Hyrule Warriors isn't a Legend of Zelda game. Nor is it really a Nintendo game. Hyrule Warriors is a collaboration between Nintendo and two outside studios: Team Ninja, the studio behind Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden, and Omega Force, creators of the Dynasty Warriors series.

Instead of the traditional puzzle-solving and exploration focus of the Zelda games, Hyrule Warriors features hack-and-slash gameplay that defines titles like Dynasty Warriors. As a sort of mash-up, Hyrule Warriors takes that action gameplay and layers on top settings, characters and themes lifted from nearly three decades of Zelda history.

It's a clever idea. But the Zelda elements feel like the thinnest skin, names and faces swapped onto a monotonous beat-em-up.

Hyrule Warriors borrows its design from the Dynasty Warriors beat-em-ups

Hyrule Warriors' premise resembles most Zelda games: Evil threatens Hyrule and Princess Zelda calls upon the Hero of Time. After introducing this scheme, the plot's connections to the series involve little more than places and times. The beat-em-up DNA takes over, first showing itself in Hyrule Warriors' simplified commands. Each character has two standard attacks to build on with combos, a special magic attack and a more powerful ultimate attack. You will always be crunching through hordes of Bokoblins and Stalfos, with greater rewards like health hearts (a Zelda staple) given for taking out bigger groups. Combat gets monotonous, but at least the enemies' screeches when they're blasted 20 feet away is satisfying feedback.

There's also some purpose and a little strategy to the constant slaughter. Each stage is a battlefield laid out with a handful of keeps, which are square rooms packed with enemies that must be claimed for Hyrule. One of these is your Allied Base, which must be protected. If enemies overtake the base, it's instant game over. Keeps are captured by eliminating the enemies within and can be retaken if more return and wear down defenses. You'll need to get rid of wandering enemies in order to avoid wasting time retaking keeps.