It won’t take you very long before you are swinging your katana like a death dealing ninja from feudal Japan
Every so often a videogame comes along that is massively overshadowed by bigger franchises, either by poor publicity or the fact that contending games are that powerful that no-one really cares about anything else being released at the same time. Can Afro Samurai emerge from the shadows and provide a shocking yet pleasant surprise?
Afro Samurai first appeared in the form of Japanese dōjinshi manga that was later adapted to become a 5 part miniseries on Japanese TV. The series was a massive hit and it wasn’t long before Afro’s adventures were worldwide. Given this success, Namco Bandai snapped up the license to produce an Afro Samurai videogame for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
The slicing of an opponent’s head or torso also sound particularly good and helps to ease that sick smirk onto your sick smirking face
If you have never seen the Afro Samurai TV Show, the story will be a little hard to follow so the basic outline is as follows. Among the world of men, there are two bandannas, number one and number two. These bandannas mark the best samurai warriors in the world and only the number two can challenge for the number one. Afro’s father was the number one and was killed by a man named Justice. Obviously, Afro wants to avenge his father at all costs but it also, just so happens that everyone else wants the number two bandanna that Afro now holds. Afro finds himself alone, when a lone ninja by the name Ninja Ninja voiced by none other than Samuel L. Jackson who takes it upon himself to “watch Afro’s back.”
From slicing off an opponent’s arm and leg to splitting him in 2 lengthways, Afro Samurai features some of the most impressive swordplay since Ninja Gaiden 2. It never gets boring kicking a guys legs from underneath him and performing a perfectly timed vertical slice to decapitate his legs from his body or watching a perfectly executed horizontal slash and seeing another’s’ head roll down the embankment. As you can possibly tell by now, Afro Samurai is full of blood and is not for the squeamish (or for the under 18’s!) Everything flows at a steady pace with amazing ease and little effort. Mainly due to the fluidity of the characters and the ease of gameplay, It won’t take you very long before you are swinging your katana like a death dealing ninja from feudal Japan as it is not hard to string together multiple combo’s and really just relies on mashing the 3 attack buttons, light attack, heavy attack and kick, but it does provide some amusement trying out various combo’s because you know what’s coming in the end. Afro Samurai feels like you are actually playing the TV Show rather than a videogame of the show, but somehow manages to provide enough entertainment for those who have never heard of Afro before now. The only slight flaw is the camera angles can become quite sluggish at times and you will have to manually reset the camera to get a feel for where you are or where you are heading to next. This is only a minor niggle and can easily be overlooked.
Afro Samurai also stays true to its roots in the terms of visual effects and successfully merges Eastern design with Western culture, offering the same visual styling’s as the acclaimed TV Show, the same cell shaded anime style we have come to love and is has a certain freshness that are a rarity these days. Blood is plentiful and you are actually monitored on how many gallons you spill through the course of the game. Cut Scenes are provided mostly on the fly, with screen in screen comic book style in effect. This can sometimes throw you off your game especially when the scene interferes with your position. Sound effects are greatly realised and with Hollywood’s own, Samuel L. Jackson providing amusing narrative, things sound particularly good. The rest of the voice over cast is no slouch either, Ron Perlman, Terrance C. Carson (Kratos from God of War) and John Dimaggio (Bender, Marcus Fenix) all joining the Hollywood star. The slicing of an opponent’s head or torso also sound particularly good and helps to ease that sick smirk onto your sick smirking face similar to the black and white mass murder scene from Kill Bill!
The enemies are repetitive in design but provide you a fight for your money, they will surround you and attack you, you will need to keep on the move to avoid becoming over encumbered and facing death. Often throughout the adventure you will face groups of 2 watchmen who actually have the intelligence to run and get help, well one of them does while the other stays to face your blade. When backup arrives be prepared for a furious fight especially as you get further into the adventure as there is no initial difficulty setting and things seem to adapt to your skill level. Boss fights are humorous, difficult, fun and repetitive. The first boss you encounter will “teach” you about the parry skill, and for every boss battle there on its pretty much a case of parrying your opponent and then going in for a 4 or 5 hit combo before repeating. This is disappointing as although the normal enemy battles are a tad repetitive, there is that certain sparkle that oozes style and avoids this repetition.
In addition to the single player campaign, Afro Samurai offers NO MULTIPLAYER AT ALL!!! This is not all bad as maybe multiplayer could have spoilt Afro from being the true to original version it is and pushed the series in a direction it is not ready for. Obviously for multiplayer fans this will not appeal but Afro was not designed to be played with your friends, it always was going to be this way. Now, Afro Samurai is not the biggest adventure on the market today, around 6 hours completion for the average gamer. There is not much in terms of replay value, sure there are collectables through the game and then the Xbox 360 achievements and PS3 Trophies you could always 100% but if you are looking for a real challenge, upon completion you unlock a Number One difficulty level that will truly test your ninja abilities.
All in all, Afro Samurai will be one of those titles that get overshadowed by bigger franchises. A massive shame given the sheer playability and enjoyment that can be had here, sure Afro Samurai is not the best game on the market today but it does offer a fun, fresh look at the action adventure slice and dice em up genre. Multiplayer modes maybe would have been enjoyed but still does not stop this from being a great game, well worth being in anyone’s videogame collection.
The Bad: Occasional dodgy camera angles, Not Really long enough, Disappointing Boss Battles
Silver Y Award