Hyrule Warriors is one of the strangest games Nintendo’s released in recent memory. It’s not the definitive Zelda game for the Wii U; instead, it’s a spinoff developed not by Nintendo themselves, but Omega Force. They’re best known for the Dynasty Warriors series, a collection of repetitive beat-em-up games.
So Hyrule Warriors is a Dynasty Warriors game. With Zelda characters.
THE GOOD
Here’s why this is a good thing.
It’s mindless fun. The game is by no means deep or difficult - you can just zone out for ten minutes, and still rack up hundreds of kills without really learning anything. No matter who you choose to play as, you’re ridiculously overpowered, destroying everything and everyone in your way.
And there’s a good cast of characters to pick from. I mean, let’s be honest, you’re gonna go for Link first - but it’s nice to play as someone OTHER than the green dude. Ganondorf is a beast, and the rest of the roster follows suit.
The battle music is awesome. It frequently draws from classic Zelda scores - but there’s also remixed versions of the old-school tracks to reflect the heavy metal vibe that Dynasty Warriors features. Somehow, it works.
You never really forget this is really a Dynasty Warriors game, but the Zelda skin has a lot of little touches and quirks that’ll make you smile - Sheik’s harp plays opening notes of the Song of Storms and Zelda’s lullaby. There’s an adventure mode with an interface styled like the original NES Zelda.
And for what’s essentially a Dynasty Warriors game...which usually don’t have the best graphics...Hyrule Warriors looks good.
THE BAD
And here’s how the game fails.
There really isn’t THAT much content here. Legend Mode takes 7ish hours, and there’s no branching factions like traditional Dynasty Warriors games. There’s probably not enough here to get the purest of Zelda purists to give it a shot.
If you’re looking for a story, by the way, this doesn’t have much to offer. Legend Mode tries to tie everything into the Master Sword and the Triforce like a regular Zelda game...but the concept is hokey and the dialogue is lame. And Lana the good-girl sorceress is an anime cliche. She’s really there just to force the story along in cutscenes.
Cutscenes aren’t voiced, by the way. Yeah, I get it, no one talks in a Zelda game as a rule. Fine. But then, WHY animate the mouths? The characters are mouthing out the lines, they’re just not voicing them. It’s a weird experience...like the game originally had voiceovers, but they were removed before launch
Now, other reviewers have complained about frame rate issues. Co-op play isn’t the disaster it’s been made out to be, but solo play can still get pretty gnarly. The game doesn’t stop, but the slowdown is noticeable when you’re in the middle of a particularly huge army. The team behind Hyrule Warriors has made too many games like it before - this really shouldn’t be so pronounced.
VERDICT
It’s not a Zelda game. Not really. If you’re looking for real adventure, keep looking. But Hyrule Warriors is a fun, albeit shallow distraction until the real Zelda U shows up.
