Read our full Hyrule Warriors review.
The Wii U has an exciting exclusive coming in Nintendo and Tecmo Koei’s Hyrule Warriors, a spin-off of Tecmo Koei’s venerable, slaughter-simulating Dynasty Warriors series set in the world of The Legend of Zelda.
The long-running Tecmo Koei series, which has visited China (Dynasty Warriors), Japan (Samurai Warriors), and sci-fi anime (Dynasty Warriors: Gundam), casts you as a lone warrior sent into a button-mashing bloodbath against hordes of enemies–it’s a soothing, mindless kind of pleasure for when you want quantity over quality in your foes.
Hyrule Warriors, first revealed last December, takes that action to the Zelda universe, letting you play as Link or Zelda’s bodyguard Impa (and others still to be confirmed) as they fight to rescue the incessantly-kidnapped princess from the evil sorceress Cia and her massive army. Link, Impa, and the other to-be-revealed characters each have their own sets of weapons and over-the-top special moves. The first trailer (below) indicated that Hyrule Warriors is only a working title, but Nintendo’s latest press release seems to confirm it as official.
Check out the gallery for a taste of the mayhem to come. The game is set for an August release in Japan, though the product page on Nintendo’s U.S. website also lists the game for a 2014 release.
