"Arcade? Samurai? Blood? 1987? How can this game possibly be bad?"

How did I stumble across this Japanese coin-op' arcade? I entered a small Japanese shop in search of fabrics that could be used to replace a worn out sageo tie for a katana saya. While wandering around the store, which was tiny to say in the least, I bumbled acrossed this gem. I had nothing better to do with my time, so I popped in a quarter and was surprised that the arcade console took it. I watched the opening, which was in Japanese, and was pleased to find myself playing a samurai beat 'em up. After a few swings and bloody kills, I was attacked from behind and fell flat on my face. Disgruntled, I entered another quarter and tried again. I continued to slaughter, run, then die. It was an endless cycle. After wasting about four dollars on the accursed-machine, I turned around to the shop owner, asking him if he could read the katakana on the side of the machine, as I can only read some romaji- and even that is rusty, much like my arcade skills. The shop keeper told me that the game was called Kodure Ookami, an arcade title I will never forget.

Story:
Kodure Ookami, surprisingly enough, is based off of a famous long-running manga series entitled ''Lone Wolf and Cub'', in which our hero, Oogami Itto, seeks revenge upon Retsudo Yagyu of the Yagyu Kage clan. The Yagyu clan and its ninjas had pillaged his small village and slew his wife years before, and now Oogami is on a mission to stop the Yagyu Kage sect from destroying anymore lives. Armed with only his katana, Oogami sets out with his young infant son on a quest that became one of the best selling mangas, ''Lone Wolf and Cub'', and movies series, the ''Baby Cart'' series.
Ah, blood-spilling glee with a side dish of plot. 8/10

Graphics:
Personally, I enjoy the older animations far more than the newer arcade graphics. For a game made in 1987, the year in which I was born, I am proud to say, this game, era to era, puts its naginata up Halo's ass. While Mario and his dimwitted brother Luigi were hitting new highs in video game animations, Oogami was slitting those animations throats with a tanto. Something about slashing ronins and watching bright red blood pour from their bodies while they are launched up off their feet like rockets is always pleasing. Perhaps I am a bit morbid, but hey, every man, woman, child, and perhaps even dog enjoys a bit of hacking and slashing in their video games. With fluid sprite animations, an endless cast of villains and enemies, Kodure Ookami definitely delivers in the graphical department. Unlike many video games of this time, objects accurately portray what they were actually meant to represent. And what is this? Fifty-six colors? Not twenty-three? Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Nintendo!
I think I just had a seizure... 10/10

Sound:
I know not about you, but I am a man that gets irked at crappy monotone music and sound effects that loop over and over for the rest of the game. Kodure Ookami is not one of those games. The music fits the era in which the game takes place. Sorry Ninja Gaiden, but ninjas in the future does not cut it, and for the love of God, System of a Down and Adema, stop pawning your rock-tunes off on video games. I do not enjoy playing samurai games with heavy metal blaring in the background, unless, of course, I am playing a Metallica album in my stereo. When I play samurai or ninja based games, I expect to be dazzled with music that comes straight from the Heian and Muromachi periods, dammit! Fortunately, Kodure Ookami did not let me down.
Rock out to… uh… the bamboo banjo? 9/10

Game Play:
This is what makes Kodure Ookami far better than those other craptacular arcade classics, such as Streets of Rage or Final Fight. Unlike those brainless beat ‘em ups, Kodure Ookami takes both concentration and skill. Most beat ‘em ups feature a big, burly, bald, sweating, brute of a main character that cannot die, no matter how many times he is bludgeoned, stabbed, shot, or socked, but not Kodure Ookami. Oogami Itto is like any other man, and if he is stabbed or shot, it probably hurts like Hell, as can be seen by the painful expressions that come over both his face and the faces of those whom he sends crashing to the ground in a bleeding heap or sky rocketing off their feet gushing blood faster than Old Faithful can geyser. In this unique arcade game, taking damage is not acceptable. If you leave your guard down, two or three blows can prove to be fatal, unlike that wretched Mortal Kombat, in which weapons are apparently blunt because no matter how many times the blade appears to go through your opponent’s chest or head, they do not fall down and die!- which really galls me. Kodure Ookami has a fine sense of realism. If you are stabbed- well, damn, you are stabbed! People do not get back up after being stabbed. Even end-stage opponents or bosses cannot take too much of a beating. The first stage boss dies instantly if you manage to pop him in the throat. As you can tell by these descriptions, blocking and parrying is vital to your survival. Swordplay in Kodure Ookami cannot compare to more recent samurai titles, but with an arsenal of four different sword swings, all of which are fairly fatal, swordplay is made both entertaining and extremely difficult. Another unique aspect of the game is the enemy AI. There are hoards and hoards of opponents, all of which have different weapons, which can range from yaris, naginatas, ninjatos, katanas, kamas, shirasayas, to the deadly arquebas rifle. Each enemy type reacts differently to different situations. Some outright charge Oogami and try to slay him, while others take a more difficult to predict defensive strategy. It is easy to distinguish between enemy types, allowing you, the player, to adapt strategies to different situations. What are probably more unique even are the power-ups and weapon upgrades. Like most arcade games, weapons enhancements and character upgrades are found in item form. These can be collected by chopping objects into pieces, or perhaps even characters into pieces. Most of the weapon enhancements come from Oogami’s son’s stroller. Yes, process that for a moment. A samurai going on a killing spree with his son strapped to his back sounds odd, but having a stroller turn into an ancient rocket launcher that fires fireworks at unsuspecting ronins is just off-the-wall weird, but unique, as I said earlier. Oogami can even pull a naginata from his son’s stroller, and use it to slaughter enemy ronins, ninjas, and hitokiri before they can even come close to him. Of course, there are many more upgrades. These are just a few that are at Oogami’s disposal.
Dammit! There goes seven bucks… Oh well… 10/10

Let us see those digits again:
Story: 8/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Game Play: 10/10

All in all, Kodure Ookami earns a 10/10 for arcade excellence.
Where can I play Kodure Ookami?
There really are no arcades that specialize in foreign outdated games, but if there are, I suggest you find this game buried somewhere beneath the pile of games that have been discarded throughout the ages. I think you may find this one next to Bart Simpson Versus the World or Galaga ‘91.
Due to the recent technological bursts of the ‘90s, it is far too easy to download this title as a pirated ROM for a MAME emulator. While I do not condone such things, I definitely suggest that you play this game, unless of course you are blind… but even then, I suggest you at least feel up the controls.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/04