Common Sense Media Review
By Chad Sapieha
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Bloodless war game can be exciting, boring at same time.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Warrior's Way
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
The objective of WARRIOR'S WAY is simple: Conquer the world. But getting there takes a lot of time. Players start with a tiny army and a small castle, then set about growing their forces by meeting other Mii avatars via 3DS StreetPass (the player's Mii greets other Miis at the castle gate). If they don't have an army (meaning they don't own Warrior's Way), they'll give players a group of soldiers equal to the number of people they've met via StreetPass. If they do have an army, the player can choose to fight them and, upon victory, retain a small percentage of the enemy force as their own. Combat is a game of rock/paper/scissors with groups of archers, pikemen, and cavalry each holding an advantage and disadvantage against one of the other groups. When your army grows large enough, you can choose to attack one of 20 computer-controlled countries using these same battle mechanics. The end goal is to conquer every kingdom on the map.
Is It Any Good?
Warrior's Way is essentially a series of meet-and-greet moments punctuated by occasional battles. Your progression rate will depend on the type of people you tend to meet via StreetPass. If you don't often run into other people who play Warrior's Way, you won't have many opportunities to build your army quickly via battles, meaning it may well take years (literally years) to build your army and defeat all the countries necessary to win the game. If this turns out to be your situation, Warrior's Way may be the dullest of all the StreetPass games yet released -- especially since its simplistic battles are based more on numbers and luck than any real skill.
But if you happen to have a circle of friends who play Warrior's Way and can swap StreetPass data with them regularly (or tend to frequent places such as game shops and Nintendo Zones, where StreetPass connections are more likely to happen), you can build your army much faster, speeding up progress and making the campaign a little more exciting. Still, building an army in Warrior's Way sometimes feels like a chore rather than a truly entertaining interactive experience.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about online safety. Which precautions should you take to ensure that information posted in your StreetPass greeting doesn't reveal too much about you? What would you do if you encountered a greeting that contained or solicited identifying information?
Discuss war. When, if ever, is it OK for one country to go to war against another? Do you think Warrior's Way ought to include a narrative that attempts to justify combat or the hero's goal of taking over the world?
Game Details
- Platform : Nintendo 3DS
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Available online? : Available online
- Publisher : Nintendo
- Release date : July 17, 2013
- Genre : Strategy
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : February 15, 2023
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