The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes Preview (3DS)

In The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, teams of 3 players, each controlling their own Link character, work together to solve puzzles in order to explore dungeons and collect weapons and outfits which are useful in many ways throughout the game.  Players can use different combinations of weapons, form a totem on each others’ shoulders, work together to push blocks around and many other types of teamwork in order to solve the puzzles needed to advance through the dungeons.  

Outfits are also an important aspect of the game.  Each outfit has its own unique ability or impact on your character or characters.  For example, the Legendary Dress, Zelda's iconic pink dress, gives Link extra hearts. Since hearts are shared between players, the dress' powers can be crucial to survival.  Outfits are crafted using materials players find while exploring dungeons.  This gives the game a sort of loot-based grind feel to it, which is actually nice.  While most of the game is cooperative, the grinding for loot can become somewhat competitive as players go for materials in the dungeons.  I am no fashion expert by any means, but this part of the game is actually pretty cool.

Tri Force Heroes features both single player and both local and online multiplayer modes.  In the multiplayer modes, you have to play with 2 other players, you cannot play with just 2 players.  I only played multiplayer with some friends.  There is no voice chat and a few on-screen emotes and actions, therefore local multiplayer seemed easier, since communication is a big factor and it is harder to communicate with players online than in the same room as you.  Voice chat would be a nice improvement for online play for sure.  

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes releases on this Friday, October 23rd.  I am looking forward to picking it up and trying out the single player mode as well as more online play with friends.

The Gamers Lounge Thoughts and Reactions on Nintendo E3

Nintendo has some big shoes to fill following Microsoft and Sony.  Let’s see what they have up their sleeves this year!

A World Premier of StarFox Zero is shown.  Both air and ground battles are displayed and the game looks great.  The narration in the game is sounds and looks awesome.  The control scheme is discussed.  The Wii U gamepad is used to aim, and as a first person view, and the TV is used as a cinematic view.  The cinematic view on TV is a fresh and unique idea that would be great if incorporated in some other games.  A release of Holiday 2015 is revealed for StarFox Zero.  I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen so far.

Skylanders Super Chargers is featured along with Turbo Charge Donkey Kong and Hammer Slam Bowser figures along with their vehicles.  These figures are playable in Skylanders Super Chargers.  It is shown that the character’s base can be turned, which changes it from a Skylanders character to an Amiibo.  The game looks very interesting and the concept of Amiibo/Skylander figures is unique.

A first look at Zelda Triforce Heroes is shown. It is a multiplayer puzzle type Zelda game with up to 3 players working together to get through levels by solving puzzles and fighting enemies together.  You also find different outfits for your character throughout the game, which gives you different abilities.  Graphics are similar to A Link Between Worlds and the teamwork element looks fantastic.  It is given a Fall 2015 release.  This game looks like a lot of fun and every Legend of Zelda game gets me hyped.

Hyrule Warriors for 3DS is now in development.  It is a reimagining of the Wii U version and will contain all DLC characters.  Additional characters and levels from The Legend of Zelda Windwaker are being added as well.  First quarter 2016 release is given.

Metroid Prime Federation Force for 3DS is revealed in a short video along with Metroid Prime Battle Ball, a 3 on 3 space ball game. The video was short, but looked pretty good so far.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is shown.  Lots of action is shown and graphics look great.  A game to look forward to on December 4th!

A new Animal Crossing game called Animal Crossing Happy Home Designers is shown.  It appears that you design houses for residents in this version of Animal Crossing.  You can use cards similar to the way you use Amiibos to access additional game content.  I would have liked to see a new Animal Crossing game similar to the others, but it will be interesting to see how this game turns out.

Animal Crossing Amiibos are now shown, along with a Mario Party type board game called Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival where it appears the goal is to collect as many coins as possible.  It didn’t appear that there were mini-games to play as you adventure around the game board.  I have mixed feelings about this game and will have to wait and see how things go as more details are released.

Yoshi’s Wooly World is featured next.  The graphic style of the game, which is everything made out of yarn, looks amazing and the gameplay looks fantastic! Enemies and other things swallowed by Yoshi turn into a ball of yarn instead of eggs.  Amiibos can be placed on the gamepad to change Yoshi into a Yoshi of that character.  Multiplayer looks fun and players can decide how they want to play.  October 16th is the release date for this exciting game.

Super Mario Maker is shown and the Amiibo feature is displayed that allows you to change your Mario character into other characters by tapping the Amiibo on the gamepad.  Looks like a very cool feature.  There will also be an 8-bit Mario Amiibo released that makes your Mario character very big.  Super Mario Maker will be released in September.

Nintendo’s E3 conference wraps up with some Mario footage dating from the original NES game to the newest Mario adventure.  The conference was heavily focused on Super Mario Maker and it being Mario’s 30th Anniversary.  Although there weren’t really any huge announcements from Nintendo, the conference was very entertaining.  Yoshi’s Wolly World and Super Mario Maker were the highlights of the show for me.  

Make sure you stay tuned to The Gamers Lounge for all of your E3 updates and news!