But the frustrations don’t take long to set in once you step outside your city’s walls and into the thick of war. Cheap enemies can rain down magic attacks on poor, defenseless you, who is stuck looking straight ahead unless you land a good lock on a specific enemy; clunky, shoehorned platforming sections end up in a lot of missed jumps and painful retries; and a camera that can’t keep up fills your real-life rage meter. Where Strikeforce steers off the cliff is with its intensely annoying boss fights that almost force you to dip into the four-player ad-hoc multiplayer mode (sorry, no online co-op here) to succeed. Big, bad monsters definitely change the pace of the usual “kill the swarm of dudes” action, but an ugly array of inescapable attacks will have you crushing your PSP into a cube with your bare hands.

Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce definitely has the same appeal (or lack thereof depending on your point of view) of its predecessors, but its long list of characters, upgradable attacks, varied weapons and bonus missions gives the series the kick in the ass it has so desperately needed for the last few years. If it weren’t for agitating difficulty, an intolerably chaotic camera and the awful platforming segments it would be easier to recommend. As it stands, it’s still for serious fans only.

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