The Legend of Zelda-themed Escape Room experience coming to a city near you

Nintendo is teaming with SCRAP, creators of a number of award-winning escape room experiences, for a Legend of Zelda-themed adventure that will hit a number of U.S. cities throughout 2017.

Known as the “Defenders of the Triforce” Puzzle Tour, players will need to work together to solve real-life puzzles and “escape” or complete the Zelda-themed experience, and those that do, can get some photo opportunities and the chance to pick up some exclusive merchandise.  Those interested can purchase tickets to the adventure at the official site: SCRAPZelda.com.

There are already a few West Coast dates available as you can see in the schedule below.

Read on for the announcement.

While playing one of the classic games in the beloved The Legend of Zelda franchise, who hasn’t wanted to step through the screen and experience the exploration, adventure and puzzle-solving in real life? With “Defenders of the Triforce,” that dream can become a reality. Nintendo is partnering with SCRAP, the renowned designers of many popular escape room experiences and 2016 winner of USA Today’s “Best Escape Room” in the U.S., to create a unique multi-city Puzzle Tour inspired by The Legend of Zelda series.

While the words “escape room” might come to mind when describing this new experience, “Defenders of the Triforce” is so much more than that. Instead of escaping from a locked room, participants work in teams of six to solve a mystery in a huge area, all within a set time limit. The experience will let guests interact with classic items and characters seen in The Legend of Zelda series like the Goron, Zora and Kokiri tribes. Discovered items can be used to solve puzzles and move forward into other areas, just like in The Legend of Zelda games.

“At Nintendo, we’re always looking for ways to offer new experiences for all of our fans, and expose our characters and franchises to new audiences,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Partnering with SCRAP allows us to offer a new perspective on this legendary series.”

“We wanted to make sure ?Defenders of the Triforce’ felt as authentic as possible,” said Doc Preuss, Real Escape Game Producer for SCRAP. “Fans of The Legend of Zelda series will adore the tour and won’t want to miss it.”

The “Defenders of the Triforce” Puzzle Tour will be hitting eight cities all around the country beginning in January. Tickets for the first wave of locations are available today and can be reserved by visiting http://scrapzelda.com/. The full schedule is as follows:

• San Francisco ? Jan. 31-Feb. 5
• Los Angeles ? Feb. 10-12
• San Diego ? Feb. 24-25
• Seattle ? TBA
• Phoenix ? TBA
• Houston ? TBA
• Chicago ? TBA
• New York ? TBA

After completing the main puzzle experience, attendees will enter an area with amazing photo opportunities and a promotional lounge, where fans can purchase exclusive merchandise based on The Legend of Zelda.