Dynasty Warriors games usually follow one simple logic – hack hundreds of enemies using a solo warrior while picking up occasional power-ups and using special techniques to carve up dozens at once. This formula hasn’t changed much at all over the years, though Tecmo Koei did add an interesting twist when it teamed up with Namco Bandai to include the Mobile Suit Gundam anime license. The first two Dynasty Warriors: Gundam games weren’t half bad, though they did tend to get repetitive. Would the third game in the series, the aptly named Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 be one to change the pattern? Um, no. Like previous games, you take control of certain warriors in the Gundam universe. Only a certain few are available within the first few missions, but as you clear stages and defeat certain boss enemies, you gain access to new characters, Gundams, items and more. So there is incentive for getting through it all, depending on how much you love the Gundam franchise.
And let’s face it, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 really requires you to be a fan that stands firmly by the franchise to truly understand what it’s capable of. The story closely follows missions taken from the anime series of the same name, even using similar character voice actors to make them sound alike. It’s not a bad story, but those of you approaching from the casual side will probably wonder why we should give a damn about these pilots in the first place – and won’t get why the bad guys are so eager to shut down the Gundams without even so much as a motive. But buying a game like Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 for the sake of story is kind of like buying a Transformers film (most notably Revenge of the Fallen) looking for substance. This game is all about action, and like the first two, it brings it. Your warrior is capable of various hack and slash attacks, which can be chained together into effective combos. They get repetitive rather quickly, but this game is all about the scope of the enemies you defeat, not the way you do it.
However, as you build up momentum, you’ll unlock energy to do spectacular group-eliminating moves, such as laser blasters that surround your robot or a huge laser beam that fries everything within a certain radius. There are also times you can call upon a partner to help out, if things get a little frantic. And things do get frantic in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3. There were times we were standing in the middle of a stage, getting fried by lasers and not being able to do anything about it. And this was just within the first hour. The difficulty goes off the scale at times, and this may frustrate rookie players looking to get their robo-fix on. Luckily, there’s an adjustable difficulty scale, and you can also fight alongside friends in online co-op. Co-op works quite well here. You can team up with other players to tackle 15 specific missions, taking on all sorts of baddies and hundreds of their robotic friends. Again, it’s not the deepest co-op experience (as the combat tends to really, really repeat), but if you’ve got fellow Gundam fans around, it’s worth trying out. There’s also a local 2-player option, in case you want to take down armies with your younger sibling or next-door anime geek.
This feature review concludes on the next page, please click Page 2 below to see our final thoughts on Dynasty Warriors: GUNDAM 3.
