The emoji icons do work better than Morse code at the very least.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/41367/the-legend-of-zelda-tri-force-heroes-3ds-online-review
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes is very much a game of threes. You fight monsters and solve puzzles with a trio of legendary heroes, and in our time with the game, we’ve come to realize it has three major components to it: single-player, local multiplayer, and online play. So, in the spirit of the game, we’re splitting up our review into three chunks over the next few days. After all three parts are written, we’ll have a conclusion and a final score. If you missed it, here's our thoughts on the single-player and local play (as well as the final score). Below is our take on the online.
In the past, the lack of voice chat in Nintendo games has been a sad, recurring trend. Voice chat was absent in Splatoon and very limited in Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. On 3DS, it’s been even more sparse despite the DS having functional voice chat in several games. For most of Nintendo’s games, the lack of voice chat wasn’t a dealbreaker;. Splatoon uses great visual clues and design to make the missing voice chat a minor issue. For The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, the absent voice chat nearly ruins the entire game experience. While the icons on the touch screen minorly remedy the situation, Tri Force Heroes requires entirely too much cooperation to properly communicate with players using just eight emojis that implore players to use their item or totem up.
Sometimes, it works, but in my hours with playing online multiplayer with random players, that happened roughly a little more than half of the time. When I had a trio of competent or easy-to-work-with players, playing online in Tri Force Heroes is a blast. When you manage to figure out a puzzle or slay a boss with two strangers, it’s extremely gratifying. However, if you wind up with even just one player who doesn’t quite get it even with your communicative attempts, the entire experience crumbles. The worst is that it’s not even like these people are trolling you; in most cases, there is either a knowledge gap or a failure to communicate.
With friends, the online is way better. Whether you use Skype or other means to approximate your own voice chat, it is way easier to communicate using the emoji icons with people that you know. Sure, it still gets frustrating, but it’s way nicer and easier to get frustrated with a friend than some random online player.
Outside of the communication issues, there has been recurring lag throughout my entire experience. It’s completely inconsistent, as I’ve gone several rounds with zero lag only to be hit with a slideshow in a stage. The lag is workable, though, and doesn’t ruin the experience.
Setting aside connectivity, the more than 100 challenges spread across 32 stages are excellent. Especially in the later levels, the puzzles are delightfully clever, calling to mind past Zelda puzzles while also creating ingenious new styles. There are certainly a few puzzles and bosses that are infuriating (tilting boss stage in the back half, here’s looking at you!), but that just makes the potential eureka moment even sweeter when you reach it with two others. Of course, sometimes only two of you reach that moment and the third dude just falls off the stage a bunch and ruins it for you, but c’est la vie.
The secret gem of the online experience is the Coliseum. This mode is a competitive battle mode reminiscent of the StreetPass battles in A Link Between Worlds. You face off against one or two players, and then do battle using a sword, an assortment of other items, and stage hazards. This mode is good old-fashioned goofy multiplayer fun, as outright insanity is the norm. You can pick up your foes and throw them off the edge, and I even had one spectacular moment where one player threw another off the ledge, but that player had me in his boomerang and dragged me down the hole. With friends or randoms, the Coliseum is wonderful.
All in all, the online multiplayer in Tri Force Heroes is a little bit of a “your mileage may vary” situation. I’ve been fortunate to play more often with good groups with little lag, but I’ve heard countless stories of the inverse being the case for others. If you have a pair of regional friends (since this is all region-locked), online is totally worth it. If you’re primarily planning to play with random players online, proceed with a little caution, but be aware that you might miss out on some of the cleverest co-op gameplay in years.