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The scene is mid 16th century Japan. Two powerful dynasties, the evil Kai clan and the good Han family, are locked in a tremendous power struggle. War has been raging for weeks and things are looking grim for the Han dynasty. Desperate measures have to be taken...

Enter the player as one of four key Han figures - either Lui Bei, Kyan Yu, Shang Fei or Shao Yun. What you're got to do is get on your hose and ride a suicide mission straight at the Kai army, break through their ranks then kill all their generals. This involves hacking and slashing your way through horizontally scrolling landscapes packed with foot soldiers, avoiding their swords and arrows to keep your energy bar healthy, confronting the general at the end of each level and wearing down his energy bar with repeated sword or lance strikes before he does the same to you.

As you travel further into the game the generals become tougher and tougher, and there are also war machines to destroy, rock falls to dodge, and energy-sapping fireballs to ride around. This mission is a tough one - but if you succeed and kill all the generals, the Kai army will be in complete confusion, allowing the Han forces to easily sweep to victory. Failure, though, means an end to your dynasty.

I liked this game a lot in the arcades, and I'm pleased to see that this conversion retains the coin-op's great playability and presentation. At the start of the game, where you pick the member of the Han family you want to play, there are some beautifully drawn static screens.

In the game itself, the tiny soldier sprites are really nicely drawn and animated, and the main horse sprite is excellent.

The action is pretty tough, and at first it seems like there are just too many foot soldiers and archers to cope with - and the generals certainly take a lot of beating! However, practice makes perfect, and after a while you're soon sweeping through the ranks scattering soldiers like ninepins - which is great fun!

Dynasty Wars is a slick, graphically brilliant and very playable game which offers an unusual twist on the beat-'em-up theme. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's well worth checking out.