Afro Samurai

"A great game ruined by a lack of testing."

Usually when I play a game, I don't review it until I finish. This is an exception, as I've reached a point where the boss is nearly impossible to beat. It is actually this boss, (brother #6 flamethrower), which has been the reported reason for nearly all of the returns, trade-ins, and people quitting the game.


At first glance, the game is beautiful. The graphics, scenes, and whole look of the game is incredible. The voice-overs, script, and general sounds/music of the game is amazing.

The controls are a bit awkward, but easy to learn. The biggest problem is probably not being able to invert or reverse the camera controls to style, and the fact that it occasionally freaks out. The "Focus" is amazing. It slows and then "stops" time for a moment while you charge, but if you miss the charge, time slowly resumes and you can get hit. You can even get hit if you enter focus right before someone hits you, ruining your entire focus. While this sounds bad, once you start playing and using the focus, you'll realize that it actually adds to the game.

The problems don't start appearing till chapter 2-3. The first one I noticed was that your character is laying down in a cutscene, and his headband tail flies through a wall. This can only be a result of little to no beta testing, and is not something I or anyone wants to see in a cutscene.
At one point, mid-chapter, you are led through a maze. This really breaks up the action, and while they tried to make it difficult, you can always press your ninja-GPS button and get shown the right way by Ninja Ninja popping up and waving at you.
At the end of the chapter, you reach the most difficult boss battle in the game.

He uses a flamethrower and is beatable, but only after hours and hours of trying. It feels really weird because you are flying through the game, and suddenly, hit this brick wall of a boss. He uses a straight beam of flame to knock you down, and continues firing while your down until you stand up (which is out of your control) and knocks you down again. Then, he stops and laughs at you (seriously, he knows how cheap he is). Then, as you get close, he sprays wildly and knocks you back down, laughs, and prepares to fire again. On the occasions you do get hits, you deal very little damage for 3 hits, then you are hit with an unblockable knockback, and he opens fire again. There is really only one excuse for something like this in a game, Poor beta testing, or the developers simply ignoring it.

If you manage to get him damaged, he will switch his flamethrower into area of effect wave-mode. He shoots it down into the ground and creates a wave of flame that if touched, can deal enough damage to you to kill you from FULL HEALTH. The worst part, is that the flames get very tiny near the end of their life, but still do the same damage. This is where you can deal the most damage to him however, but running up close and whacking him. Once he's starting to glow red, he begins blasting into the ground multiple times to make many waves and insta-kill you.


Overall, this is an incredible game, ruined by mainly a lack of testing, and some general sloppyness.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/09

Game Release: Afro Samurai (US, 01/27/09)