I won't dive into BotW too much yet (I'm concerned about running into Horizon/Nier story spoilers, so they're first to finish!), but I did spend an hour messing around with BotW, and I'm thoroughly charmed. Some of the jaggies and textures are not so kind with the Wii U version, it looks much better on the game pad. I still don't regret choosing the Wii U version for now, and picking up the Switch version somewhere down the line. I don't love the way the buttons have been mapped, but controlling Link feels great, as does climbing.
Mini-babble: Skyward Sword and Overly Controlling Helicopter Parent Nintendo drove me mad, because it was like Nintendo had made this beautiful chocolate cake, and every time I even thought about having a piece, Nintendo would bombard me with 'have you washed your hands?' 'have you done your homework?' 'sit up straight!' 'brush your hair!' 'did you feed the dog?' etc. Along comes Breath of the Wild, and Overly Controlling Helicopter Parent Nintendo turned into No Fucks Given Nintendo. No Fucks Given Nintendo is amazing, and is more of the 'gorge yourself on cake, have a party, we don't care if you have an loud orgy in the living room' parent kind. Bad metaphors aside, the player respect and freedom is immensely appreciated. Even just balantly ignoring Zelda's tutorial request, and climbing up a giant tree and stealing eggs whilst Link was in his kinda-underwear felt waaay better than it had any right to. I've tasted freedom, Nintendo, and you can't take it away from me. Also, no pants. I look forward to no pants speedruns.
For me, BotW really feels like Shadow of the Colossus more than anything else, in both art direction and mechanics - even though I can see other influences, both Zelda and non-Zelda. It was kind of like coming home to SotC in a weird way, especially with the climbing! Climbing in BotW feels great, so I'm going to Spiderman the shit out of Hyrule. No surface will be safe from my climbing.
