
At first, I got recommendations: “Need money? Try duplicating diamonds!” Then came the demands: “You have to stop what you’re doing in Tears of the Kingdom and get the best shield in the game RIGHT NOW!”

It was still Zelda all the time, but now, the videos wanted to help me out. Image: Nintendo EPD/NintendoĮver so gradually, the tenor of my feed changed. And speedrunners did what speedrunners do best: They broke the game. Amateur engineers cobbled together complicated contraptions and war machines that I had no aspirations to make, but I was happy to watch. I felt like part of a community.Īfter I solved a complex problem by just building a really, really long bridge, I was tickled to see how many other people had had the exact same idea. I couldn’t escape Hyrule - and I loved it. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appeared on my Nintendo Switch on May 12, and in a flash, the game filled my TikTok feed.
