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Samuel L. Jackson’s Afro Samurai is ready to take over consoles. In Afro Samurai, you’ll play as Number Two, the titular Afro Samurai, who is a highly skilled blade fighter on a quest to avenge his father’s murder by Number One. The game doesn’t do a particularly great job of fleshing out the plot for people who don’t follow the anime (if you do you’ll probably love the game) but it does manage you keep pulling you in.
In terms of combat, Afro has three basic moves: weak and strong attacks and a kick. You can combine these moves to form combos, which are enough to take care of the enemies you’re presented with. However, the best part of the combat comes when you slow down time since you have more control over your blades and can cut off limbs, heads and even fingers from the enemies. Yes, you can chop people in half and watch the body then get covered by blood. You fill up your focus meter by pulling off regular combos although filling up the meter isn’t a particular concern. As you play you’ll uncover other moves like the ability to deflect enemy gunshots, which proves particularly helpful.
But while the core fighting works very well Afro Samurai could have used better pacing. There are times when you’re not fighting anyone for far too long while other times the game won’t let you catch a breath. Afro Samurai is at its best when it teases you with a few enemies before moving on to the next big fight but periods of too much activity make the action seem a bit repetitive. The pacing could also have been improved by polishing the jumping sections, which are a bit awkward. Afro Samurai may be skilled with blades but not so much at wall-running or grabbing ledges.
The highlight of Afro Samurai is probably the game’s visuals. The familiar cel-shading technique found in many games is put to great use here thanks to softer colors and more detailed textures than typical in cel-shaded games. The environments all look terrific with great architecture and fantastic texture work. The combat animations (and the hair) are fantastic, too, although some of the platforming animations are a bit awkward.
The audio work in the game is quite good. The lively voice acting by Samuel L. Jackson (for Afro Samurai) fits the game very well, as does the hip-hop/Russian mix soundtrack that you’ll hear throughout. The sound effects are also well done, allowing you experience the chops in their full glory.
Despite its flaws, Afro Samurai is a well done hack-and-slash adventure. The game’s truly unique and fantastic visual style, coupled with a great combat engine make for a compelling package, especially for fans of the anime. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Mar 8, 2009
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