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Aussie Ninja has mastered the art of mash
Publisher: Capcom/THQ Australia
Thu, 9 February 2006
by: Australian Ninja
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I used to de a Devil King. But I quit that job so I could become a kung-fu hippie from gangster city. Then I quit that so I could have more time to review games and keep it real.
Devil Kings takes the basic Dynasty Warriors formula and adds a Capcom flavour. What does that taste like? Read on and find out impatient one. If you like Dynasty Warriors or any of the fifty ba-zillion other games like it then Devil Kings is for you. Having never really played those other games myself [except for some demos] I was able to enjoy Devil Kings more, not being tired of the melee mashy button genre. If you've played those other games, Devil Kings is really more of the same. Nothing really special about it other than a bit of "attitude" Capcom style. It is solid but repetitive button mashing fun set during those crazy old feudal days. The years fly by but the memories stay, and those were the good feudal days.
The game starts with a choice of six playable characters and around ten stages per character the first time through. A treasure trove of special items, extra weapons, special moves and six more playable characters await those who dare play.
 | | Beware the pantaloons of fire! |
Devil Kings has some very nice character models. The backgrounds are pretty. The ground and wall textures by contrast are bland as peanut butter. Which is an obvious sacrifice to allow dozens of enemies on screen at once. The main eye candy that stands out, in my opinion, is the character design / art direction. The Devil King and Iron Ox characters being my favourites. Devil King himself looks shiny and metallic with his armor. Just the right amount of evilness takes him beyond ridiculous looking into being menacing. Add Dante's shotgun from Devil May Cry and you have one mean bastard of a warrior. Like Street Fighter's Akuma/Gouki. The other characters - while all good designs - don't have quite the look, ego or presence of the Devil King who the game is named after.
The sound effects are generic but effective. Lots of sword slashing, some gunshots, the odd explosion. Plenty of moronic soldiers yelling out "arrggh" and other similar things. Quite a lot of speech in the game both during the cut scenes and during the battles. The voice acting is all relatively good and suit the attitudes of the characters well.Nearly all of the playable characters are total egomaniacs. Which works in the games favor.
The music is comprised of very fast paced adrenalin fuelled rock with classical instruments accompanying. Rock n Roll Classical Fusion you could say. Occasionally some ambient music tracks and traditional Japanese music join the mix. Overall a large selection of music [over 20 full tracks] that suit the game well and add some "buzz" to the frenzied on screen action. I liked the idea of having the usual dramatic music but glamming it up some with the fast paced rock and over the top characters with big egos. That's how you spell attitude or "in your face" action gaming. It really is like the game is 10% Devil May Cry. Even some odd moves from that game are in this game.
Okay, so we have six playable characters and a further six unlockable characters giving a total of twelve playable. The game is quite short to play; on easy you can finish it in around five hours. On normal around six to seven hours. But finishing once is just the beginning. For one thing there are all the different characters to play as. All have the same basic combos. As you gain experience your character will level up with a bigger health bar and new more spectacular special moves. Learning all a characters moves and gaining all their weapons would take multiple plays to completion. The good news is that finishing once and starting over with the same character will offer new stages to play. And you get to keep all the items and experience from previous games. In fact, even if you choose a different character you get to keep all the special items from the previous games.
At any time you can choose another character and start playing. You won't lose the other save game in progress, instead you can have as many games on the go as you like.
For example I play five stages with Devil King. Then I save and quite and start playing with a different character. Later I can come back to that first character and the save will still be there. This goes for all the games characters and is included all on the one save game.
Each stage has hundreds of warrior hordes waiting to slay you in battle. Every stage has a boss at the end and most stages have a mid-boss to battle as well. All the "bosses" are one of the various playable characters. Some you will fight multiple times. It's like a handful of god-like beings hang out and have big battles with each other for fun. Whoever you choose at the start will result in you fighting most other playable characters. A couple of them will join you as allies.
In each stage ally troops help you out. By "troops" I mean brain-dead zombies and by "help" I mean do nothing useful at all. They will fight the enemy troops but rarely will they kill them. Basically it is a one man army [being you.] The allied troops run into battle looking good but really they are just window dressing.
Most stages take 30-60 minutes to complete. Two options: Kill everyone for max experience and items. Or run to and beat the main boss to pass the stage - losing out on the experience.
Fighting on for over forty minutes then dying is a pain in the ass. No checkpoints, nothing. So sometimes to pass a stage you will need to just skip ahead to the boss by avoiding all the enemies by running / jumping past them.
 | | Big fan of hers |
The story is um, stupid. The presentation however, is just lovely. A combination of CG and Anime cut scenes are used to tell the story to great effect. When I say story, any five minutes of The Last Samurai is more interesting to watch than the cut scenes. Basically it is the visuals that make them interesting to watch. The Anime cut scenes in particular were a welcome surprise seeing that I love cartoons of all seasons and genres. I don't know who was responsible [I'm too lazy to read the credits] but I'm confident that Capcom hired some studio or such to produce such lovely animations. My favourite scene involves a guy charging over a cliff on a white horse while the Devil King sits sipping tea anticipating the attack. Aesthetically it is a lovely scene with ambient sounds, and large pauses to admire the silence. Very Japanese and very stylish in execution.
The first day I played Devil Kings, I was somewhat skeptical. I mean Capcom have really been pumping out the B grade games in the western market recently. There is nothing wrong with that. But after a while you start to wonder if their best days are behind them.
Well that first night I played and played and finished the game on easy in one night. Then the next day I started with a new character on the normal difficulty - which was significantly harder. Finishing again, I can't see myself really wanting to play again more than one to two times. Mostly to unlock one really cool looking extra character that reminds me of an old badass robot on Astro Boy. So, what I'm saying is, this title would make a good rental or budget priced game. I just don't see the longevity past more than a few weeks of play. But if you really dig the Dynasty Warriors / Kessen / Samurai Warriors games and their brethren then you are in for a treat. Solid gameplay, fun characters, cool special moves and egos bigger than The Rock add up to a good time mashing that same button over and over.
A few extras are available in Devil Kings. Nothing that really interested me. But anywho the unlockable extras are: watch any movies, music, character profiles and small amount of artwork. Plus the extra playable characters.
by: Australian Ninja
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8 Nobunaga Inspired Buttons.You will bow down to me. I will rule all the lands with an iron fist and beautiful shiny red buttons, ha ha har! | |
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