Parents' Guide to Samurai Warriors 5

People like to say that "Everything old is new again," which is usually meant to point out that something meant to be fresh and trendy has oftentimes been done before. That also seems to be the rationale behind Samurai Warriors 5, which has been promoted as a new reboot of the long-running hack-and-slash game series. As far as changes go, the most obvious is in the game's artistic style. Using a type of cel-shaded technique, the game's visuals are designed to have a similar look to that of a Japanese painting. In motion, things are almost as smooth as silk, with the exception of certain special effects that don't look so great.

Samurai Warriors 5 may have gotten a fresh new coat of paint, but calling it a "reboot," a "reimagining," or anything in that vein is a huge overstatement. While the Hyper Attacks and Ultimate Skills add a couple of new trick arrows to the game's quiver, these are both basically just flashy new ways to wipe out waves of enemies while breaking up the monotony of the button mashing. In fact, the cast of playable characters is actually substantially smaller than the previous game's, with most of them unlocked slowly as the story progresses. The only upside to this is the newly bankable experience, which can be used to raise up newly acquired characters once they're added to the team or to invest in one or two favorites, making them overpowered beasts in combat. Still, this feels like just about every other Samurai Warriors game that has come before. For fans, that may not necessarily be a bad thing, but there's nothing here that stands out from the pack.