The warriors have arrived on the Nintendo Wii U and this time, they've brought the gameplay! Gone are the fiddly controls of the Wii as the Koei have included the innovative controls of not just the GamePad but also the Classic Controller in Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper that is a relatively flawless port of this franchise onto this new console.

Even with the minor nuisances, the game is quite playable and more importantly fun to play as you engage in epic battles of unparalleled proportions of death and carnage. Although the game is reminiscent of previous Dynasty Warriors games, it actually feels like its part of the Soul Calibre series which I'll get to in a minute. It even supports two players offline and online for more Warrior madness!

With that said, Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper merges the heroes of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors together that is set several years after the battle against Orochi the Serpent King. Unfortunately a new evil has been unleashed in the form of a colossus hydra that requires the greatest warriors of all time to band together. This is where the Soul Calibre aspect comes into play. Assisted by the mysterious Kaguya, you need to travel back in time to save these fallen warriors and create the ultimate army to defeat this ancient evil.

However, another fascinating aspect of Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper is that it contains some interesting new heroes to the franchise that are not your stock standard Dynasty Warriors. These include characters from Ninja Gaiden, Warriors: Legends of Troy, Bladestorm, Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll, Dead or Alive plus some more traditional characters from the Dynasty franchise which creates one of the most diverse rosters to date. There's actually more than 130 playable character from the world's of Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors and the above aforementioned games.

Unlike the previous games in the series, the player controls a trio of powerful commanders who have been rescued from time, before their untimely deaths. As you command your armies and three heroes, the battles are truly epic with dozens upon dozens of characters onscreen at once which can be quite hectic. As you progress through the game, you are awarded new weapons, abilities, magic, unlockable characters and other goodies to support your cause against the colossal Hydra.

Using the GamePad to control your three heroes allows you to easily swap between characters as you take on this almost never ending hoard of evil. Although in essence, the game is a button smasher, it's actually quite a satisfying button smasher, especially with the over the top weapons, special abilities and magic's that you use. There are plenty of missions in the game and even some politics by supporting your allies on the battlefield. It does breath some more life into something that could have been another button smasher.

In terms of control, the game supports the traditional Wii Controls (horrendous), the Classic Controller (very good)  and of course the GamePad. Unfortunately the new GamePad controller doesn't maximise this control system too well. On the other hand, it's still quite responsive. The biggest highlight with the GamePad is the touch screen and the mini-help that helps point you in the right direction.

Apart from kicking serious butt on the battlefield, the game even allows you to edit cleared stages from the story and free modes where you customise these levels and even share them online. Although nothing in-depth as Little Big Planet, it will allow fans of this genre to create some fun modified levels. 

Another great aspect of the game is the two player local game. One players uses the TV and their controller, whereas the other player can use the GamePad. The preferred choice is the classic controller and the GamePad. Duel Mode is an exclusive to the Wii U version which allows two players to engage in a three versus three deathmatch. It's a fun mode that delivers some satisfying and frustrating (especially when your trio are getting killed) gaming. This can even be taken online.

Graphics/Audio

Graphically, the title looks almost identical to the 360 version, however there is some frame rate issues, especially when their are dozens upon dozens of characters on screen at once. Even though the graphics look rather decent, especially the character models and special effects, the slow-down slightly effects the playability of the game, especially the pop-up graphics with characters appearing out of mid air.    

Final Level

For a launch game, Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper works well on the Wii U, giving players something different opposed to your more mainstream releases. Gameplay is quite fluidic but the only set back is the graphically limitations of the port. Nonetheless, it's a fine example of what the Wii U can do with some classic Koei gameplay.