Review: CADENCE OF HYRULE is A Lot of Fun with an Amazing Soundtrack
Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda is a very long title. It’s a good thing that title length doesn’t mean anything for a game. Cadence of Hyrule is an action/adventure/rhythm game. It sounds like an odd mixture, but it works really well. The team over at Brace Yourself Games have done a great job of melding Crypt of the NecroDancer and The Legend of Zelda. I was worried that the game was going to simply be Crypt of the NecroDancer with a Zelda skin and I’m happy to say I was wrong.
Crypt of the NecroDancer is more of a rhythm-based dungeon crawl while Cadence of Hyrule feels a lot more like an action adventure RPG (like a traditional 2D Zelda game) with the same rhythm-based mechanics. You can move pretty freely throughout the game until you get to a screen with enemies. That’s when you have to move and attack to the beat of the fantastic music. You’ll have plenty of enemies, puzzles, dungeons, and even bosses to face throughout the game just like what you’d expect from a Zelda game.
The story is a little lackluster in my opinion, but that’s OK because the fun factor and everything else about the game including the music and art more than make up for it. The real star of Cadence of Hyrule is the music though. They created amazing covers and remixes of the music Zelda fans love and I would probably buy the soundtrack if I could. Also, did I mention you can play cooperatively with a friend? I love cooperative Zelda games since the wife and I both love the franchise. I have found that playing two player can sometimes be harder than single player when you get to the rhythm sections.
My final thoughts are that this game is fantastic, but not for everyone. While the music is amazing and the artwork is phenomenal, the rhythm-based mechanics can be hard to get used to and I don’t think everyone will enjoy that. However, Cadence of Hyrule is a very solid Zelda game and video game in general. It is definitely worth picking up if you like Zelda and/or Crypt of the NecroDancer.
You can purchase the game from the Nintendo eShop for $24.99 now.
