Koei of Japan and its subsidiary studios have been making computer games since 1983 and ten years ago Koei teamed with developer Omega Force to release Dynasty Warriors for the Sony Playstation. This was a side viewed 2D fighting game. The next game in the Dynasty Warriors series however, fused Koei's love for strategy, history and action to create a new game genre of which Koei would become synonymous with. Released in the year 2000, Dynasty Warriors 2 harnessed the raw power of the fledgling Playstation 2 console to deliver a 3D world populated with an unheard of numbers of enemies destined to be carved up by your stable of 28 stylised warriors of Ancient Chinese lore. It went on to build a rabid fan base, not only in Japan but all over the world.

Skip forward seven years and after six Dynasty Warriors games, two Samurai Warriors games (replace Chinese heroes with Japanese ones) and a plethora of other spin off titles across multiple platforms, Koei have released their latest game, Warriors Orochi. More surprising than the series surviving in excess of eight iterations with barely a change in either gameplay or graphic is the fact that it is still being released on the same console as the first sequel, the PS2...Oh and in the case of Warriors Orochi, also the Xbox 360.

My first 10 minutes with Warriors Orochi was spent browsing the menu screens looking for a way to invert the horizontal camera axis (which I now know you can not) as every time I wanted the camera to turn right, it turned left and vice versa. I did learn that you can remap all of the buttons on the controller though, which is an option that should be offered on more games. Once getting over that little annoyance my attention immediately focussed on the rest of the game.

The story of Warriors Orochi centres on an evil Serpent King, Orochi, who shatters time and space to test his strength against the most courageous warriors from Ancient China and Feudal Japan...No seriously! In reality it is just an excuse to combine the characters from both the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series into the one game. This in itself is a wet dream for fans of the series but for everyone else it is just the same game, with the same gameplay, characters, graphics and levels not to mention ported from the same console the template game debuted on seven years ago!

I'm sure you can imagine that a PS2 game ported to the next generation (or is that now current generation?) Xbox 360 is not going to set the gaming world on fire graphically. If you look at the games in the Warriors series, the graphics have barely changed since Dynasty Warriors 2. Warriors Orochi is no exception with the only real noticeable difference being that the game is now presented in high definition. This in itself means very little to those Xbox 360 owners without a HDTV.

The core gameplay has essentially remained the same across the Warriors series. For those unfamiliar with the Warriors games, Warriors Orochi is a mission based button masher where your chosen hero runs or rides on horseback around the battlefield splitting their time between assisting allies, defeating enemy heroes and reacting to tactical events that may sway the tide of the battle.

Reinforcement points scattered around the edges of the maps can be captured by killing the base commander (a very easy task) which can assist in swaying the tide of battle in your favour. Most of you time however will be spent rushing to the aid of your generals who lack the Kensei abilities of your chosen characters and waiting for the specific enemy general to appear who must be killed to complete the mission.

The game can be played in either a Story mode (split between four campaigns, Wu, Shu, Wei or Samurai) or a Free mode which is essentially the same battles without any cinematics or other story elements. There are so many named characters in Warriors Orochi, that unless you already are familiar with them the chances of you keeping track of who is who is quite slim. Attacks are performed using two button combos for normal and charge attacks with the ability to pull off super ‘Musou' attacks which charge significantly slower in this instalment.

The main ‘new' feature of Warriors Orochi is the ability to choose three characters for each mission and the ability to switch between characters at anytime with a quick trigger pull. Each character has different abilities, strengths and weaknesses with combos able to be linked between characters to create truly ridiculous consecutive hit totals. It takes a little practice but with the right timing you can wipe out literally hundreds of enemies within just a few minutes.

Speaking of characters, there are now a massive 77 to unlock and play which trumps any Warriors game to date. Each character belongs to Power (slow and heavy), Speed (fast and light) or Technique (balanced) categories and is suited to different situations and play styles. You begin the game with very few of these characters unlocked and must invest a significant number of hours to unlock them all. In fact, as is the case with all Warriors games, you must invest many hours to get the most out of it. The game only shows its true depth to those that invest the most time in it

Your performance during a mission scores you a torrent of ‘growth points' these points can easily rack up into the thousands in just one mission alone depending on how many enemies you lay waste to. Growth points can be distributed between missions on either levelling up a character or characters or improving weapons. In addition to these points, you may receive ‘abilities' during your conquests which can then be allocated to a limited list. Abilities are linked to character types, Power, Speed and Technique and you can modify your list to reflect the type of characters that you choose to play with.

All characters can be upgraded (each character can reach a max of level 99), as can weapons but a feature new to Warriors Orochi is the Weapon Fusion System which allows players to combine weapons to create new ones. Although this feature sounds good in theory, it proves to be a little redundant in practice. The reason for this is that weapons better than any you can create always present themselves on the battlefield as you progress through the game making the Fusion system a little pointless really.

My last experience with a Koei game was Samurai Warriors on the Xbox and to be honest, with the exception of a much higher resolution it doesn't look any better. The battlefield is still shrouded in a fog usually reserved for hiding hardware performance shortcoming, ‘pop-up' is still a problem, geometry and character design is simple and repetitive and textures are low resolution and ugly.

As was the case in previous Warriors games, you can play Warriors Orochi cooperatively with a friend. The assistance of a friend makes the game significantly easier and actually a little more fun. There is no multiplayer mode perse as the second player just signs in and controls one of the three selected characters and can only do this offline on the one Xbox. Warriors Orochi has no System Link or Xbox Live implementation.

The soundtrack of Warriors Orochi is a relentless techno mix that may not suit the setting but definitely suits the repetitive hack and slash gameplay. It is really just there to give you something to listen to between the sword slashing sounds and repetitive screams and grunts. There is no Japanese voiceover so you are forced to listen to the typically bad over the top voiceovers common to games of this type. To be fair, the game doesn't take itself seriously so the voice acting adds to its quirky Japanese charm more than it distracts from it. As does the ridiculous dialog which had me reaching for the dictionary thinking ‘That can not possible be a real word!' on a few occasions.

As a gamer, you will either love or hate the Warriors franchise. If you are a long term fan of the series you will notice numerous in-jokes that will be lost on the average gamer. The Warriors formula hasn't changed in seven years and it is the kind of game that pays off somewhat on a significant time investment. However, Warriors fans are a niche market and the majority of gamers will simply not have the time or desire to experience all the game has to offer.