History of Dynasty Wars
Dynasty Wars, also known as Tenchi o Kurau (japanese version), is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up game, released in 1989. It is based on a historical fantasy Japanese manga Tenchi wo Kurau, which served as an inspiration to several other game titles as well.
"The game is played completely on horseback", announces the original instruction in the first sentence of the description. In the game, the player takes control over one of the four selectable characters and, together with a friend, attempts to survive and defeat hordes of appearing enemies as the screen scrolls to the right. The goal of the game is to defeat the organisation responsible for the unrest of the Han Dynasty, thus, at the end of each stage a rebel general must be defeated to free the province and advance to the next round.
The game features several RPG elements, such as weapon upgrades and level up system. It also has a distinctive fighting system, which implements special attacks and adjustable attack power, contolled by holding down the "FIRE" button for a certain amount of time. This made the game distinctive and desirable, and assisted in the gain of its popularity.
Dynasty Wars was converted to many platforms, but several of the versions have received mixed reviews. So, the same ZX Spectrum version, was awarded with 80% and with 44% rating from different magazines.
The game appeared was followed up with a sequel Dynasty Wars 2, as well as with a number of remakes and variations.