Only a year and a half after we were treated to the excellent Wii U original of Hyrule Warriors, the series makes its debut on the small screen. Here at N-Europe, we’ve spent some time with the game and can tell you how it holds up on the 3DS compared to its older brother.

The initial reveal of Hyrule Warriors Legends was met by a quiet mumble of hesitation by Nintendo fans, perhaps rightly so. Some were baffled as to how this game could possibly run on a 3DS, given the systems relative limitations compared to the Wii U. Without undoubted revisions and cutbacks to the core gameplay, especially the number of enemies on screen (which after all was the Wii U game’s bread and butter) how could the game work? Yet just a year later, here we are, Hyrule Warriors Legends is scheduled for release this week (March 24th) in Europe and already has a solid two months behind it in the hands of Japanese gamers. We took Koei Tecmo’s 3DS port for a spin to see if the conversion was a success.

In a departure from the traditional Legend of Zelda adventure fare, Hyrule Warriors Legends assumes the role of a Dynasty Warriors experience dressed in a level of fan-service that has rarely been seen outside of the Smash Bros. Series. In true Dynasty Warriors fashion, there are thousands of enemies populating the stages, either out on the field or locked away in small “keeps”. The aim is to hack your way through enemy factions of these famous faces from the Zelda franchise, capture keeps and force the powerful stage boss to emerge for a final showdown. Along the way you’ll encounter the most basic opponents, which can quickly be dispatched en masse with one or two quick slashes, backed up by more powerful adversaries who roam the map either hunting you and your allies down or trying to capture your keeps. Then we have the boss enemies, where tactics, blocking and variation of attack methods are required to take down these much stronger foes. Using your time wisely and advantageously weakening the enemy is the key to being successful as opposed to just hacking your way through everything. New dangers appear in real-time, environmental hazards present real threats and strategic thinking is essential to progress.

I spent sixty plus hours with the Wii U version and didn’t even manage to see half the content that that game had to offer. I’m happy to report that Legends quite frankly puts the Wii U version to shame. Not only does it include all the DLC from the Wii U game, it’s almost overflowing with new characters, stages, maps, modes and items on top of that. The majority of the new additions to gameplay are very much welcome. For instance the ocarina item allows the player to warp to previously visited locations on the map punctuated by the owl statues from Majora’s Mask, a top time saver. As well as that, a new ability letting you switch warriors during battle is here opening up more tactical elements of play as it allows you to send, for example, Sheik to a certain location while you take a keep with Link, and then immediately switch to Sheik again once the keep has been taken. It is all very streamlined and certainly handheld friendly as one may expect, in fact, these two features alone massively impact on the more fast-paced flow of a mission and the overall gameplay experience.

The touch screen is used to direct allies while the game is paused and a total of three playable warriors can be selected for one mission. Sending all controllable warriors into a boss fight gives you additional strength and magic, meaning taking them out becomes a great deal easier, just be sure to keep an eye on the health gauges as losing one ally results in failure and affords the player with a smart risk – reward strategy for such encounters. Legends takes the proven formula of the Wii U game and expands on it, providing you with a few extra tools at your disposal to conquer the map, while cutting out much of the tedium along the way. No longer do you need to leg it across the whole map to the next target, a huge improvement in my book.

Furthermore, we have a multitude of new playable warriros to get to grips with, including the somewhat controversial and widely debated Linkle, our new “female version” of Link. Linkle, quite surprisingly, is an absolute dream to play as. Despite sighing at her initial reveal trailer, her crossbows, which are by far the most awesome weapons in the game, as well as her ability to switch into first person mode and annihilate scores of Moblins FPS style led her to fast become a favourite of mine for the adventure mode missions. The way she plays is just immensely satisfying and she is able to take out hundreds of enemies in remarkably quick fashion. Linkle also has her own story arc, where she chases the others through the main game, but these intervals are unfortunately quite rare and the story in all honesty is about as interesting as the main one, i.e. not very.

Linkle is a surprisingly great addition to the game.

Rather more fortunately, gameplay is king in Legends, and Toon Link, Tetra and The King of Hyrule/Red Lions from The Wind Waker and Skull Kid from Majora’s Mask join the fray, all with their unique (and often hilarious) move-sets and weapons. Perhaps most disappointingly though is that these new playable warriors as well as the two new Wind Waker stages are locked content, meaning the player has to go ALL the way through Legends story mode to see them (easily 20+ hours) or finish a great chunk of the adventure mode maps, a mightily steep challenge with low-level warriors. I managed to unlock Skull Kid and Toon Link fairly quickly through adventure mode, but the stages and the other two warriors took much, much longer. Those returning players wanting to jump straight into the new content be advised, there is a lot of ground to re-tread beforehand. Thankfully, the addition of on-the-fly hero swapping and warping make this less of a chore. Legends mode is a meaty, story-driven adventure similar to the one found on the Wii U version and provides a decent amount of content to slash through. Branching storylines and additional quests after completing the game allow the player to see most battles from the perspectives of both good and evil with thirty plus missions on offer. Thirty missions is almost double that found in the original and as ever each stage is accompanied by the stunning re-imagining of classic Zelda tunes (including THAT menu theme which mixes themes from Ocarina or Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword into a magical medley). The story itself, nevertheless, is nothing special or hugely original, even if the non-3D enabled CGI story scenes look fantastic on the 3DS’s screen

The meat of Legends can be found in adventure mode and this is where the game really shines. Not only does the game include the original adventure mode map from the Wii U version, albeit with minor alterations, but all of the original game’s DLC content is available here too. And as if that wasn’t enough, there’s even a new map based off of the Wind Waker featuring all the new playable warriors, stages and item cards. This content alone offers upwards of 100 hours of gameplay. Each map in adventure mode is divided into squares containing a mission and rewards. A mission can be similar to legends mode, where you are simply required to defeat an enemy army, it can be a battle with a giant boss (or 10), a timed mission (kill x enemies in x minutes) or a quiz mode, where the player, using knowledge of past Zelda games, must choose and defeat the correct enemy. The player is then ranked on their performance and appropriated rewards accordingly. It’s a hugely addictive system, where new warriors, weapons and heart pieces are doled out encouraging continued play and experimentation. Each square often hides a gold skulltula or a heart piece waiting to be found, sometimes even for a specific warrior only, so getting accustomed to each of them is mandatory. Heart pieces yield extra health, where as skulltulas slowly unlock artwork and more minor, cosmetic rewards.

Delving a little deeper into adventure mode, players are also rewarded with item cards, which can be used on the map to reveal hidden enemies. Achieving an “A” ranking after these battles and you’ll find even more powerful, secret rewards, a touch more challenging on the harder stages. During gameplay, tougher enemies drop material that can in turn be used to strengthen your warrior via the game’s “badge” system. Badges can for each warrior enhance power ups, speed up the keep taking process and bestow other various perks that can be created using bronze, silver and gold material, with gold being the rarest, given for defeating the toughest enemies the game has to offer. It’s a good, rewarding system with badges noticeably strengthening your warrior, even if getting some of the later perks can take a frustrating amount of time to obtain, due to the rarity of the gold reward drops.

Also new to the 3DS edition is “My Fairy” mode. During each game in either adventure or legend mode you can choose a fairy to assist you in battle. At the beginning of the game, you are given your first fairy at level one and it’s your job to find food to level it up, clothes to adjust perks and even other fairies, hidden in adventure mode to aid you on your quest. Fairies offer additional elemental perks via the touch screen and are a great addition. Accessed through their own separate menu you can feed or dress your fairies and rent certain perks in preparation for the next battle, aesthetically it’s all very cute and very Nintendo. My Fairy adds an additional element to battle preparation as choosing the right fairy with the right skills can be the difference between success and failure on higher difficulties. The fairy system is surprisingly deep and complements the game very well, it’s powerful but never feels game-breaking. Prior to each battle a “recommended element” is suggested from Light, Fire, Water, Darkness etc. and choosing a weapon and fairy that adheres to this recommendation makes things getting through battle a whole lot easier, and is maybe the game’s biggest diversion from the Wii U version.

Combat works in the same satisfying way as its Wii U counterpart, with the face buttons serving as your weak and strong attacks, dodging in addition to those devastating special attacks, earned by slaying multiple enemies before being unleashed to capture keeps in an instant. Secondary weapons such as bombs, arrows or the new ocarina at R and camera alignment at L. Targeting is somewhat cumbersomely assigned to ‘Up’ on the D-pad, or ZL for New 3DS users, and neither feels natural. The ergonomics of the 3DS occasionally throw up problems and is possible to become stuck, particularly early on in the game as you search for the correct button when facing stronger foes. While this is arguably the best solution available, it’s not ideal and battles can be lost because of it due to the small size and awkward placement of these buttons. Locking on can be often more of an inconvenience and every so often it seems easier to just repeatedly place the camera behind the player manually using L and go from there, far from ideal. Touch screen integration is improved from the Wii U game, allowing you to instruct warriors where to go or change secondary weapons (instead of trying to do it with the D-Pad) from a pause menu, or use your fairy attack on the fly.

The area where Legends will undoubtedly spark the most debate is graphics and performance. I have been playing on a New 3DS and have been massively impressed with how the game runs. The very fact that they got the game running on this machine the way it does is an astounding feat. The number of enemies on screen is staggering, even in spite of the way they suddenly pop up when moving quickly. In confined spaces or close combat however, the number is way closer to the Wii U version than it should ever be all thanks to the new low-polygon cel-shading art style a la Smash Bros 4 and less detailed animations, Legends is not exactly a pretty game. A worthwile sacrifice to sace performance? Thankfully, how the game looks isn't so noticeable thanks to the fast paced way you hack and slash your way through upwards of 50 enemies at one time. What is noticeable however is just how poorly the game runs in 3D, to the point where regrettably it’s almost unplayable. The fact they included 3D at all is surprising, given how sluggish it is. While it certainly does look nicer, the game runs so noticeably slower that it’s almost pointless to use it. My advice would be to switch it off and leave it off, it really is that bad. As for original 3DS folks, it seems the game runs slower with less enemies on screen, but most importantly, is still very much playable. I haven’t had the opportunity to try this, but why not download the demo from the e-shop and judge for yourself?