Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked

by Bandai Namco

Product Features

• Be a samurai! Play as Mugen, Jin, or the game-exclusive character to unleash your inner samurai moves!
• Fight your way through feudal-era Japan with hip hop style: Execute the combo-system fusing hip hop with samurai sword action. Game original hip hop tracks deliver original combos. Build your collection of tracks to improve your fighting abilities.
• A missing episode you cant miss if youre the fan of the series: Original storyline and world - a new experience that is unavailable with the TV series. Unravel the storyline in multiple ways depending on which character you select!
• Champloo style weapons: More than 50 weapons are at your disposal!

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000ENW5UG
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches ; 4.8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: September 8, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,541 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Hungry, cold and broke. On their search for the "samurai that smells of sunflowers," Mugen, Jin and Fuu's hunt for food ends up costing them more than they bargained for. In the northern land of Ezo, danger awaits the wayward trio. There's no way they'll stay out of trouble in a place like this. With curses, witches and of course brawls, it's just another day for this motley crew.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Storyline, Audio Based Combat, July 1, 2006

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked (Video Game)

Samurai Champloo was first a manga and anime - and now Samurai Champloo Sidetracked fills in a missing piece of the storyline. It's an interactive, humorous adventure game.

You're up in the cold, northern world of Ezo back in the days of feudal Japan. Jin is the quiet, focussed one, while Mugen is the wild, reckless half. Both are fighters of high renown. With them is Fuu whose talent appears to be getting kidnapped to move the plotline along. Their comments are sometimes mature but usually quite funny.

The graphics are generally quite good - a mix of a feudal look, cel shaded smoothness but still with a bit of blockiness. They aren't as good as I've seen on a few other titles, but you into the feel of the atmosphere pretty quickly.

That's because this isn't a role playing game - it's a fighting game - and while you do have to do some wandering-and-finding, much of the game is about pulling out your sword and slicing people in half. This is where the game gets funky. You can choose different soundtracks for your characters. If you play a slow song, your character goes through gentle, solid moves, with blocks and sweeping blows. If you play a fast song, your character reacts - the combinations you get are far more furious and sharp. You can build your song collection as you go - meaning that as you face different enemies, you swap between songs to get the best attacks going to take advantage of your enemy's weaknesses.

Of course what actually happens is that you like some music and hate others, so you end up playing the music you enjoy the sound of - and then you get really good at those combos so they end up being your best moves. Which is of course a fascinating way to formulate a fighting game :)

I did find the loading screens to get a bit annoying. I also found the mini-games could have been REALLY cool if someone put a bit of work into them. For example the beetle contest - why not show us the 3 beetles? Give them names when we choose them? Let us see them in action? It wouldn't have taken much work to make it into a really funny game. I realize this is tongue in cheek, but it really could've been a fun mini-game with a small amount of work. Finally, it seems like there's a lot of running around.

Still, the humor and innovative fighting more than make up for any small problems with gameplay - and the story is quite an interesting one!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Game review, January 30, 2007

By 

Marge (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked (Video Game)

It's really fun, especially if you're a fan of the show, the story line is a little slow but good none the less, any fan of the show will enjoy it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, April 15, 2007

By 

shmageki (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked (Video Game)

Great series... very poor game.

Does not live up to the standard set by the tv series. Poor graphics, poor animation, disjointed storyline, poor gameplay (99% button tapping), and huuuuge load times between every bad animated filler. The game was obviously rushed to completion to capitalize on the popularity of the tv series.

Looking for a great ps2 game? Try Ghost In The Shell.