Customer Reviews

Afro Samurai

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

The game play might not be the best with the constant button mashing but this games story is really funny and interesting especially with Samuel L Jackson's commentary. Absolutely hilarious.

Story Line - movie like, "I will avenge my father's death" while trying
earn the little piece of a white cloth to wrap around my Afro

Soundtrack - PLUS
VOICE OVER - PLUS, but also can get annoying Samuel Jackson's funny but
not all the time.
Graphics - I rather Watch the Anime
Camera Angle - OMG this what I hate about this game. it jus sucks

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.

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.

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.

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.

I generally hate franchise games. Not because they fall short of classic status, but because they fall short of decent. Any superman game comes into mind. These atrocious games have made me largely ignore franchise games. But every once in a while, I'll see something on sale, or getting decent reviews and cave in and get one. Though usually the case, Afro Samurai was a surprisingly great game. The action, while repetitive has surprising depth. Timing your slow motion attack is tricky but once you get the hang of it, a lot of fun. If you really work at it and learn the moves, you'll feel like a supreme bad@$$, being able to take down dozens of bad guys with relative ease. It makes me feel like Afro, and therefore is a success.

There are flaws. They change the story in parts from the show, and the frame rate drops sometimes. Also, the boss fights range from awesome to frustrating, with very few in between. But like I said, a franchise game doesn't need to be halo to be fun, it just has to emulate the experience of the franchise. In that, Afro Samurai is a really good game. It's got the style, the game play, and is most importantly, a lot of fun. Recommended.

Definitly a good purchase if your looking for a fun game to keep you occupied for a few days. Good buy!!!

I love the show, i love the idea i even loved the demo in all of its flaws. And yet somehow after playing the game i just couldnt get the same feeling i had when i played the demo.

Some things that annoyed me.

Leveling up. What the hell is that!

It would be more interesting if you had some form of life bar to see that way we knew when to block and when to look for those teddy bears to get our health back.

You go far too long in between times when you chop someone up. And when you do sometimes you miss if you dont run in and time your slices right in focus mode.


But i did like the ability to slice anything and everything up. Regardless of how easy the combos sometimes are it never gets old to chop a guys arm, legs, head, toes, and even his hat off. If they would've stuck with this for the whole game this would be an awesome game but they didn't so it's a 3/5 for me. Which if you look at the price isn't too bad for what you pay for.