Samurai Showdown With Retail
KOEI's beat-em-up just keeps on truckin'.
Published: September 20, 2006
With seemingly eighty bajillion Dynasty Warriors games already out, you'd think the series would be losing some steam, but really, it just took a change of locale to spice things up a little. Echewing war-torn China for feudal Japan isn't that big a leap, but it's been enough to help build the two similar games into fairly different experiences -- if you're a fan of the series and have played them enough to see beyond the hacking and slashing.
Not that any of this info is news to fans of the series, who continue to line developer Omega Force's pockets with sweet, sweet sequel dough, thus egging them on all the more. And we're not really complaining, since we've been bitten by the 1000 kill--er, sorry, KO bug all over again with the newest edition of Samurai Warriors franchise, which has officially shipped to stores as of today.
It helps that the game has seen some minor (but certainly enjoyable) upgrades; the Musou gauge can now be powered up to three levels, the possible story branches and outcomes have blossomed to more than 70 different visions of a pre-unification Japan, and a handful of new modes have been added to facilitate quick matches. Of those, though, it's the board game-like Sugoroku that sucked away far too much of our own time when we previewed the game.
Though our lowly PS2 version doesn't have the online play that the Xbox 360 version (which also ships today) boasts, the four-player mini-game, enhanced modes and a never-ending stream of grunts to slay (or, um, knock out) is still enough to at least get us picking up the controller yet again. If you've got the bug, the game should be waiting for you on shelves by tomorrow at the very latest. We'll have our review up tonight.
Not that any of this info is news to fans of the series, who continue to line developer Omega Force's pockets with sweet, sweet sequel dough, thus egging them on all the more. And we're not really complaining, since we've been bitten by the 1000 kill--er, sorry, KO bug all over again with the newest edition of Samurai Warriors franchise, which has officially shipped to stores as of today.
It helps that the game has seen some minor (but certainly enjoyable) upgrades; the Musou gauge can now be powered up to three levels, the possible story branches and outcomes have blossomed to more than 70 different visions of a pre-unification Japan, and a handful of new modes have been added to facilitate quick matches. Of those, though, it's the board game-like Sugoroku that sucked away far too much of our own time when we previewed the game.
Though our lowly PS2 version doesn't have the online play that the Xbox 360 version (which also ships today) boasts, the four-player mini-game, enhanced modes and a never-ending stream of grunts to slay (or, um, knock out) is still enough to at least get us picking up the controller yet again. If you've got the bug, the game should be waiting for you on shelves by tomorrow at the very latest. We'll have our review up tonight.