It's hard to feel good about single-handedly defeating squads of riflemen when they often fire at where you were standing 10 seconds ago or for slaughtering soldiers who seem eager to taste the edge of your blade. Samurai Heroes takes a gleefully anachronistic approach to its subject matter. But although historic figures such as Ieyasu Tokugawa and Masamune Date loom large in this tale, this is no historically accurate retelling of Japanese history. Ieyasu seeks to use his fists to punch Japan right into a new era of peace and unity, while Mitsunari Ishida is obsessed with avenging the defeat of his former lord. Following the death of the tyrannical conqueror Hideyoshi at the hands of Ieyasu Tokugawa, Japan is a country divided into numerous warring factions. Alas, this mindless hack-and-slash action quickly grows tiresome, and you'll find yourself longing for more substantial and rewarding gameplay long before you succeed in uniting or conquering 16th-century Japan.
Samurai Heroes is all about making you an incredibly powerful warrior and giving you hundreds of enemy soldiers to mow down. Capcom's Sengoku Basara series doesn't have quite the same level of name recognition for Western audiences as Koei's Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors games, but if you've spent any time with Koei's games, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes will immediately bring them to mind.
