I have always enjoyed the Warriors games spin offs.

They take their good hack n slash formula and apply it to a franchise you like, making for consistently fun and weird games. But they are usually fun side projects, a silly excuse to play your favourite characters in a different game genre. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has taken the fun hacking and slashing, and made a game that belongs in the Zelda: Breath of the Wild universe, and it is an immediate must play.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity follows a little guardian who goes back in time after princess Zelda makes her sacrifice, to try to stop events happening. The little guardian lands in a time where Link is nothing but an excellent soldier that can slash hobgoblins with the best of them. They decode the information in the guardian realise what is to come, and Zelda heads off with Link as a bodyguard to go enlist some pilots for the divine beasts and stop Calamity Gannon.

If the above makes no sense because you haven’t played Zelda: Breath of the Wild, then go play it now. Seriously, it is one of the best games I have ever played and set the bar for what can run on a Switch. For the first time a Warriors game belongs in the timeline of the series it is spinning off, and it works so well.

Sure it is bizzare to play as Link and Zelda when they kill dozens of Lizalfos in seconds when many years later it takes ages to take out one. But hey, it’s a fun game if you suspend your disbelief for a second so you can enjoy what this game has to offer.

If you haven’t played any of the Warriors games, then you could be in for a treat. They are hack n slash games where you slash your way through hundreds of enemies. It is brilliantly satisfying because each swing has heaps of enemies flying away at once and the gameplay across all these games are consistently brilliant. This would be repetitive and boring if it wasn’t for the objectives the games constantly throw at you. You may have to run to one end of a map, or beat an enemy spawned in a specific location within a certain time which keeps the game from getting dull.

Unlike other spin offs like Fire Emblem Warriors, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has a story to tell and as such limits the number of characters available to play. This is a small sacrifice for the game to be canon, and playing as multiple characters like Zelda and the champions that pilot the divine beasts are more than enough content. There are some extra characters but those five were who I played with as often as possible.

One of the coolest aspects of the game is the use of the Sheikah Slate. This lets you use powered attacks based on its powers like magnet or bombs which helps give the game a Breath of the Wild style. It also uses these elements well with being able to put up an ice tower so a charging enemy freezes which pulls back memories of the games. Zelda is only armed with the Sheikah Slate so her light attacks have chains flinging, bombs blasting, and magnetic hits in quick succession which is the most chaotic thing I have seen on my Switch.

If you haven’t played a Warriors game before but loved Breath of the Wild, now is a great place to start. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity looks, sounds and feels as true to the open world original game as it is a totally different thanks to the Warriors mechanics.

It’s such a treat, even if the Switch chugs on rare occasions when you hit too many enemies on the screen.

The post Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Switch) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

A century before the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the Great Calamity occurred.

Hyrule was plunged into darkness, devasted by an evil force which transformed the kingdom forever. While the Great Calamity is touched on in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Nintendo Switch, fans have never experienced what happened before that catastrophic event … until now.

In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which launches exclusively for Nintendo Switch on 20^th November, players will be transported to the time before the Great Calamity happened, participating in epic battles against a backdrop of memorable locations in Hyrule before they were destroyed. The game stars familiar faces from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild like Link and Zelda, as well as other recognisable characters like the four Champions, who will be playable for the very first time in the Hyrule Warriors series.

In the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity – A story set 100 years before Breath of the Wild video, The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and Koei Tecmo Games Hyrule Warriors producer Yosuke Hayashi talk about how Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity came to be and show the first trailer for the game.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity features action-packed gameplay that will be familiar to fans of Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors. Focused on performing combos and over-the-top special abilities, the gameplay is fast-paced and strategic, perfect for players looking for an intense, non-stop action game with direct ties to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In addition, the game tells an in-depth story that depicts the events, relationships and dramatic moments of the Great Calamity in captivating detail.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity finds plenty of inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – not just in its visual style. Many characters from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are playable, including Link and Zelda. Not only will players hack and slash their way through swarms of enemies to defend Hyrule; they will also solve environmental puzzles, unlock weapons and skills, craft with gathered materials, visit shops to obtain items and use the power of the Sheikah Slate, which fans will recognise from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Players who pre-order the game on Nintendo eShop will receive the Lucky Ladle as an in-game bonus weapon for Link.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity transports players to the time before the Great Calamity happened, participating in action-packed, strategic battles against a backdrop of familiar locations in Hyrule.

The game stars a cast of familiar characters from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including Link and Zelda, and will launch exclusively for Nintendo Switch on the 20th of November 2020.

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The post HYRULE WARRIORS: AGE OF CALAMITY THIS NOVEMBER appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

For games, context, timing and audience are key.

The Wii U had an incredible line up of first and third party games that were sadly left unappreciated by the majority of gamers who had ignored Nintendo’s first HD console. But with the equally incredible success of the Nintendo Switch to date, there’s a huge new opportunity to take those games and release them again, as if they were brand new. For Nintendo tragics who were among those who played them on their original release, the releases are interesting but not essential, but for those who skipped the Wii U, they are providing a valuable harvest of interesting, polished new games.

From Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze to Mario Kart 8 to Bayonetta 2, Nintendo’s backlog of Wii U games provide the Switch with a range of games from first and third parties that cover a wide range of genres. And while the Switch actually already has a musou game in Fire Emblem Warriors (see my review here), it could always do with one more and so Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition makes its way to Nintendo’s hybrid console.

But this isn’t actually the first time that it’s been ported – 2 years ago it emerged on the New Nintendo 3DS (don’t even try it on a standard 2DS or 3DS), as a serviceable port that gained some bonuses and quality of life improvements that the Wii U version never ended up receiving. Strangely this made it the best version of the game, despite its graphical downgrades from the Wii U version. This new definitive edition erases that strange gap between the two versions, and contains all features and downloadable content from past versions of the game, including My Fairy mode and the parts from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

The Definitive Edition bumps up the game’s resolution to a full 1080p.

Graphically it feels like a huge update from the now-dated Wii U game, and brings it up to perhaps not modern standards for a new game, but it certainly doesn’t feel as old as it is. It feels like there are more enemies on screen and draw distances for object and enemies are also ramped up. As for framerate, well it feels like it’s unfortunately running at an unlocked frame rate, which means varying frametimes. Most of the time though, it certainly doesn’t reach a solid 60FPS, and it would have been nice to have the option to lock it down to 30FPS, or reduce the graphical quality to reach the 60FPS target.

There are costumes from the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Link and Zelda and co-op is also much improved, where it doesn’t feel like its running at 20FPS anymore. But don’t even attempt multiplayer co op in tabletop or handheld mode: the UI, smaller screen size and gameplay simply isn’t up to the task.

Just as in the original there’s amiibo support. Tap your amiibo at the title screen to get bonuses such as weapons to fight with or materials to upgrade your characters. Though thanks Luigi, for the single rupee.

Taken together, these changes add up to a refined game that easily lives up to its moniker as the Definitive Edition. If you were to play any version of Hyrule Warriors, it really should be this one – if nothing else so you don’t have to buy all the DLC separately. A good game is a good game regardless of the system that its on, but bringing a good game to a good system is good for the game, and good for gamers.

While Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition isn’t necessarily going to be one of the Switch’s best sellers, it further seals the system as an essential item in any gamer’s household.

The post Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Switch) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.