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GBA | Action | Dynasty Warriors Advance

Boxart for Dynasty Warriors Advance
Dynasty Warriors Advance 6 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.0
  • SOUND: 3.5
  • CONTROL: 3.5
  • FUN FACTOR 3.5
  • AVG USER SCORE n/a
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 2.4

Review: Dynasty Warriors Advance

Review by Rice Burner | 08/29/2005 | 13:24:04 PM PST

The Dynasty Warriors franchise has cornered the market in the hack-n-slash genre for over half a decade, and the series is attempting to virally creep over to infect the handheld market.

The Dynasty Warriors franchise has cornered the market in the hack-n-slash genre for over half a decade, and the series is attempting to virally creep over to infect the handheld market.

Dynasty Warriors Advance looks nothing like its PSP counterpart. DW Advance is a 2D top down hack-n-slash title, which has the usual mix of ancient Chinese kingdoms, Shu, Wei, and Wu, and officers, just like its home console counterpart.

DW Advance sports all the modes that players have come to expect from the franchise, and will include a fully fleshed out story mode, and various challenge modes. Players will move around a map screen similar to a turn based tactics game. When you encounter an enemy unit you'll enter battle mode where you'll duke it out with enemy soldiers and officers. The battle ends when you've completed your goal, or are forced to retreat.

The game features the same Musuo meter, which is triggered by simultaneously holding L and pressing B. In addition, players have a separate gauge which fills up every time you defeat a foe. When it completely fills up, players will be able to augment their character with a special ability ala Gradius.

While the gameplay is decent, DW Advance lacks sustained gameplay power due to the Game Boy Advances inherent limitations. DW Advance is drastically scaled down title. The gameplay areas seem compartmentalized and tiny compared to the other console versions of the franchise title. During any given battle you may have to defeat 50 foes but the game can only handle 8 sprites at a time which leads to many long and tedious battles.

In conclusion, DW Advance is an excellent 2D hack-n-slash title, but it really doesn't stand up to today's handheld gaming standards. If DW Advance was released 5 years earlier, it would have turned a lot of heads.

KEY MOMENT: The first time I chained several elemental combo attacks together to take out all six enemy soldiers at once.


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