The beloved television series of Afro Samurai has made its way onto the home consoles of the PS3 and Xbox 360. It’s been a long time coming as fans of the series will agree that the hack and slash style storyline and action serves as a great premise for a video game. Staying true to the series over-the-top and over exaggerated gore and dismemberment as a core, enemies can be cut in half, sliced in two, decapitated, you name it… it’s there. An anime styled presentation and slick soundtrack can only contribute to an awesome experience…can’t it?
In Afro Samurai, you play as Afro, a blunt-smoking sword wielder who possesses one of two powerful headbands, the other, known as the #1 headband, in possession of the man who killed Afro’s father. The revenge story is set in full tilt, as you hack and slash your way through countless enemies and bosses in order to reach the ultimate goal of battling your father’s killer. The problem with Afro Samurai is that anyone besides fans and followers of the show may find themselves becoming lost in the story, as essentially, the story is barely being told. The cinematic and action jump from one scenario to another without any background to whats really going on, enthusiastic and PG rated voice prompts from a guide telling you to proceed and kill. Maybe a back-story of what’s happening may help, but doesn’t really hamper or take anything away from the game, as its more based on the premise of severing limbs and heads.
The gameplay of Afro Samurai falls into a hack-and-slash format, with some 3D platforming coming into play in certain parts. The game involves the player taking control of Afro with his sword and his ninja abilities, in order to dispose of multiple enemies throughout the levels. There are combo attacks involving the sword and kicks, using different combinations of the face buttons; a focus attack where the left shoulder button will be used to slow time down for fatal attacks with the sword, as well as a general slow-motion attack sequence which ups the damage done, when combos are carried out successfully.
The gameplay is extremely fun, especially in times when you hacking up so many enemies at once, all you see is arms, legs and heads flying around, but sadly does become slightly repetitive and boss battles seem to slow the action down with a spike of difficulty and tedious processes in order to defeat them. And of course, the part everyone hates to hear, I had only one REAL annoyance with the game and gameplay. The navigation system known as the “Ninja Map” doesn’t seem as effective as the developers might have hoped. When you activate the “Ninja Map” command on the D-pad, Ninja Ninja appears in a cloud of smoke in the general direction you are supposed to head in, the problem – sometimes when he appears, you don’t even know where the hell HE is. All you hear is Samuel L. Jackson screaming obscenities in order to get you to where you need to be. We understand the attempt to keep the navigation within the game context, but seemed a bit annoying and ineffective after a while. Minimal issue, on to the visuals…
The visuals of Afro Samurai look awesome and they definitely compliment and have stayed faithful to the series. The anime style of the show is recreated with the use of cel-shaded animation, similar to that of the recent Prince of Persia which does this kind of game wonders. It makes the animations look incredible and unbelievably fluid. The characters and level design are all awesome and well detailed, which really makes the player fell they’re part of the Afro Samurai world that we’ve seen in the shows. Bottom line, this game really looks good. The camera is a little sketchy at times, resulting in some awkward situations when stuck in a corner, moving through a narrow hallway or trying to line up an enemy, but it doesn’t detract too much from the fun to be had in this game.
The soundtrack and audio within Afro Samurai is one to be bragged about. The whole soundtrack and production has been co-ordinated by the RZA, giving a great hip-hop backdrop to the action, with a taste of Asian influence. The voice acting of Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Pearlman appear within the characters and certainly adds to the authenticity and production value the game has to offer.
Afro Samurai is an awesome game. The gameplay is solid; the visuals look great and an incredible soundtrack to go along with it. The production values and input into this game shows that the transition from television show to video game can be a smooth, creative and successful one. Afro Samurai delivers on these fronts and we highly recommend it for fans of the show
[starreviewmulti id=1 tpl=20]
