While Dynasty Warriors features historical figures, Devil Kings puts you in control of fictional generals of unimaginable power. A hefty does of animated scenes set the stage for battles between warriors who operate on a whole different field of play than the common man. But, of course, they don't literally fight on a different field, so that means lots and lots of common men get in the way. Those are the ones you'll wade through like a field of wheat.

You'll start by choosing one of six characters, each with slightly different abilities in attributes like attack, defense and hit points. Each also begins the game of conquest with at least one territory to call their own. The fighting begins when you choose which territory to ravage first. The introduction to each field of battle is fairly lengthy and serves to introduce the target of your attack. The contrast between the main characters and the supporting legions is constantly reinforced – these are supremely powerful people with the ability to level dozens of men at once. The animation of the introductions is done in an anime style rather than rendered using the game's engine, and watching the characters interact is entertaining, if not exactly informative with regard to the story. The style shifts in tone from washed out, muted colors to brilliant displays of energy, but they're action packed and set the mood for the battles to come.

While controlling your warrior, you have two main attacks, a block and a jump. While you carve up the enemies in your way, you'll see a Fury meter start to fill up. Once you've racked up enough kills, you can unleash a ridiculously powerful move that devastates everything around you. It might be an explosion, a meteor shower or a series of spinning attacks – each character is different – but whatever it is, it'll take out everything in the vicinity. Once you get the hang of the controls and get accustomed to handling hordes of men who seemingly can't wait to die, it's just a matter of how you get to the boss, not whether. But there is a variety to the enemies, including mounted soldiers, giants and archers, which helps keep the challenge fresh.

So while the fighting doesn't represent the most intricate, challenging the system in the world, it is fun. Taking over the board territory by territory and man by man is a big task, and the scope of smack down you lay down is impressive. Of course, the more enemies you eliminate, the more points you get to spend on improving abilities and the more you collect devastating new weapons. Once you get new items, you can equip them before battle. There are weapons, armor and accessories. The weapons and armor give boosts to attack and defense, obviously, while accessories can offer all sorts of other benefits, like hit point bonuses.

The voices get grating after a while because sound bites coming from characters repeats fairly often. And the camera is frustrating, too, but that's probably because of the speed of the action. If you get into a good long combo, you're going to end up having to turn around fast or a horde will have a nice shot at your backside. Turning the camera manually takes forever, and snapping it around to the back is jarring. It doesn't always matter because it's a safe bet that you should be attacking in almost all directions all the time, but it's annoying when you're trying to focus on one area or character.

At the end of it all, you'll end up with quite a roster of unlocked characters and a lot of blood on your hands. Each character has their own style, and even though it's all a bit hokey and over the top, it's fun. Devil Kings is a beat-em up romp of wanton destruction more than anything else, and it's a very good one.