Afro Samurai
Afro Samurai is a man out for vengeance. As a child, his father was decapitated while he stood 5 feet away. You see, in Afro’s world, there are 2 sacred headbands. The #1 headband and the #2 headband. Whoever wears the #1 headband is the strongest person on the world, and can only be challenged by whoever possesses the #2. The #2 headband is always being tested by those who wish to be #2. Therefore, whoever possesses either headband doomed to live a cycle of endless bloodshed. Afro’s father was the #1 at the time of his killing. Afro’s sole goal now is to get strong enough to obtain the #2 headband and avenge his father by killing the #1. In the process, he smokes lots of blunts.
This storyline kicks off the game. The game is based on the Spike TV series called (you guessed it), Afro Samurai. The show never really got very popular, but it was recognized by reviewers as a very unique piece of entertainment. The animation of the show was handled by a Japanese studio and has a very distinct anime flavor to it. Adding to the already eclectic nature of the show are the facts that the whole thing is scored by the RZA, and the main character is voice-acted by none other than Samuel L. Jackson. So what you have is an afro clad Samuel Jackson carving up ninjas, cyborgs, and men in robotic teddybear helmets(don’t ask) to a pulsing hip-hop soundtrack. I watched the show and loved it. The fusion of ideas and cultures combined with the slick animation made me a fan despite the storytelling missteps. I was excited to hear that a game based on the series was coming out and put it in my Gamefly Queue.
The first thing you notice when you put the game in is how great it looks. The whole thing looks like you are actually watching anime. The character models are great. The second thing you’ll notice is the soundtrack. The game actually has an all new soundtrack and boy is it good. The music is incorporated well into the gameplay. When you fight a room full of people, the music swells and diminishes according to what you do. It’s hard to explain, but it makes the whole thing seem very epic. Controls boil down to a block button, 3 attack buttons(kick, light slash, and hard slash), and a jump button. You can chain all of those to create a whole lot of combos. I’ve been playing a week and still haven’t unlocked all the techniques. You unlock them by killing creatively. Let’s talk about that for a minute.
Wow this game is violent. But it’s cartoon violence so it’s not as disturbing. The game features a move called “focus”. Focus attacks allow you to slow down time a-la-the Matrix, and unleash a brutal attack, that when timed right will slice your opponent in half. Whether you like your opponents eviscerated lengthwise of horizontally is up to you. The game actually keeps track of how many gallons of blood you spill, and how many hands, heads, legs, etc you’ve lopped off. The moves all look really cool because the animations involved are very stylish. The villains talk while getting dismembered too. It’s quite a chuckle to hear an enemy yell “Fuck me!” or “Oh Shit!” as their hand falls to the ground. Within a few minutes of picking up the controller, you’ll be stringing together 20 hit combos and be very pleased with your bad-assness.
So based on the previous paragraphs, you’d assume this game is awesome right? Well, yes and no. The game is a lot of fun, but there are some problems that drag the game down a few notches. The biggest problem here is the camera. The game simply does not point the camera in the right place. This is a standard problem in 3rd person perspective games, but the camera here is inexcusable. You’ll scream in frustration when you are killed by an “offscreen” opponent. You can click the right thumbstick to center the camera, but that barely works. The bad camera also makes platforming difficult. For those new to gaming, platforming harkens back to the olden days of Mario when you had to jump from place to place, or platform to platform. Things were simpler in the 2D days, because you could always see where you had to jump. 3D platforming is usually problematic. Some games manage it weel (ratchet and clank, God of War), but this isn’t one of them. I have fallen to my death in this game soo many times. Successfully making jumps is not a matter of skill here, but trial and error. When I’m playing a game at midnight with the fact that I should be studying in the back of my mind, the last thing I wanna do is be stuck jumping from rock to rock. It happened to me last night, and I just turned this shit off. My last major gripe here is that the game doesn’t always make clear where you’re supposed to go. Some of you won’t have problems with this, but since I get disoriented in 3D landscapes, it’s a huge concern for me.
So, what do I give Afro Samurai? As much as it pains me to have to dock a game that I really enjoy, I have to do it. Had the developers worked out the kinks that I mentioned, the game would’ve been a strong 8. As it stands however, I have to give it a 6.5. The game is fun and above average, but not polished enough to rank higher. You should still give it a rental sometime though. I’m about to go home and play some more when class gets out in about 2 hours.
6.5/10
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