Portable Chopping Machine, Complete With An Assortment Of Weapons

Introduction
Dynasty Warriors Advance is a short, fun hack and slash with multiple upgrades and weapons. The storyline is good because of the close relationship to the actual history events. Player be warned though, the graphics of this game are lacking. Koei should have worked on this title more before throwing it into battle.

History/Plot
Dynasty Warriors hails from a long tradition of feudal combat releases in video gaming by Koei. Early Chinese warriors were known for their abilities with the sword and cunning battlefield strategy. While this title is geared more towards real-time combat, some planning is involved when moving units in the stages.

I highly recommend the following book set if you are interested in the history behind this game. Three Kingdoms: China's Epic Drama http://www.epinions.com/Three_Kingdoms_by_Kuan_Chung_Lo
The characters come alive after reading the book and make the in-game dialogue meaningful.

Gameplay
At the heart of it all, this game is a hack and slash, strongly similar in gameplay to that found in Shining Soul II. The main difference is that you can choose between thirteen playable characters: Sun Ce, Sun Quan, Sun Jian, and Sun Xiang -WU
Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun, Zhen Ji, and Xu Zhu,-WEI
Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, Qaun Yu, and Zhao Yun,-SHU
Lu BU-other
As your chosen character defeats enemies he gains abilities that give him vastly stronger powers. Battle abilities available are: Reach, Stun, Valor, Speed, Chain and Storm. Of course if your character takes certain types of damage these abilities fade. Dozens of weapon types are equipable, all with varying specials and abilities, just like your favorite mixer attachment. A general's level and stats are carried between Mousu and Free mode. Leveling up stat bonuses are awarded depending on the weapon type used and gameplay tactics. How do you like your ice? Chopped or crushed?
Free Mode: The first battle in Free mode made me realize how long it will take to play this game. One on one combat with only a handful of available enemy units can lead to three minute battles just to extinguish a single unit! Most stages have over twenty enemy units. You move about the playing field by moving to colored circles. If an an enemy is on a circle you must battle them. The battle screen has a troop number in the top corner, this is the number of troops you must chop to win the battle. A dual meter bar in the bottom corner displays your health and mousu levels. You can use the mousu for a special invicible attack that acts like a blender in turbo mode. Learn how to quick save your progress and the long battles will not be as tedious as they first appear. Only three stages are available at first, you must complete stages in Mousu mode to unlock stages in Free mode.
Mousu Mode: Mousu mode is the story mode of this game. Battling is the same as free mode. Pick a clan/family and chop.
Challenge Mode: Challenge mode will test your dexterity skills. To be honest, I am not the fastest player or salad chopper. I lost once and gave up.
On the subject of challenges, the biggest challenge in the game in Lu Bu. He makes appearances throughout the game as enemy forces. He is nearly impossible to defeat. You can have a lot of fun trying to defeat him... no spoilers here gotta keep the game fresh!

Graphics and Sound
The gameplay graphics were not the best. Expect to find flickering sprites and poor special effect presentation. Some stages have snow or rain falling, which is done better than some games that tried the same effect. Character portraits are well drawn and easy to see. Good menu design makes up for the action graphics because you use the menu and map screens often for planning. My biggest beet with graphics is the size of the character weaponry, it's just to small. If I played through 5 stages of this game to be awarded the "Star Sword", I want to see it for all it's glory during gameplay! Overall the graphics in this game are average by Gameboy standards.
The soundtrack makes effective use of the Gameboy Advance's weak audio subsystem. A hard rock background theme is used during most of the battle phases, which was actually enjoyable. Sound effects were good and blend into the overall game quite well.
The game was released in 2006, the developers knew they could have done better than this on a mature platform.

Tips
The Quick Save feature is your shortcut to cheating. Save and if you die in battle, turn off the power, drink some Mountain Dew and restart. You can return to the exact position you were with no penalties.

Replayability
The game loses it's charm after the first go through. All the stages have a set number of soldiers and the ambushes are always in the same predefined sections of the map. Since the stages are not random, you loose an element of surprise the next time you play. The Romance of the Three Kingdom's series by Koei gave you control of large provinces which had several parameters like armies and farming to manage. Replaying the Romance series was fun because you never knew which battle would develop.

Rant
Why was the first release on the Gameboy platform by Koei in over a decade an action game? Koei should have rereleased Romance of The Three Kingdoms (NES version). Nintendo re-released Excitebike on the Gameboy. The porting takes a few minutes, a computer and $75 worth of equipment, seriously.

Summary
Dynasty Warriors is a fun game the first time around. I recommend this title to anyone looking for another hack and slash experience on the DS or gameboy. The game may be unique, but not immune from criticism. Average graphics and sound took my rating down sharply. Additionally, the DS release of this game is likely to be a better purchase because of promised 3D graphics.