There are more Dynasty Warriors fans out there than most people realise. After putting up with the odd duff spin-off and a few sloppy sequels, their loyalty has been rewarded with Dynasty Warriors 8 – reportedly the best instalment yet.
Scores have been resoundingly high, including a 9/10 from Destructoid.
The Official Xbox Magazine UK meanwhile stumped up two review scores – one for the fans (9/10) and one for non-fans (7/10).
The US Official Xbox Magazine’s review wasn’t quite as positive, however, giving it a 4.0 and noting that the visuals are poor and that there are performance issues that kill the pace.
There isn’t a whole lot else out to tempt money out of your wallet this week if the thought of wiping out entire battlefields, via some vigorous button bashing, doesn’t appeal.
Ubisoft’s 2D platformer The Smurfs 2 is the week’s only other ‘big name’ release.
It’s out on just about everything – Wii U, Wii, DS, 3DS, PS3 and Xbox 360. We’re hoping that because WayForward are involved it won’t be as bad as some movie tie-ins, although the fact that it’s not mentioned on their website isn’t exactly a good sign.
Then there’s the on-rails shooter Heavy Fire: The Chosen Few on 3DS. This isn’t a new game per say – it was first released in the US back in 2011. Publisher GSP has since dusted it off for a European release, despite US reviews being appalling.
Incidentally, GSP are publishing the 360/PS3 counterpart Heavy Fire: Shattered Spear soon at the budget price of £19.99. Don’t be taken in by the relatively pretty screenshots – it’s as basic as it is clunky, which is very. We’ll be giving it the review treatment in the not too distant future.
WayForward are also providing one of this week’s 3DS eShop’s highlights – cult classic Game Boy Color platformer Shantae for 3DS VC.
That’s joined by Level-5’s Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale (£7.19), Robot Rescue 3D (£2.69), Fashion Tycoon (£4.49) and Rabi Lady 2 (£1.79).
Curious about Attack of the Friday Monsters? Us too. It’s described as a “Tokyo-life simulation†in which you play as a young boy named Sohta who lives with giant monsters from 1970s Japanese TV shows. Every Friday they come to life, hence the game’s name.
Movie tie-in R.I.P.D. The Game is the week’s only XBLA and PSN release of note. We wrote a little bit about this one during E3, after spotting that it looks uncannily similar to God Mode. God Mode wasn’t actually too bad – it just became dull far too quickly. As such, we expect reviews to be similar – a mixture of 6s and 7s.
Next week: Pikmin 3 (Wii U), New Super Luigi U (Wii U) and Mars: War Logs (XBLA).