Kengo: Legend of the 9

"U'm this is a great game, don't let people who don't like the style turn you off."

WoW! , Um for some reason anything thats not a shooter gets dogged everywhere...

This game imo is great, its basically a samurai sim. There may only be two attack buttons but when you use them in combination and with charges and the direction pad there are a lot of moves.

As one of the reviewers who didn't like the game pointed out there is a 3'rd button (which he didn't use) that's one of the key features of the game its a parry/grapple move which can be tied in with combinations to do some of the games coolest moves like throw a guy into a lamp post then cut him and the lamp post in half (admittedly you don't actually cut the guy in half its not that gory but its cool none the less).

There is also a block button and you can also lock target enemies for your attacks.

Also there are three stances which is a rock paper scissors to your opponents stance, and each stance has its own set of moves which you learn in a leveling up manner. You can get new moves and increase stats when you "level-up" in between stages.

There are 9 different Samurai of Japanese legend you can play as and they can each use a variety of weapons.

Each has there own story which is mostly told through a narrator then playing the battles, I like the stories personally .

The graphics are not what I would call third gen but they are passable and some of the locations while not high polygon look nice, like fighting on the beach during a sunset.

It has been commented on that this game is hard (there are 3 difficulty settings), while that may be true no one ever said fighting with swords was "easy or safe". There are no power ups and you can't break a box eat some sushi and gain health, its not that type of game, while its not real sword fighting the effort was there to add a bit of realism to the damage and death aspect.

So all in all this game is exactly what it wants to be and it does that very well, its definitely not a button mashing hack and slash game, its requires timing and anticipation and reflexes and strategy.

If you think you might like this game I think you should definitely give it a try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/09

Game Release: Kengo: Legend of the 9 (US, 09/11/07)