Back in the Nintendo 64 days of gaming, there was a little title released by Nintendo that took the gaming world by storm. That game was Super Smash Brothers, a fighting game that featured some of the greatest gaming characters of all time, beating each other to a pulp. A few years later an upgraded version hit the GameCube with more of everything. It was the sequel fans had been waiting for. So what does this have to do with Onimusha Blade Warriors? Well, it's almost impossible to talk about Blade Warriors without at least mentioning the series it borrows heavily from. Just about every aspect of Onimusha Blade Warriors has been done before in Super Smash Brothers or its sequel. Given the success of both Smash Brothers games, you would think that's a good think. However, Blade Warriors falls short of Smash Brothers greatness. You start with a good cast of Onimusha characters, and the ability to unlock more than double the starting roster (for over 20 total characters). Most of them are from the Onimusha, but Capcom did throw a few surprises in the game. Unlocking characters can be a tedious chore in almost any game of this type, but it seems to drag on even longer in Blade Warriors. The game seemingly has to load all the time. Loading isn't a huge deal, and the game doesn't load for too long, but when it feels like the game has to load almost all the time, it really cuts into your excitement. Then you add the fact that you have to load your saved game before starting any gameplay mode, and you'll soon feel the annoyance start to grow. It's hard to imagine that Capcom couldn't have made this a bit less annoying, but again, it can be overlooked, even if the rest of the game isn't quite up to Smash Brothers standards. Taking a page from Smash Brothers, you and up to three friends can battle it out against each other in multi-tiered stages. Most stages have at least three levels you can play on, and are large enough that you can have several battles going on at once without running into another battle. However, unlike Smash Brothers, you can't run to close the gap between you and an enemy. You can perform a quick dash, but that only gets you so far. So what ends up happening is that you'll defeat one opponent, and then it'll take you a bit of walking to get to the next one, depending on how far away from them you are. This brief delay in the action slows down the game just enough to really drag things out. To help liven it up, Capcom has included a nice assortment of items that will randomly appear in treasure chests throughout the game. These items range from Onimusha-related weapons to health and power-ups to laser guns and sledge hammers. The random items definitely help to kick up the action when it gets slow, but since most of them have a limited range, you still have to walk to within striking distance. One of the things Onimusha Blade Warriors does have over Smash Brothers is the gameplay depth that many Capcom fans have come to love from their other fighting games. During combat, you can perform two different types of counter attacks to gain the upper hand on an unsuspecting opponent. If things get too crowded you can perform a clear out move that will give you some much needed space. If you've got someone who won't stop blocking, you can even perform a guard break mid-combo, or by itself to add another level of strategy to this game. While most of the characters play very similar, they each have a projectile attack to hit from long range, an uppercut attack to take down enemies above you, and several magic attacks dependant on orbs you received from fallen opponents or treasure chests. Different orbs produce different magic attacks, so you'll need to pay attention to which orb you have. You can also use the orbs to strengthen your character. Each character has three attributes you can increase; attack power, defense, and magic. As you collect orbs from fallen opponents, you can use them after a match to power up one of these three attributes. Then you can take your customized character to the multiplayer mode to test you skills against friends. However, if you want an even match, you can still play normal versus mode without custom characters. If you don't own a GameCube, or know someone with a Cube and Smash Brothers, then Onimusha Blade Warriors could be a good purchase for you. While it does have a few nagging issues, there's nothing that really brings the game down other than comparing it to Super Smash Brothers. As with most fighting games, you can play solo, but it's not recommended. Blade Warriors is played best with four people and a few hours to burn. If you don't already own a PS2 multi-tap, you'll need to pick one up along with Blade Warriors to ensure you're getting the maximum amount of fun from the game.