I'll admit it, I love hack-and-slash titles. Button smashing hysteria and a double almond grande latte makes for a good morning and on those days where rage just overwhelms you, it's best to fulfill those slaughterhouse desires on large quads from Ancient China than to senselessly beat up your fellow coworkers. That's why Koei has released its 10th edition to the Dynasty Warriors series, befittingly titled ... Dynasty Warriors. As a fan, I am happy to see a version of the game I can take on the road with me. However, it seems clear that only big fans of the series will welcome this to their newly formed PSP game collection and will be dismissed by others as the more expensive solution to their hack-and-slash needs (Though it has yet to be seen how Untold Legends will fair here on GameZone).

The game takes place during the period when Feudal lords ruled China for ultimate supremacy. These warring states are after the turf of the former Han Dynasty. The gameplay mechanics will be very familiar to Dynasty-fans and easy to pickup for newcomers (button-smashers rarely get complicated in the finger work). The game offers close and ranged weapons to annihilate your opponents. I have always found ranged weapons to be more of an inconvenience than a help to pick off distant baddies and 99% of all fighting will be done in close combat. In the console version of Dynasty Warriors, acres and acres of open terrain was your battlefield, allowing for massive onslaughts in the fields. Of course, the PSP has its limitations, so the designers implemented a linear structure to moving about. This isn't that apparent, however, and the developers give several options and paths to take depending on how you want to complete the level.

The vastness of the levels in the console version was always ruined thanks to the implemented fog system that acts as a wall to hinder spotting distant squads. A few times, I was surprised by a rushing onslaught of an enemy faction that seemed to appear out of nowhere. This keeps you on your toes but is also unrealistic. Enemy AI is much like its console brothers. Squads consist of a dozen or so units, lead by an individual captain. Expect a normal fight time of 2-4 minutes during skirmishes with long intervals of marching in between it all. This wouldn't be so bad if there was something to look at (more on that later).

Dynasty Warriors has a hint of strategy in the game, though I would hardly call this a strategy title. You could go through the game completely without thinking about the strategic advantages of planning the attack. One strategic element important to use is choosing your right-hand officers. Each officer has a special ability and skill you can use in battle, like increasing your health stamina. The officers will progress and gain power as you do. If you can find another PSP gamer who owns Dynasty Warriors (though such a quest would be quite an undertaking since the game has received virtually no response from the gaming community), you can use your memory card to swap 2nd-in-command officers with each other. This allows for customization never before seen on a Dynasty Warriors title.

Dynasty Warriors is visually unappealing in every aspect. The environments are nothing more than a flat plane with a handful of random bushes and tents. The character models look quite plain compared to the "flare" of the PS2 versions and it looks generally sloppy. As some of you know, the PSP features a widescreen LCD display. Koei is using the added space to implement a map display and troop morale meter, though I think the added space should have been used for the game itself. I didn't care for the sound much either with no voiceovers and second-rate rock music that gives headaches. The sound effects present the only strength in this department.

Dynasty Warriors retails for $49.99. That's the price of a full console game! I just can't see myself spending that much for a portable game, at least for a title I'm not sweating in impatience for (GTA, you take my breath away). Only fans of the series will find this entry into the series enjoyable. But even I could only withstand 20-minute intervals of it. There is just not enough in here to warrant spending that much dough.