Nintendo and Koei Tecmo have a strong thing going with their Dynasty Warriors crossover games. Their two main titles, 2014’s Hyrule Warriors and 2017’s Fire Emblem Warriors, are great love letters that cleverly mix the hack-and-slash gameplay of Dynasty Warriors with mechanics unique to each respective Nintendo franchise. With the announcement of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a prequel to Breath of the Wild, it’s clear that relationship is not going to end anytime soon.
There are a number of other franchises that could get the Warriors treatment. The inherent themes of combat and war in The Legend of Zelda and Fire Emblem make them prime candidates for the large-scale battles seen in Dynasty Warriors games, but one of Nintendo’s biggest assets is its storied history and roster of characters. This kind of deal may also be a boon for other series, as Koei Tecmo staff helped make Fire Emblem: Three Houses while working on Fire Emblem Warriors.
Perhaps the only franchise higher in Nintendo’s pantheon then The Legend of Zelda is Super Mario. The series’ 35th anniversary this year has come with a number of games including Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Paper Mario: The Origami King, and more announced during a recent Nintendo Direct.
Fitting Mario characters into the mold of army-destroying super soldiers sounds like a stretch, but characters like Agitha from Twilight Princess appearing in Hyrule Warriors shows how many possibilities there are if designers get creative pulling from varied source materials. Princess Peach could pull the Vibe Scepter from Super Princess Peach, Yoshi could mix egg moves and transformations from Yoshi’s Island, or Princess Rosalina could pull celestial bodies from the sky. If the XCom-styled Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle became a massive third-party hit, “Super Mario Warriors” could too.
Pokemon is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, and its colorful creatures have been slotted into nearly all conceivable genres. There are puzzle games like Pokemon Trozei or Pokemon Puzzle League; multiple Pokemon Pinball games; narrative adventures like Detective Pikachu; and even a tactical RPG in Pokemon Conquest that crosses over with Nobunaga’s Ambition. The franchise even has a MOBA in development called Pokemon UNITE, so why not extend it into the world of hack-and-slash games utilizing different elemental abilities.
A hypothetical “Pokemon Warriors” could take two routes with its characters. Players may be a custom trainer as in Niantic’s AR mobile game Pokemon GO who sends out six Pokemon to battle, or they could command a pre-selected set of trainers from different games as in DeNA’s Pokemon Masters. Both ideas have different merits depending on the audience Game Freak and Koei Tecmo would try to reach, but the latter risks falling into similar trappings as Fire Emblem Warriors where one or two games from the franchise are more heavily represented given an ocean of choices.
Recreating the magic that is Super Smash Bros. in a hack-and-slash series for Dynasty Warriors is perhaps a pipe dream, especially taking third-party fighters into account. However, if the idea were restricted to major Nintendo franchises like in the Nintendo 64 original or Super Smash Bros. Melee, there is a lot of potential for unique moves to master.
Imagine Link with his tools from Hyrule Warriors and Marth with his fleet footwork from Fire Emblem Warriors mixed with hypothetical fighters like Mario, Samus Aran, or Fox McCloud that all have referential abilities. That’s not to mention the lore elements that could be drawn from Smash Bros. itself, such as bosses like Master Hand, Tabuu, or Galeem presiding over armies of Subspace Emissary enemies. Though the base Dynasty Warriors formula is relatively niche, it’s hard to deny how awe-inspiring a Smash Bros.-themed iteration could be in the right hands.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity releases November 20 for Switch.
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