Samurai Western

By: Michael Levy

Samurai Western is the sort of game that is stuck in between the lines of generic and creative. It suffers from bland storytelling, yet has a fun arcade feel to it that's missing from some games today. Plus, it?s got ?partial nudity?, which will be explained later in the review. For now, the biggest issue to talk about is game play and storyline.

Developed by Acquire and published by Atlus, (what AREN?T they publishing nowadays?) Samurai Western involves a lone samurai from Japan named Gojiro Kiryuu, who has come to America to find his ex-samurai brother, Raddo. Raddo was defeated in battle by the head boss of the town?s mob, Goldberg. The storytelling involves several quick snippets of dialog, as well as a few cutscenes. There are other characters, such as an overweight black sheriff who is lied to and easily fooled, as well as a tavern girl and a younger set of children. The graphics are typical for a late PS2 title: and everything is very blandly colored. Colors look slightly washed out, and this is mainly because of the fact that the game is a western. Nevertheless, the characters are extremely generic and most could be thrown away at any moment.

Gojiro?s move list contains a total of four buttons. Yes, that?s right. Four. L1 is the special berserker bar that can be used differently for each sword upgrade received at the end of a level. The player can also acquire new accessories and power ups. The game plays very much like an arcade game, with the second button (either R1 or O, your choice) being the block/dodge/counter attack. The X button is used for jumping, and Square is used for slashing and deflecting bullets. It?s very standard, and easy to learn.

However, just because it?s easy to learn, doesn?t mean it?s going to be fun. The gameplay is repetitive and often rarely challenging. Block bullets with your sword while rolling around using the analog stick, come up behind the character and kill them; easy enough. The later stages get more complicated, particularly with the bosses. In fact, more than often enough, the A.I. feels unbalanced. You slice through the hordes of three or four ruthless vermin (The original ?Final Fight? even had more variation in enemies! Even with the palette swap characters not included!) that include the grandma bomb thrower, the big guys with shotguns, the Mexicans with machine guns, and the occasional knife thrower. Then you get to a boss fight that is actually fairly challenging, and worth the price of the game (which is $19.99 new, at least at the moment).

While I?ve seen worse, the camera has its own share of problems, sometimes darting into a corner when Gojiro does, and staying locked there. This becomes more frustrating when you?re being shot at and can?t even get up. However, because of the plentiful amount of health power ups, this is not that big of a deal. In non-boss battles, an average gamer can go without dying for less than half a dozen times for the entire run of the game.

The cutscenes in the game leave you with either the desire to want to know more, or to just keep going. They don?t really give off any surprises or revelations. In fact, I?d say the only thing that felt right about the cutscenes was the establishment that caring about the characters really didn?t matter. They were all fairly lackluster, with Gojiro and his brother being the most interesting.

The game is broken up into fairly short missions, and while there?s enough to keep one occupied by building their stats up, it really doesn?t take much to beat the game on normal with somewhat decent stats. Grinding is not necessary, but the more you kill the more experience you get with the equipped sword.
The funniest thing about the game is the rating description. While there is a ton of blood that sprays out when a character is cut, so the kids can?t play this one. Also on the box, it says ?Sexual Themes?, however there are absolutely know ?sexual themes? or ?nudity? in the game, other than at the end when you can see the top of the tavern woman?s thong. Some mothers who were reviewing this game must?ve been half asleep when setting up the rating for it.

To conclude, if you?re looking for a western sword fighting game, this is it, however there are better western games than this. Activision?s ?Gun? and Rockstar?s ?Red Dead Revolver? come to mind in this generation. However, the sword-wielding and bullet deflecting/dodging is fun for a while. The game has little to no replay value, especially with such ho-hum characters and drab levels. But if you must have an action craving, try and check it out.

2.5 star(s) out of 5

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