Warriors Orochi Review

Koei`s Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors game series you either love them or hate them, as a result many of you will just ignore Warriors Orochi. Those that do however will miss out on a pretty cool game that deserves a lot more attention than most will give it.Yes it is similar to the Dynasty Warriors series in many ways, but its also very different as well.
So whats the game about? Its about £40 if you in the UK, $60 American, Seriously though its about the Serpent King Orochi using his demonic powers and shattering time and space to fuse together the three kingdoms era of china and the warring states period of japan, so that he may test his might against the legendary warriors of ancient China (Dynasty Warriors) and ancient Japan(Samurai Warriors) in battle.
Don't worry though that`s not all there is to the story line, as the game spans over four different main story lines for the factions of Shu,Wie,Wu and Samurai Warriors each consisting of 8 main levels with a further 7 levels a piece covering the X storylines, an alternative take to the original main branch, each with a totally unique last level compared to the in twined ending of the main story branch.



All story`s start off with a cut scene of the characters getting transported to the middle of nowhere to battle Orochi, The story of the very first Shu mission is that Zhao Yun has been held prisoner beneath Ueda Castle which is under the Serpent Kings control. Worrying about his masters safety (Liu Bei) Zhao Yun must escape from the castle and reunite with his master to defeat Orochi.
This mission has you playing as the following three characters.....
(I don't know why but playing as real people from centuries ago just seems to add something more to the game)

Zhao Yun who according to Wiki was a major military general during the civil wars of the late Han Dynasty and during the Three Kingdoms era of China. For most of his career, Zhao Yun served the warlord Liu Bei, playing a part in the establishment of Shu Han. In literature and folklore he is lauded as the third member of the Five Tiger Generals.

Xing Cai who is unfortunately a fictional character who is believed to be based upon Zhang Fei`s daughters.
She is depicted as a calm and collected warrior who wields a two-pronged fork called the "Ambition". Her ultimate goal is to protect her husband's kingdom in her father's stead.

Yoshimiro Shimazu,Again according to Wiki was a skilled general and the victory against the Ito clan at the battle of Kigasakihara on 1572 is counted as one of his many victories. He contributed greatly to the unification of Kyushu. On 1587, facing Toyotomi Hideyoshi's troops that sought to pacify Kyushu, Yoshihiro pressed for a war even after his brother and the head of clan Yoshihisa surrendered. After Yoshihisa repeatedly asked for the surrender, Yoshihiro finally did surrender. After Yoshihisa became a Buddhist monk, it had been believed that he became the head of the clan but the real power remained in Yoshihisa's hands.




All pretty cool characters and a pretty balanced team in all, with Zhao Yun being a mix of speed and strength,Xing Cai`s Speed and Yoshimiro`s power they are a pretty formidable team, and are all pretty fun to play as.

So what makes this game different from the previous Koei games, well the main difference is you can switch between 3 characters per stage during play as opposed to being stuck with 1 character that plays like a turd (Yes i do mean Yoshimoto Imagawa). You know the kind that causes you to just give up on the other games in the series, as you press buttons but don't seem to have any effect on the enemy units around you. With 3 characters you can change between on the fly though, there is always a character that you will enjoy playing as, which in turn makes the game so much more fun to play. It also makes the game a bit easier than previous titles in the Koei game series, as when one character is nearly dead you can switch them out to rest, instead of seeing the dreaded defeat screen in their other games.
Just when you find a character you like and have levelled up over a few levels, you normally unlock another character who is much more fun to play as than the last (Mitsunari Ishida), with the majority of the characters having different moves and combos, most are different, but with over 75 characters its with little suprise that some of the characters do seem like carbon copys of others with just graphical changes, although once you found 3 you like you don't normally change them, so its not a big problem.



Yes it is just a button masher with you mainly just using the X and Y buttons, but there are also combinations that come into play with an extra press of the X button before the Y sometimes meaning all the difference between a average move and one that takes out most of the enemies around you. Along with these combos you also have the special attacks activated by the RB button which depending on the character can be something really cool that does a lot of damage, (Mitsunari Ishida) to something rather lack luster (Yoshimoto Imagawa again) that makes you wish you saved your musou gauge, these moves however like the Musou moves can get you out of a pickle when your swarmed by enemies with only a slither of health left, some characters special attacks don't use any of the Musou though, which is pretty handy as you don't have to worry about conserving your energy so you have enough to use the Musou move for the next officer you have to defeat.Incase you have not played any of Koei`s games before a Musou move is a super devastating move that does a serious amount of damage, kind of like Ryu`s Shinku Hadoken and Akuma`s Shun Goku Satsu in the Street Fighter series, or Tidus and his overdrive moves in Final Fantasy X.

Another cool feature added to the game is the ability to customise and strengthen the attack power of your weapons, with a total of four weapons in the game to be found for each character. The customisation of the weapons costs growth points that you get from playing the game. With each weapon being able to add an extra 20 points of attack power and having 8 abilities used on them from the rather pointless air, which is good against enemies in the air.(I've seen about 3 enemy officers in the whole game jump and that`s all) to the much better ones like ice which freezes enemies in blocks of ice while you give them a beating.




As well as these though you also have character abilities which you unlock by meeting certain conditions in the game, from defeating 180 troops in a set time limit to taking out so many officers without using any of your musou gauge. These can make a big difference to how easy or hard the game can be for you, if playing on normal upwards, with abilities such as Vitality that extends your life bar, or acclaim that gives you more experience so you level up faster. You can only equip seven of these in total though, which is pretty annoying when you want to equip eight of them, If they made it so you could equip eight though i would want to equip nine, but hey I'm greedy i want everything and more



Each level has you basically having to defeat certain officers, while making sure that one or two of your own stay alive, while taking out troops along the way.
So what is it about the game that makes it fun to play? I don't know but i got all the achievements in it, (Yes I'm sorry i mentioned them in a review but i had to) but then proceeded to play the game for another 3 - 4 hours after. In short this game just seems to have something that keeps me coming back for more. I'm not a big fan of going around collecting this and that, levelling this character up and crap like that, Yet i would gladly sit here and do it for 90% of the characters in the game, unlocking all the abilities and getting the fourth weapons for each character. This games fun and i like it, it just has this charm about it maybe its because there doesn't seem to be much choice around now days with the plethora of First Person Shooters, even though that`s not the case as There`s a lot of good games still being made that don't involve guns.

So in closing go and at least rent the game and give it a try, if you don't like it come back and call me a liar, i cant really say fairer than that, but hopefully one or two of you will appreciate and treasure this game for what it is,an old school hack n` slash game play with a lot more to offer than you will see in a screen shot.


Audio – 7.0
Visual - 7.5
Gameplay - 8.0
Lifespan - 9.0
Presentation - 7.5

Fifa Street 3 Review

You can find an Achievement Guide for this game Here

Info on the game and screenshots are located Here





Fifa Street was born in the olden days and was made as an alternative to the hoop and stick game that was all the rage at the time.(Yes it was even more popular than marbles)Bursting onto the scene as a school yard/Back street football simulator of sorts,adding fun elements like no refs,no offside,and non stop play,with Football Superstars being there in place of Fatty Fairclough,Goggles and Smelly Tramp.
There was a few things missing though,llike your mum calling you in for you Dinner,jumpers for goal posts,the retriveal of the ball from your neighbours garden and smashing windows by accident and running off.
(The last one i still enjoy doing today)

Fifa Street was quite a fun game to play and sold so well that they made a sequel,imaginatively titled as Fifa Street 2.
This game however was a pile of cack released with akward arenas to play in which resulted in less fun being had.It felt like some of the things that made the 1st game fun was lost,it was the Matrix Reloaded all over again,which was pretty strange as the film wasnt even out then and has nothing to do with the game.


(if the last statement about the Matrix Reloaded not being released is untrue,then whoops i told a fib)

So after the poor display by Fifa Street 2 they decided the series was done with, and would never release another game in the series unless it was Fifa Street 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10.
So it came as a big shock when EA announced that Fifa Street 3 would be released.
So lets talk about Fifa Street 3 and everything involved with the game.

From the title screen you have the usual play now mode,where you get to play the game straight away where you can jump straight in and play with the street teams you have unlocked in challenge mode or national teams.
You can choose a number of match types in this mode like Score difference where you have to lead by a set number of goals to win,Score which is a first to so many goals,Timed where you play for a set period of time,Game Breaker where only gamebreaker goals count,Five a side where its timed but without Gamebreakers and my favourite of all and a game most people in the UK have played at one time in their youth,yes people its Headers and Volleys.
(There is always some sod that used to hoof the ball onto a neighbours roof or through a window while playing Headers and Volleys in the real world)

As per normal you probably wont bother much with the exhibition mode,Sorry i forgot its Play Now so its more hip.

So what else do we have in here,well next up is the Fifa Challenge mode.

In this mode you select from the unlocked challenges for which team you will play against in a few games where you have to meet certain conditions to win,such as win by 5 goals,Headers and Volleys and other such games.

After you have picked which team to play you then pick from one of the Two teams available at the start.
Stocky which is a team of larger players featuring Gattuso,Rooney and Viduka,
or the Urchins which features a team of unknown players like the Canadian player Wu Hong and Chinese super star Zhang Hui.

Each time you beat all of a teams challenges you unlock them to play as in any of the game modes.
There are also side challenges involved called Challenge Targets where you have to win a set number of games,score so many goals and game breaker goals and headers and volleys.


You proceed through the challenge mode until you reach the end,which should take you around a few hours depending on your skill at the game,although you shouldnt really have any trouble with the default difficulty level.If you are stuggling though you can always adjust it to easy or cheeky.
(Yes i said cheeky,its EA and there child hood humour,i guess they are down with the kids of the 80`s........The 1880`s that is,i mean come on ive not heard that term in ages and when i have it normally has a word similar to Barsteward on the end)

So thats challenge mode done and dusted so with the main part of the game out of the way whats left?
Well we have the Head To Head mode.
(No not the GamerScore League a different Head To Head)

Head To Head is just the variations of games that you played in challenge mode,such as Timed,Gamebreakers and Headers and Volleys.
This mode is made for you and a friend to play only,its a shame as this would have been nice to play against the CPU,but you can do all these in Play Now against it.
(I guess there is a use for play now after all,i really feel bad for dismissing it like i did,im sorry play now mode will you please forgive me)

So 3 modes down and still more to choose from,next up is Playground Picks,which is another holla back to school day football.
(Did i say holla back? whats next lady bump?)
Playground Picks is another 2 player only mode,where one player picks a team,which the players then take it in turn to pick team members from,with Goggles being picked last due to him having asthma and passing to the other team as he cant see 2 feet in front of his face.
Again you can flick between the various game modes mentioned earlier on including Headers and Volleys.
(I friggin love Headers and Volleys can you tell or as we used to call it 60 seconds,You had to score a header or volley in that time,if you did it then changed to 50 then 40.After 10 it then goes to 2 goals in 60 Seconds,if you failed last person to touch the ball goes in goal)

After this there is the practice mode,which i dont think anyone will ever need to use and doesnt really need an explanation at all.
(Well if you want one here it is,you practice in this mode,happy you asked for it?)

After all that we then have the Xbox live mode,which is filled with all the variations of the games you have already played earlier if you have worked your way down the modes,if you have not done this however welcome to the world of wonder and mystery.
The games play the same as the other modes, but you also get to play a complete stranger who quits after you have scored 4 goals in the 1st minute of play.

Lastly is the Options mode with the usual tweaks and options,such as having the abilty to turn the Urban music off,a feature i am truly thankfull that they have included in the game as its not my cup of tea.

So whats missing from the game?

Nothing really its a pretty fun game,a few more tricks would have been nice though.
A penalty shoot out mode also would have been pretty cool,but its no biggie that its not included.

The only problem i would say the game has is the tackling,it doesnt seem to want to work some of the time,but its a minor issue at best.




AUDIO – 8
The in game sound effects are pretty good as well with people calling for the ball,not really much they could do with these but they still did a good job on them.

Graphics – 7
The graphics are pretty good for a football game and not as cartoony as some of the screenshots would have you believe,there is 7 arenas that are all the same size and shape with the difference only cosmetic,but still a quite good selection,and the characters look pretty good as well with them all looking similar to the real life counter parts.


Game play – 7
Easy to pick up and play,and enjoyable,the only problem i had was with the tackling occasionaly,but other than that i cant really fault the game,its nice to see its more like the first game than the second.

Lifespan – 6
Once you have finished the offline modes which will only take roughly 5-8 hours depending on your skill,there is only the online and occasional friends dropping by for a game to keep it going.
Personally i cant see much time being spent by me playing this on live,but if you like it you may stick with it online a lot longer.

Bottom Line – 7.5
Overall its an entertaining game and one that is easlily accessible from start to finish.
Probably the most fun Football game on the 360 at the moment and until Fifa Street 4 comes out.
(I would like to say i hate Peter Crouch,so thanks a lot EA for making me have to score 3 goals with the useless sod)