Get your groove on and pick up that sword because its time to spill some blood. Namco-Bandai’s adaptation of the popular anime series Afro Samurai pulls no punches as it delivers a fast paced high impact slasher that pleases and frustrates at the exact same time. Feverish button mashing mixed with detailed sword techniques lead to body parts flying, but an unforgiving camera and strange pacing within the game may turn some gamers off.
Gameplay
From the very first time you pop the disk in your tray, you’re greeted with the hip-hop style of Afro Samurai. The opening sequence has Samuel L. Jackson voicing the general prologue of what you’re about to encounter. There is no doubt from the start that this will be a game that uses its M rating to its extent. You quickly find that the game’s story follows along a basic retelling of the main story delivered in the anime. Some plot points are told from slightly different angles, but the meat of the story is there. Young Afro witnesses his father get killed for his Number One Headband by a gunslinging warrior named Justice. Revenge is best served cold and so Afro Samurai sets out to take back what was stolen from his family.
The game progresses through linear levels that are setup very stylish. Instead of looking at a boring loading screen, you’re treated to flashback sequences between Jinno and Otsuru; two characters with deep emotional impact from Afro’s past. The unfortunate part about the game version of the story is if you haven’t seen the anime, the impact of these flashbacks wont carry the same feeling. After the stage is loaded, and Afro is done dreaming, he’s awoken by his trusty imaginary sidekick Ninja Ninja yelling out his name. It’s a stylish loading screen that more developers should exploit. If the gamer has to stare at a loading screen, at least make it worth our while.
Controls
While controlling Afro takes nothing more than a dexterous thumb or two; keeping track of Afro is an exercise in extreme patience. Basic move sets amount to one button for swift attacks, one for hard attacks, a kick and jump button. The triggers are relegated to blocking duties and entering Focus mode which I’ll get to later. Button mashing in different combinations between swift, hard and kick will unleash brutal body part lobbing combos and is really all you need at the intro of the game. There is a moves list that you can access, but you’ll find yourself button mashing like the best of them without ever paying attention to the basic moves list. Normally I despise button mashing games as they don’t take much skill, but Afro Samurai has a way of bringing out the fun in it. This is more than likely due to the visceral feeling of slicing a foe in half with your latest combo.
Dangling neatly behind you is Afro’s pendant. This is one of the only means in which you can tell that anything is going on with your character. If the pendant is glowing with a black aura, it’s idle and nothing can be gained from it. If it glows read, you’ve gained experience from the enemy and if it begins to glow white, you’ll have access to Focus mode. Focus essentially slows time and allows you to setup devastating vertical and horizontal sword slashes. Additionally, you can split or reflect bullets from the few gun toting enemies scattered throughout the game. There’s even a boss fight where you’re required to split his missiles in order to progress any further. Focus mode is where the meat of the controls are. You’ll have the most destructive force when you utilize your Force time wisely. A reflection from your blade will tell you where your hit will land and this allows you to select which body part you care to dispatch and quite nicely also sets up the game’s mini-game named Body Part Poker.
This leads to the abomination of the game: the camera. With a permanently inverted X axis on the camera and a poor AI to follow the focus of your samurai, you’ll find that the camera is the single most frustrating aspect of the game. One boss fight in particular, it becomes imperative to watch his moves. With a camera that is too stupid to follow your movements and in the heat of battle, turning left to look right and vice versa adds up to a lot of death in-game. What could have been incredibly fluid ends up feeling tacked on and out of place.
Graphics
The art style of the anime comes through quite well and the cel shading fits the mood and tone. It truly feels like you’re playing a 3D version of the anime. Paying homage to its M rating, Afro Samurai uses generous amounts of blood and violence effectively and even splashes on the screen when you’re getting carried away with your mayhem. The problem however is slowdown in parts that it shouldn’t matter. At certain times in the game, there will be moments where the screen will split and show you what’s going on in a different portion of the map. At this time, the graphics take a hit and slow down considerably and take you out of the immersion. A game that has no HUD to speak of is all about immersion and when you cant make it flow fluidly on the screen, it’ll break you out of that and remind you that you’re playing a videogame.
Sound
The sounds in the game are a mixed bag. On one hand you have nice beats inspired by The Rza and excellent voice acting. Then on the other hand you have dead silence when it comes to interacting with the numerous repeated enemies they throw at you. It’d be nice if they had included when you slice off an enemy’s leg that the appropriate scream of pain follows; but there’s nothing. With that being said, Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Pearlman lend their excellent voice acting skills to this game and it shines. The story telling comes through with the exact detail they used in the anime to full effect. From a music standpoint, although the game features some nice beats, there aren’t many and they often repeat.
Overall
Afro Samurai presents a well rounded hack and slash game with no HUD and interesting sword play, but some broken in-game mechanics with the platforming aspects and horrible camera controls take huge points on what could have been a game that is full of win. I’m not saying the game isn’t fun because it really is. There’s a certain primal need that is satisfied when you hack off multiple people’s heads at once that cant be matched in many other games. If you’re looking for a cool story, nice music and mindless violence, it’s definitely a game to look for on your radar. Don’t expect perfection because its not here, but don’t discount the game entirely as it’s worth a play.
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