“fantasy pack” sweepstakes - Hardcore Gamer

Publisher : Namco Bandai Games America
Developer : Bandai
Release Date : 04/11/06
Rating : Teen 13+
1.75 of 5
Review by Lynxara
Genre(s) : Beat ‘Em Up
Category : Hip-Hop
# of players : 1
Samurai Champloo is based off of the stylish, highly acclaimed anime of
the same name. The game attempts to capture the feel of an episode of
the series, putting the show’s protagonists—Mugen the wild swordsman
and Jin the silent ronin—into a new storyline that takes place in north
Japan. Female lead Fuu’s also along for the trip... but this is an action
game and she can’t fight, so don’t expect to see much of her.
Champloo is a great anime, but the game is a near-complete misfire.
It struggles to try and capture what makes the show’s action sequences
unique—the blend of frenetic action and hip-hop rhythm—but just falls
short of the mark. The game ends being sort of a generic beat ‘em up,
complete with simplistic combo chains, a counter system, and frenzied
super-attack modes. There’s sort of an interesting “rhythm track” mechanic
that lets you change the music you fight to and your combo chains
along with it, but it makes very little difference in practice. If you bother
to exploit the game’s combat engine, you can enter special gameplay
modes like Tate and Trance that let you unlock the usual sorts of bonuses
for racking up big kills. Still, these special modes are really just excuses
to flog different buttons as fast as you can. Combat in Samurai Champloo
gets really boring, really fast, so of course there’s tons of long levels full of
infinitely spawning identical mooks to mow down.
Still, at least the combat is
functional. Everything else in the
game fails in truly spectacular
fashion. Environments are usually
empty and repetitive. Textures
and rendering, especially in the
cut-scenes, could only have been
impressive during the dying days
of the PlayStation. The difficulty
level is miserably low, and you can
play the game for hours on end
and hear as many as three songs in that time. The storyline is positively
insipid in comparison to anything that went on in the Champloo series,
and impossible to believe as some kind of playable “lost episode.” The
voice actors from the Champloo dub show up and doggedly perform as
their characters for the game, but the script is so weak they can’t really
add much to the proceedings. There’s just not anything about the game
that works.
Of course, Samurai Champloo isn’t a license you’ll get good games out
of easily, simply because the show is so strange. A good game
could’ve played around with that fundamental strangeness
to produce something weird and wonderful. The Samurai
Champloo game we got is absolutely bland and ugly in a
way the anime never, ever was. Laziness is the hallmark
of the game’s design and presentation. That is perhaps
the game’s most serious failing. Save your money for
DVDs and other merchandise,
Champloo fans. It’d be
absolutely wasted
on this game.
Rating :
1.5 of 5
2nd opinion by 4thletter • Alternate Rating : 2 of 5
Take one of the best cartoons out, add cool style and no substance. Season lightly with mediocrity
and watch as they keep on passin’ you by.
70_REVIEW_SAMURAI CHAMPLOO HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 11_GIRL POWER
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