Review: Deadliest Warrior Legends

In case you didn't know, The first Deadliest Warrior game was only a severed pinkie away from earning a spot on my list for the top 10 games of last year. Does the sequel live up to the standards set by its predecessor? Or is this a Dud Warrior?

Vlad the Impaler spends some quality time with Sun Tzu.

Let's get this started...

Deadliest Warrior Legends  (XBLA)
Developer: Pipeworks Software
Publisher: 345 Games
Released: July 6, 2011

Most all of the things that were awesome about the first Deadliest Warrior are back, with some new additions that while weird and (to some people) stupid do not detract from the glorious limb removing fun that makes this game sweet, so sweet.

Deadliest Warrior Legends is more than anything; a fighting game where a match can end with a single strike; a game filled with ridiculous moments, where victory is decided by the will of the fates and sheer ballfullness rather than the triumph of skill and careful 'tactical' douchery.

A match can begin with both players poking each other carefully, keeping up their shields and dodging strikes when needed to keep their stamina bars full, lest they be stunned by the well-timed hit that depletes it. And then, this guy over here playing as a pink Hernan Cortez pressed B and speared the other guy through the face, winning the match. Did he mean to do it? Maybe. To be honest, maybe he just dropped the controller.

Beautiful, isn't it?

The game has a new mode called Generals in which the player squares off in a board-game esque battle against an opponent where each player must move troops in a grid and capture territory and strongholds. Every time someone attempts to capture an enemy stronghold, both sides battle their champions in a one on one fight. While clever and well thought out, it is my opinion that this mode's only purpose is to put useless minutes in between rounds of human shish-kebob.

Instead of squaring off archetypes of historical warriors like pirates and vikings, Legends' roster is made up of actual figures such as Vlad the Impaler and William Wallace, all of them digitally portrayed with a heavy dose of ham and a healthy serving of cheese.

All this means is that....

Deadliest Warrior Legends is the Sandwich to sate your hunger...FOR VIOLENCE!

Press X to Xcise arm.

Gameplay in this game seems a bit slower compared to the first iteration but battles are still over in under a minute. There are a couple new additions to the gameplay: Fighters can now push and there are some stages with chasms which can be used as deadly traps. The special moves from the last game are sadly gone and have been replaced with a grapple move that when used switches the game into a guessing game that reminds me of rock-paper-scissors; if you guess your opponent's button input then nothing will happen, but if you miss, consequences can go from a broken limb, to instant, gorey, cheap death (yikes!). I guarantee that half of the time, neither player will hit the button they meant to so victory by this is once more, chalked up to the fates, but trust me, intentional or not, winning with this will bring forth so many emotions at once that experiencing it should be one of those things everyone in life must go through before they die.

This is a game that is best played with a group of friends in the same room, matches are done quick so everyone gets a chance to play and there is enough random glitching and What-the-hell moments to keep everyone entertained. There are a couple of variations for standard fights; toggles that make every hit remove a limb and one that makes the fight last until EVERY limb is gone from someone. And when I say EVERY limb I mean EVERY limb. Get ready to see some matches where a single leg is hopping around trying to kick another lonely leg into oblivion.

Deadliest Warrior Legends does have a set ot technical problems, problems that if they were present in another game, then that game would be garbage. But in the Deadliest Warrior they bring so much hilarity that they should be called features, and I do not want to mention some of the hilarious glitches that I've run into for fear of spoiling it for those of you who will now be buying this game.

Get this game. It might not be very good and honestly, you might not play it very often, but the times you do fire it up and play with a friend will be well worth the price of admission

Score: D+ (for DEADLY PLUS!)

79% (How can I give this a numerical score? It's like eating the "worst" banana ever; it's still a banana and I'm still going to eat it.

(Decent with many bad things that most of the time work in its favor)