SOMEBODY STOP HIM! HE'S GONE MAD WITH POWER!!
LoL I kid, funny stuff Jim. I don't really have an opinion on Dynasty Warriors, never really played it enough to make an impression on me. What I have played left me rather bored, but if you like it then good for you. I prefer my gaming catharsis to come from Burnout. But that game can cause as much stress as it relieves on some occasions, depending on the game mode.
Interesting you would say that Dynasty Warriors is like a modern version of old beat-em-ups. I was thinking about that topic not long ago. I was thinking that games like DMC and God of War are like the modern version of beat-em-ups in layout but their control scheme is more like that of full on fighting games. That gave me the idea of mating the co-op multiplayer of these older beat-em-ups with the modern DMC types. That would be a totally awesome game, although I'm guessing near impossible to implement. Although you could argue that they are aiming to do that with the Darksiders series, but the game has a much wider focus than just combat, so I guess it isn't really the same thing. That and the fact they haven't even got to the point of trying to do it yet.