Afro Samurai

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I have to admit that this game was a bit of a shocker-it hits hard and fast. There, I confessed. Love the graphics, the story, the content is hilarious, I never expected this thing to work but it's probably going to be one of the must-have-yet-flying-under-the-radar games of the year. I haven't seen it featured in any of the popular gaming mags, probably because it's based on a show and was considered to be a way of cashing in on an existing brand. Oh well, their mistake. Instant cult classic, and yes the gameplay suffers somewhat because of the tripped out camera; however, this is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Games like Tomb Raider Underworld have shown us just how bad whacked-out camera controls really can be, and this game doesn't come anywhere close to being that bad. This game, in a word, is FUN.

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I have only played the game for a little while, but so far it is awesome. Great graphics that look like they are straight out of the TV show. Good soundtrack even though I do not like rap. Ninja ninja (Samual L. Jackson) has great lines through out the game that make you laugh and keep you in good spirits, plus no one can curse like SLJ. All in all it is a fun hack and slash game full of blood, violence, nudity (naked ninja bit$hes), incredible graphics, and cursing. Just like the show. My major problem is the same as everyone elses, the camera sucks. Inverted left/right with no way to adjust.

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The first thing one notices in this game are the graphics, which are indeed awesome. It is like playing a comic book. The story line is classic--a son avenging the murder of his father. Samuel L. Jackson's voice overs definitely add to the fun. As does the first-rate soundtrack.

As another reviewer has noted, the weak point in this game is the camera movements. When one starts, the camera's default mode is the reverse of every other game one has ever played--the camera moves as if one is looking at a mirror. One can fix that in the options menu by deselecting "default." However, that fix only results in the camera moving in the right direction. One can still only pan horizontally in most places, which is very annoying when one has to jump to a platform but can't see where the edge of a cliff is or what, exactly, one is jumping to. Beyond that, even the horizontal movements are spotty, especially in the midst of combat where one is often disoriented.

If it were not for the camera movement, this would be a 5 star game. It is very disappointing as other game designers have figured this out. The camera movements in Tools of Destruction and Uncharted are so flawless one doesn't even notice them. The folks at Surge should consider enrolling in "Camera Movements for Games 101" and then reissue the game with this rather substantive problem corrected.

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I picked this title up at the same time that I bought my PS3. It was cheap, and I mildly enjoyed the series on SPIKE, so I figured I'd give it a shot, not expecting much. I was very impressed with what I got.

My initial impression of the game was that it was a button masher. The game starts off by throwing hordes of enemies at you, that you must hack and slash your way through. The simplest way to do this is by mashing buttons. Each attack button will initiate a combo sequence. There is no timing or skill involved in pulling off a combo, just hammer the button and it happens.

I soon discovered, however, that the game employs numerous methods of forcing you to play with a skilled hand. Apart from that, you can build up and use "focus", which functions as a sort of "bullet time" in which the game slows down, and you can aim and charge an attack at a specific part of the enemy's body. A well placed strike can and will dismember your opponent. You can also parry attacks, which can open the enemy's defenses.

Not all of the trash mobs are so easy to drop with button mashing, either. Some will go to great lengths to avoid your attacks, making Focus almost necessary, and even then, if you don't manage to trick them or catch them unawares, they can still manage to evade.

Some of the boss fights are incredibly difficult, and will require you to abandon your button-mashing tendancies altogether. While battling Kuma, for example, charging in will only get you slaughtered. Even parrying and counterattacking will only get you so far. I found myself actually having to use focus just to get myself into a position where attacking was possible, and even then, after a dozen attempts to figure the guy out, I just barely managed to succeed.

As far as aspects not directly related to gameplay, the visuals are stunning, the music is excellent. An odd combination of mild, soothing stuff and energetic battle music. And, of course, Ninja Ninja's always around to insult you with as much crassness and profanity as he can muster. Speaking of Ninja Ninja, he occasionaly shows to up engage you in a game of Body-part Poker. Enter the swarm of enemies and try to dismember specific parts to make a hand, and receive a reward for your suceess. It may be a bit morbid, but it helps train you to properly use focus, and breaks the monotony a bit when going through large levels.

For all it's good, the game is not without it's flaws. The camera could definitely use some work, and the platforming, while not bad enough to get frustrating, is still a bit tricky in some areas, sometimes due to the camera's perspective. The game does a HORRIBLE job of explaining some of the things you can do. I was stuck on a certain boss for nearly an hour, as I wasn't sure how to properly perform the "bullet slicing" move that's briefly mentioned in the manual. In game, there wasn't any indication that you could do so to begin with. Also, I'm not sure if it's due to the faster load times on the slim, or if it's just a bug in the game, but during loading screens, there are sometimes scripted scenes that will take place, and they frequently get cut off due to the level loading before the speech finishes.

All in all, I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the series. Just be sure not to play it around anyone you'd consider to be "polite company". Ninja Ninja tends to blurt out some fairly offensive and sexist stuff from time to time.

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Because being a fun, ultraviolent anime blast wasn't enough, Afro Samurai makes the splash into the video game world courtesy of Namco Bandai. Samuel L. Jackson returns to lend his voice to the revenge-driven Afro as well as his foul-mouthed sidekick Ninja Ninja, in a storyline that more or less follows the plot of the first Afro Samurai flick, as you take on hordes of enemies and dish out bloody punishment. The fighting is mostly fun, as are the boss battles which are orchestrated wonderfully, but the best part of the game is undoubtedly the graphics and art design. Afro Samurai looks and moves fluidly and beautifully (although there is some noticable frame-rate issues here on the PS3 version of the game), and the game's soundtrack and voice acting are excellent as well. What really hurts the game however lie mostly in its controls and platforming. You can't really string together attacks, and the game's platforming elements are disappointingly clumsy. The game's schizy camera doesn't help matters either, and the fact that you can adjust the Y-axis but not the X-axis is mind-boggling. Still, there's a lot to admire with what you get here in Afro Samurai, but it's just a shame that a little more polish wasn't put on here, otherwise we could have had something really great. Still, the game is worth a look despite its flaws, and if you're a fan of the anime, you'll definitely want to check this out.