Tri Force Heroes Reveal Makes Zelda U’s Look Rushed and Forgettable

Last E3 we saw Tri Force Heroes in action. More than that, we got to play the game for ourselves. Before E3 we didn’t even have a hint this game existed – no one saw it coming. The reception may be lukewarm at the moment, but the reveal itself was everything a video game reveal should be.

In comparison, Zelda U’s reveal was practically pathetic. Yes, Eiji Aonuma talked about change, and we got to see some pre-determined footage of Zelda U (they claim it’s all in-engine, but that means little), but that was it. Interviews kept being refocused to “open world.” They wouldn’t budge and let us know any real details. Beyond that, we never got to see true gameplay. For a new 3DS game we got gameplay, demos, revealing interviews, and a title. For the new home console game, we got a teaser and nothing else, not even a title.

Of course, not all reveals need to be as fulfilling as Tri Force Heroes was, but on every aspect that game executed in its reveal, Zelda U’s didn’t live up to a single one of them. We’ve seen gameplay since thanks to the Video Game Awards last year, but I can’t help comparing these two titles and feeling like Zelda U was shown before it was truly ready to be shown. If that isn’t the case, then Nintendo simply chose to show the game rather poorly.

What made the Tri Force Heroes reveal great?

When you break it down it comes down to three main pillars. For starters – did your game reveal itself with a gameplay trailer or CGI? You could take this a step further and ask if it was predetermined footage – as in, no one really played the game to capture that footage, it was all programmed in to run that way. Tri Force Heroes got to check this box because the entire showing of the game was gameplay – the game was played by people to create the footage we saw in the reveal.

Secondly, were in depth interviews of the game allowed after the fact? For Tri Force Heroes, this was a big yes. They talked extensively about the game and despite all that conversation it still feels like there is so much more we don’t know – and that’s the feeling you want for any game really. You want to feel like you have a good grasp of what the game is, without actually knowing everything there is to know about it.

Lastly, they let you play the game for yourselves. It was available on the E3 show floor and available to play at Best Buy stores all around the United States. You didn’t just have to buy into what they told you or what you saw in a video, but rather, you could get trusted people (or yourself if you were so lucky) to actually confirm the experience.

The fact we got a title for the game is simply icing on top. It’s not really a requirement for a game reveal, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

What made Zelda U’s reveal bad?

For all the things the Tri Force Heroes reveal got right, Zelda U pulled the polar opposite the year prior. The footage for the game was lackluster in that it didn’t look like authentic gameplay. It almost felt like a cutscene, which is not the feeling you want to convey when you first show off a game. Keep in mind, as a Zelda fan I was excited and even wrote an editorial about how Zelda U is perfect so far – but that was so far. Fast forward more than a year since and its own series is putting that reveal to shame.

Beyond the footage itself, interviews were hard to come by. People kept asking about Zelda U and Nintendo wouldn’t budge. All we heard is that the game is “open world” and that the footage was captured “in-engine.” I quotation-marked those words because both have become meaningless. Neither really tell us much of anything. A lot of game reveals use these sorts of words, and they are thrown around so often they are almost misleading in nature. I am sure Nintendo didn’t mean to insult us, but it was clear they didn’t want to talk about Zelda U. They redirected every single interview into talking about Hyrule Warriors. Not exactly a confidence builder after getting our first glimpse of a full-blown home console Zelda game after waiting three and half years.

There was no playable demo. More than that, the released screenshots for the game were nothing other than images anyone could have simply captured from the footage when the HD version of it was released on YouTube. They provided no useful media for the game, no title, and no hands on playing time. All things Tri Force Heroes had in spades.

However, Zelda U will likely be a better received game

There is no doubt at this point that Zelda U’s reveal, while exciting, wasn’t well planned. Tri Force Heroes stomped all over it just a year later. There is also little doubt that Zelda U is going to be praised as the better game regardless. Reveals don’t guarantee praise no matter how well they are executed when a game is released, and Zelda U feels like a more traditional single player Zelda experience, versus games that try out multiplayer madness. It’s also true console games generally get higher praise and better receptions in general – there is a reason the 3D Zelda games get more attention from fans compared to handheld offerings.

This isn’t to knock down games like Tri Force Heroes. I absolutely adore Four Swords Adventure, and I am sure I’ll love Tri Force Heroes. However, Zelda U is going to get the bigger marketing push, and get more fans excited in general. Speaking of this website, Zelda Informer got a lot more traffic for Zelda U last year despite having very little to actually talk about compared to this year with Tri Force Heroes, where we had our own hands on videos.

Nintendo has a lot it can learn from itself just in revealing Zelda games. Oh, and if you do happen to reading this, Zelda team, please make sure the next time we see Zelda U, it’s not off screen footage at a weird angle? Nintendo Treehouse gets it right every year when they want to show off GamePad functionality. Take some notes.