Coin-op conversions by Tiertex have a mixed record: some are great, some just average and some other simply bad. Unfortunately Dynasty Wars falls in the latter category.
The playing area is fairly small and cluttered with unnecessary details. Sprites are confusingly drawn and tends to blend with the background. What's worse, the action is bland and repetitive; you do not feel any involvement in what is happening on the screen. A real waste of a license.
I remember this arcade conversion being quite highly acclaimed around about the time of it's release.
But quite frankly I have no idea why? I'll be honest the conversion for all it's Poorly colour schemed monochrome clutter, is basically a semi decent conversion. Sadly the subject material was average at best, the arcade itself was a bit crap, and I understand the feudal aspect, many enemies coming! This is War! Let's ride into battle on a horse and cut down loads of the bastards! A classic case of nice idea, but shit execution.
I'm feeling like if Capcom had've made the first game in the series like it's sequel Tenchi o Kurau II/Warriors of Fate it may have been a much better game, however by 1990 if this had've been the case, the Speccy version may have ended up being a sluggish shitfest like Final Fight ended up being. The smaller sprites, and general shoddiness of the arcade itself gave the Speccy a fighting chance at doing a decent version.
Converting the sequel to the Speccy would have been way unrealistic, as even though it's a 1991 Capcom CPS Changer game it pretty much pushed that system to the point where you'd think it was a CPS2 game.
Quite frankly it would never have happened on the Speccy, and let's face it, sadly it's probably just as well. Dynasty Warriors though, as it stands is a decent conversion, of an average arcade, but when the original game is shit, how can I give the Speccy higher marks?
No sympathy vote here I'm afraid!
