- Choose to be noble heroes like Samanosuke Akechi and Jubei Yagyu -- or become an evil sub-character or monster from the series.
- Fight in beautiful interactive backgrounds -- fantastic graphics and realistic lighting create lifelike game worlds.
- Customize your characters' powers as you go - strengthen your equipment, boost your Genma power and more.
- Four exciting story modes - Story, Fighting, Mini-Game and Practice.
- Team up with up to 3 other players for lightning fast multiplayer battles that show off your warrior skills.
Product description
-------------------
Onimusha Blade Warriors -- Command a legion of noble, powerful
warriors from the Onimusha Warlords series, in this 3D fighting
game. Select your warrior and fight alone or against other
warriors, in epic battles that will test your skills to the
limits!
Review
------
Until now, PS2 owners have had very little in the way of good
four-player games (other than sports) to throw in when there are
more than two people in the room. Blade Warriors, while by no
means revolutionary, is a good solid multiplayer brawler that
should keep you pounding each other to bits well into the night.
If you've ever played Super Smash Bros., you'll immediately be
comfortable here – even the fighter select screen is strikingly
familiar. Barring a few elements, such as a life bar and combo
attacks, gameplay largely follows in SSB's footsteps. Not that
it's necessarily bad, but this is a very derivative title. Not in
every way, though. Souls drop when you hit or KO someone, and
they can be collected to refill your . Arenas are fairly
three-dimensional, which can make it tough to line up ranged
attacks, and everything from models to effects is very easy on
the eyes.
Though play is for the most part frantic and fun, Blade Warriors
does fall flat in a number of areas. The camera and character
variety are both suspect, and combos are nigh-impossible to break
up. Fighters don't have nearly enough moves, either. On average,
I found myself doing the same four-slash combo all the freaking
time.
If you're one of those people with more than one friend, this is
as good a way as any to get your brawl on with a PS2.
Concept:
Use your favorite Onimusha characters to unlock other Capcom
heroes (and villians), and control them in a giant slugfest
Graphics:
Sharp, varied backgrounds and excellent models
Sound:
Umm, clangs and battle cries. Mega Man EXE and Lan are
annoying as ever
Playability:
If your square button is feeling lonely, this will reacquaint you
with it
Entertainment:
Definitely one of the top PS2 four-player titles
Replay:
High
Rated: 8 out of 10
Editor: Adam Biessener
Issue: March 2004
2nd Opinion:
Going into this review, I was prepared to nominate Capcom for a
Darwin Award. Applying the Onimusha license to gameplay that
cannibalizes the Super Smash Bros. formula is equivocal to
pouring Coke on your Wheaties. As asinine as Blade Warrior's
concept is, you can't help but become completely entrenched in
its simplistic, yet frantic hack n' slash frays. Strategy laden
multi-tiered environments, character-specific special moves, and
four-player support pretty much round out the elements that
Capcom has so blatantly stolen from Nintendo's popular series.
Although very similar in design, Blade Warriors doesn't offer a
robust selection of character types, nor reasons for people
seeking a single player experience to invest more than a few
hours of playing. Fun as it may be, it doesn't have the legs or
chemistry of Super Smash Bros.
Rated: 7.5 out of 10
Editor: Andrew Reiner
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