Hyrule Warriors is a fusion of Tecmo KOEI's popular Dynasty Warriors franchise and Nintendo's iconic Legend of Zelda series. While that may seem reductionist, Our time with the demo in Nintendo's booth confirms that it is an accurate description.

For the uninitiated, Dynasty Warriors is a long-running series of games that pits super-powered heroes of ancient Chinese history against massive hoards of enemy troops. The player's job is to reap enough of the mostly-hapless foes to help swing the tide of battle to their side. The series adds depth via combo systems, super moves, and upgrades accrued via battle.

Hyrule Warriors takes the exact same blueprint, but replaced The Warring States Era with Hyrule and the heroes of ancient China with Link, Zelda, Impa, and Midna. While this kind of reskin isn't a first of the series, they've given the Dynasty Warriors treatment to other franchises, but this is certainly a first for the Zelda series.

I played the E3 demo as Link (Zelda was also selectable; Midna and Impa are confirmed and the character menu had 9 slots available). After picking Link I was prompted to pick either the Master Sword or the Fire Rod. The Master Sword acts as a powerful blade. I haven't had a chance to try out the Fire Rod but presumably it shoots fireballs.

Once the level began I found myself surrounded by hundreds of moblins. A handful of Hyrule soldiers were engaged with them but it only took a few presses of the basic attack button to wipe out the lot. As with all Dynasty Warriors the emphasis is on the number of foes on screen, not the efficacy of the individual foes. With that being said, there remains something satisfying about crushing hundreds of enemies with little more than a few button presses.

The battlefield is a fairly dynamic place. While Link had an objective (marked on the mini-map by an X), he also had allied heroes requesting his assistance in preventing their territory from falling to the enemy. Ultimately, it is the player's decision if they want to try to completely wipe out all enemies everywhere or attempt to drive straight to the objectives. Each objective led Link to an engagement, which was usually resolved by defeating a stronger enemy.

Link could also execute more powerful special attacks when he filled a gauge. This attack would wipe away dozens of foes in a single blast.

About half way through the battle I stumbled across a chest from The Legend of Zelda universe; inside I found bombs. The inventory system is apparently full of Legend of Zelda items, and while they are expendable, the demo allowed them to be used without limit. With the bombs selected, pressing the item button allowed Link to heave a few bombs forward to either kill enemies or, in a very Legend of Zelda sort of way, break rocks blocking his path.

After a few additional encounters Link stood at the center of a keep, recently liberated from the bad guys, only to find the wall crushed by a King Dodongo. The size was impressive, and the damage it was inflicting on my forces instantly made clear this boss encounter is a whole different thing than the rather more passive normal foes. Fighting the King Dodongo in Hyrule Warriors was very similar to fighting it in games like Ocarina of Time: he would swing his tail, breathe fire, and ultimately could be stunned by tossing bombs down his throat when he opened his mouth. Once stunned, I could chain many attacks on him. It was at this point I noticed there was a second gauge filling up each time I hit him. Once it filled Link initiated a "weak point" attack, which involved him flying into the air and crashing down on the King Dodongo - killing it instantly.

The demo concluded with some chatter between the Heroes of Hyrule.

I had a good time overall with the demo. The action is repetitive, so it may be hard to tell how long the game keeps its charm, but at least in the first level I enjoyed seeing the Legend of Zelda wrapping applied to a familiar franchise. And, to be clear, it is well applied. I did not expect the reskinning of the game to be this complete, but clearly the developers were very aware of what makes the Zelda franchise special. I would have liked to play the multiplayer mode, which has one player use the TV and the other the GamePad, but they are not showing it at E3.

Visually, the game is faithful to the Skyward Sword art style. While there is quite a lot of action on screen, it does all seem slightly flat. The models of the heroes were quite good, but some of the enemies seemed less alive.

I'm looking forward to getting more time with Hyrule Warriors when it release in North America on September 26.