fed years of online discussion, fan edits and parody videos including a widely shared ClickHole bit about the game revealing that Japan could pull off another Pearl Harbor.

zelda memes nintendo memes gaming fandom hype memes 2017 memes

Overview

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the 19th main entry in Nintendo's Zelda series and ditched a lot of the franchise rules fans had grown used to, swapping linear dungeon progression for a sprawling open world you can tackle in any order1. That design choice, plus its double role as the Nintendo Switch launch title and the last Nintendo-made Wii U game, turned every pre-release trailer into a dissected clip online3.

The game's online footprint is less a single meme format and more a cluster of fan reactions: screenshot threads of players beating the final boss with no armor, review-score screenshots passed around Twitter, and parody videos riffing on the near-perfect critic consensus2. The best known of those parodies is ClickHole's March 2017 bit arguing the game 'reveals' that Japan could pull off another Pearl Harbor, a straight-faced absurdist read on how obsessively players were analyzing the title6.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Nintendo Direct (announcement) / YouTube and Reddit (viral spread)

Creator

Unknown

Date

2017

Series producer Eiji Aonuma first teased a new Zelda game during a Nintendo Direct on January 23rd, 2013, telling viewers the next entry would push back on some of the series' long-standing conventions but showing no footage yet5. Gameplay finally appeared at Nintendo's Digital Event at E3 2014, with a loose 2015 release window attached1.

The official 'Breath of the Wild' subtitle was revealed in a June 14th, 2016 trailer, which dropped the release date entirely3. A follow-up trailer on January 12th, 2017 locked in the March 3rd launch alongside the Nintendo Switch4. Nintendo developed the game itself; the viral edits and parody videos that followed were made by fans and third-party outlets like ClickHole, not by Nintendo6.

How It Spread

Community infrastructure went up well before launch. A Zelda Wiki page for the project was created on April 5th, 20136, and the day the 'Breath of the Wild' subtitle dropped at E3 2016, both a TV Tropes page and the /r/Breath_of_the_Wild subreddit went live6. A dedicated Facebook page launched the next day and pulled past 100,000 likes in the following eight months6.

When the game actually shipped on March 3rd, 2017, review scores set the tone of the online conversation. Critics handed out near-perfect ratings almost across the board, with Metacritic settling at a 98/1002. The user score sat lower around 75/100 and showed signs of fresh accounts dropping zeros, which became its own meta-argument on Reddit and Twitter6.

Parody content hit fast too. On March 2nd, 2017, ClickHole uploaded a straight-faced satirical video claiming Breath of the Wild had quietly proven Japan could pull off another Pearl Harbor, which circulated through gaming Twitter and Reddit as the week-of-launch running joke6.

Timeline

2013-01-23

Eiji Aonuma announces a new Zelda title during a Nintendo Direct, with no footage shown[5].

2013-04-05

A Zelda Wiki page for the still-unnamed project is created[6].

2014-06

First gameplay shown at Nintendo's Digital Event at E3 2014, targeting a 2015 release[1].

2016-06-14

Trailer reveals the subtitle 'Breath of the Wild' and drops the release date; TV Tropes page and /r/Breath_of_the_Wild subreddit are created the same day[3].

2017-01-12

Nintendo Switch Presentation trailer locks in the March 3rd release date[4].

2017-03-02

ClickHole publishes its 'Japan could pull off another Pearl Harbor' parody video about the game[6].

2017-03-03

Breath of the Wild launches worldwide on Nintendo Switch and Wii U with a 98/100 Metacritic score[2].

How to Use This Meme

Fan content around Breath of the Wild typically pulls from a few recurring angles: screenshots of the critic review aggregate (a Metacritic score of 982), clips of players ignoring the main quest to climb mountains or kill Lynels nude, and jokes about the game's open-ended freedom. Parody write-ups in the ClickHole mold often treat a mundane in-game detail as a world-shaking revelation6.