Hyrule Warriors

You’ll have two distinct feelings after playing Hyrule Warriors. Yes, the fan service through the recognisable characters, weapons and environments are a Zelda-fanboy’s wet dream. Yes, there was a lot of content there. But what were you doing in those countless hours? Fighting, fighting, fighting. Hyrule Warriors offers little variation or depth, but is fantastic for a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

Overall, Hyrule Warriors, despite its flaws, is a very addictive game and is most certainly worth playing extensively.

Hyrule Warriors mixes Dynasty Warriors with The Legend of Zelda and the result is a rather flirtatious game of fan service. But it's all in good fun since Hyrule Warriors also remembers to be a fun game with varied forms of action and plenty to do.

This is the kind of old-school experience one expects when you pick up a Dynasty Warriors title, but on the flipside of the coin, the game attempts to inject depth where none was ever needed when it comes to how to upgrade characters and weaponry.

A Zelda Musou is still a Musou.

Against all skepticism the seemingly unholy union between Link and Koei's Warriors works surprisingly well. Tecmo Koei is far from delivering a totally new gameplay experience, but offers a nice take on the Zelda mythology and shows an interesting facet of the heroes and heroines in Hyrule.

I’d hope that more major franchises, especially those that have leaned on gaming tropes, like saving a princess from a tall castle, take notice. Hyrule Warriors benefits from allowing the Zelda series to take some big risks.

We were waiting for something awful, but Hyrule Warriors is a nice surprise after all. Omega Force and Nintendo did some good work to make the two IP's match without any problem. The high number of treasures will force you to explore and the Adventure mode with its 8-bits map, is a true jewel. Alas, without online modes and a smart AI, Hyrule Warriors becomes sometimes really annoying.

Hyrule warriors delivers brief and satisfying bursts of enjoyment, but it's a bit repetitive too.

The result is a healthy, fun, welcoming and long-lasting blend which is certain to please the fans. It’s rather limited in its scope, though, and ends up falling on a certain mid to long-term repetitiveness.

When played in short sessions, Hyrule Warriors is mindless fun that celebrates the rich history of the Zelda series. However, your long term enjoyment of this game boils down to how much you like Dynasty Warriors, or hack-and-slash games in general, and whether or not you care about exuberant amounts of Zelda fan service. It more than delivers on both these points, but if either one of these is a turn off, this likely isn’t the experience for you.

Hyrule Warriors is basically a one-note experience, but it hits that note with perfect pitch. The Zelda universe works better as a musou button-masher than you might expect, and much of that success is down to Tecmo's obvious love for the subject matter.

As a spin-off from the Zelda franchise Hyrule Warriors does the job. It’s fun, pays decent fan service, and uses the Dynasty Warriors template well.

Hyrule Warriors is a success. It enables Nintendo to explore the Zelda cast and world in large scale conflicts, while also offering fans an avenue for rampant nostalgia. The game only falls down due to the documented trappings of the Warriors franchise and the fault of being the first of its line, even though it does make some brave attempts to improve on the template with this.

Character customization adds unique flavor to the simple combat, and the satisfying weapons, rewards, and story make it a fun alternative to the typically serious Zelda games. It’s just a shame you can’t share the action with a friend without significant slowdown.

For those that come in expecting a classic Legend of Zelda adventure this could potentially be an underwhelming experience; yet as a fun action game with plenty of content is delivers well. Once the problem of perception — courtesy of the iconic characters at play — is resolved, this is an entertaining addition for action fans.

Hyrule Warriors has an attractive and well executed Zelda-skin, but the repetitive Warriors gameplay and lackluster co-op functionalities make this a less-than-successful spin-off.

Imagine a self-filling pinata. Imagine a hundred of them. Imagine them lumbering at you, wielding swords.

Hyrule Warriors is a great tribute to The Legend of Zelda thanks to the large number of characters and references included. Unfortunately, as a game it suffers from basic design flaws such as awkward artificial intelligence, poor level design and repetitive missions.

If you expected a real evolution, you will be disappointed. The game blindly adheres to the canons of the genre, and not just a couple of extra mechanics and ideas can save this title from the mire in which these kind of games have been wallowing for years.

There is a tremendous amount going on, to the point that it's all too easy to miss a mission-critical SOS. [Nov 2014, p.108]

This quirky offshoot is better than any Dynasty Warriors game I’ve played, while simultaneously being the worst Zelda game I’ve ever played.

Don't be fooled: Hyrule Warriors is pure Dynasty Warriors within the universe of The Legend of Zelda. Fan service and repeatability are the best words to define this Koei Tecmo game. If you are more a Dynasty Warriors fan than a Zelda fan, play it, or else, beware.

Visiting familiar Zelda locations and wiping out hundreds of enemies offers brief but satisfying bursts of mindless enjoyment, just don't expect to be engaged in the same way as a full series release.

Team Ninja and Omega Force have forced Zelda's universe into the confines of a beat-em-up, but much of the charm and appeal was strained out in the process.