If you’re someone like me who owns a 3DS and not a Wii U, you were excited to hear about Hyrule Warriors Legends, the 3DS port of the Dynasty Warriors style Zelda spin off. However, if you own an old 3DS or 2DS, you will probably want to hold off on it. According to Daan Koopman, a writer for GoNintendo, there is a significant framerate difference when playing Hyrule Warriors Legends on the older 3DS models.
And by “big hit” we mean the game is almost unplayable on the old systems, not because of bad gameplay or controls of course. Others have also noticed the difference, such as Destructiod’s Chris Carter. Carter says that the game has stable framerate on the New 3DS with the 3D off, and has a slight lag with the 3D on. However, you can’t even use 3D on the older systems and even then the framerate goes below 3o fps. One commenter on Zelda Informer said that the frame rate even goes below 15, which makes a significant difference in an action game.
I was surprised when they announced Hyrule Warriors Legends and it was not a New 3DS exclusive like Xenoblade Chronicles, but considering the news it might as well be an exclusive. This is definitely something consumers should know about before purchasing the game, as a low framerate might sour the reputation on a really solid game. We’ll see what happens with Hyrule Warriors Legends when it’s released on 3DS March 25th.