Hyrule Warriors released on the Wii U back in 2014’s Fall season, and it was a great brawler experience in the Dynasty mold, only with a Zelda wrapper instead of Koei Tecmo’s trademark series. Since the game was a Dynasty Warriors game, many wondered if there would be an eventual Legends edition containing all the DLC and more. About a year later, that answer came in the form of Hyrule Warriors Legends. Only no one was quite ready to hear that it would be a 3DS port. The shift brings some changes that are both welcome and unwelcome, but it’s still a great package, with some caveats.

The game has Link and friends being besieged by enemy forces sent by a mad sorceress to claim Link and the pieces of the Triforce for herself. The story is really just an excuse to brawl as your favorite characters from the entire series. The most base elements from Dynasty Warriors are represented here, with your character’s seizing outposts and retaking keeps to advance your forces against the enemy. There are weak and strong attacks, along with combos for each of them. Special attacks fill with a meter, and you can even go into a super powered state once your magic meter fills up. The game does change things up a bit from the basic formula though. Aside from leveling up, you can collect materials to gain passive skills for your characters. There’s also a weapon fusion system that lets you transfer weapon skills to other weapons.

Battles are very fun, and there are a few secrets to fin on the map, like hidden heart pieces or Gold Skulltula’s which can unlock even more rewards. Where this game differs from its Wii U big brother however, is the interface changes and extra Legend mode content. Cia and Ganondorf now have a few levels where you play as the villains, and there are a few Wind Waker levels. An original character named Linkle also has some maps, and she’s actually very fun to play as with her use of crossbows. There are even more, but the rest are locked behind Adventure Mode. Adventure mode is a somewhat like a mission mode, but with the added twist of making the mission map structured like the map from the Original Zelda game. You can even search for unlockables in the places where there were secrets in that game. You progress by completing missions with specific ranks based on your performance, so there’s a great deal of replayability.

Even though this game has a few extra features like the ability to switch characters effortlessly on the new map using the touch screen, it has some features that are missing. For one, the Challenge Mode is gone, along with co-operative play. The ability to switch characters and use a map to coordinate their actions is nice, but it feels more like a concession in the removal of multiplayer. I guess the 3DS just isn’t capable of handling it along with everything else. In fact, it really feels like this game really should be a New 3DS game, as it performs terribly on a 3DS. The game runs pretty smoothly on the New 3DS, only suffering a small loss with 3D mode on. But, at the end of the day the game still is a very fun experience. If you loved the Wii U version, but want the game on the go, Legends can mostly satisfy that itch. It suffers some missing content and has taken an obvious audio-visual hit, but the game still holds up on the handheld. I just hope those only with Wii U’s get a Legends port.

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