It's been a rollercoaster of emotions this week for fans of "The Legend of Zelda."
We heard on Tuesday that "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," the next big game in the, er, legendary series, may not launch alongside Nintendo's new Switch console as we initially hoped. Now, just 24 hours later, there's good news: A real-life "Zelda" escape room experience is coming to eight U.S. cities in 2017.
An "escape room," for those unfamiliar, "is a unique and interactive live puzzle event where teams solve mysteries and clues within a time limit," according to SCRAP Entertainment, the company driving this event (with Nintendo's blessing.)
"You and your fellow players are heroes actually inside the story who must escape from a scenario filled with challenging puzzles and other brainteasers. There will be multiple teams during each game, all trying to escape. Players are encouraged to communicate frequently and divide tasks efficiently in order to solve all the puzzles before time runs out," the company says on its website.
Since Nintendo has officially sanctioned this escape room experience, called "Defenders of the Triforce," it hopefully shouldn't be some low-rent offshoot. Multiple teams of six will all share the same puzzle space, with each team getting their own table to sit and figure things out. Your team will need to examine clues in the environment and find items to solve each puzzle and "win," so to speak.
Here's the trailer for "Defenders of the Triforce":
There is no prize for finishing, aside from satisfaction. Tickets can be purchased on the official website, with early bird prices starting at $36. Here are the eight cities "Defenders of the Triforce" will eventually show up in:
- San Francisco, Jan. 31 to Feb. 5
- Los Angeles, Feb. 10 to Feb. 12
- Phoenix, Feb. 15 to Feb. 17
- San Diego, Feb. 24 to Feb. 25
- Seattle, dates TBD
- Houston, dates TBD
- Chicago, dates TBD
- New York, dates TBD
It's worth noting that, while this is a "Zelda" experience, it apparently does not require knowledge of the games to participate and have fun. Ideally, this could be a more family-friendly version of those escape room games that have popped up over the past few years.
Still, it would be sort of cool if "Zelda" experts (not that I know any, of course) had an advantage over people going in blind. Hopefully "Defenders of the Triforce" ends up being worth the price.