People have been fascinated with the Japanese Samurai for a long time. There have been quite a number of movies, TV shows, books, and even games based on these men of legend. Afro Samurai is based off of a manga series (comic book) that was recently made into an anime show. With the sudden surge of popularity, it was only a matter of time before a game bearing the same name was due to be released. The question remains, will this game accurately reflect the TV show while remaining run to play?

The story of Afro Samurai is pretty simple. The most powerful fighter in the world wears the "Number One" headband, which proves that their skills surpass anything known in the world. The only way for some to obtain this title is by getting the "Number Two" headband and challenging the person wearing the Number One headband. The previous person who had this headband was Afro Samurai's father. Afro's father was killed in front of his eyes by the previous Number Two: Justice. Afro's main goal in life is to obtain the Number Two headband so he can obtain his revenge against the person who killed his father. When the game starts he already has obtained the title of Number Two, now all he has to do is to take out his revenge upon Justice.

The controls for this game are very simple yet allow for some depth. The left analog sick will control the players moments. If players want to block incoming attacks, they can press the right trigger to block. Pressing the X button allows for a light attack and the Y button is for a heavy attack. If players press the B button they will perform a kick and the A button is for jumping. Pressing these four buttons in any given combination will perform devastating combos. As Afro levels up, players will gain access to longer combos that do more damage and look very "cool."

The focus attacks is a specialized "bullet time." When players press the left trigger the screen will turn everything into a very stylized black-and-white, time shows down, and players can press and hold either the Y or X button to execute an extremely destructive attack on an enemy. The last move is the Overfocus move, and that is done by hitting the LB button. In this mode, once again the screen goes into black-and-white, and players can hit multiple enemies with just a single slash and it will kill them.

That's going to hurt in the morning

The gameplay for Afro Samurai is pretty straight forward: hack and slash through myriads of enemies who are trying to take the title of Number Two for themselves. Players will have a lot of fun taking out as many enemies as possible by showing off the combo moves at their disposal. To help break up any repetition, the developers threw in some platforming elements. It is extremely evident that the developers never finely tuned these elements as later on in the game it is very hard to actually pass certain obstacles. It is always a good thing to break up some of the action in the game to give players thumbs a break; but it becomes a problem when these new elements are not up to the same quality as the rest of the game. Many times it feels like these elements were put here as nothing more than agitating placeholders that will have to be done over and over again.

One of the biggest complaints people will have with this game is the camera control. This is one of the worst camera positioning jobs that has been in a game in quite a long time. Many times the camera is gives the worst possible viewpoint and will cause players to come close to dying before they can see what is going on. This is easy to deal with when players are out in the open, but once players enter a castle, the camera goes haywire. Many times players will die due to poor controls; this is especially true during boss battles. Camera control is an extremely important aspect to any game, and it hurts a game when it does more harm than good.

Afro Samurai is an extremely violent game. Many people complained about the gore level in Ninja Gaiden II, but this game takes the gore and violence level up threefold. Players will constantly dismember and disembowel enemies and will see fountains of blood shoot off in the air. Many times after a battle the ground will be filled with hands, feet, arms, heads, and more body parts than players will care to view. The violence is then stepped up a notch when players go into focus mode. In there the screen turns black-and-white, and players will cut through enemies like a hot knife through warm butter, with huge pools of blood left over. Needless to say this is not a game for the feint of heart.

Everyone needs a sidekick

The visuals to this game are a sight to behold. The game uses a stylized cel-shading that looks great in action. The character models are very highly detailed, even the lower level scrubs that are constantly getting their blood spilled all over the place. The developers definitely understood the gore ratio when a human is cut in pieces, as it is proudly displayed with each enemy killed. The various environments are very great to look at, but players have to be conscience not to look to long or else they might die by an enemy sword.

The sound for this game is a mixed bag. First off players have the treat of hearing the same voice work from the anime series. This means that while gamers are slicing and dicing enemies they will get to hear remarks made by Samuel L Jackson. He really made the character of Afro come alive, and it is seem with each line of dialog spoken. The music also taken from the show and features a heavy amount of hip-hop that will have the bass on the gamer's stereos going berserk. Strangely the sound effects for this game are very poor. With the high end music and voiceovers, it was depressing to hear low end (and at times no) sound effects.

Afro Samurai is rated Mature.

Gameplay: 6.7
The fighting engine for this game is really great. Players will have fun fighting against the myriads of "lower level" enemies all throughout the game. The platforming sections, camera, and the boss battles ruin this game.

Graphics: 8.3
Afro Samurai looks great while in motion. The character models are extremely well detailed as well as the various environments that players will do battle in.

Sound: 8.0
The voiceover's and music for this game are great; unfortunately the sound effects are very subpar and do not have the same quality as the rest of the sound category.

Difficulty: Medium
The game tends to lean on the "easy" side until players reach the "unbalanced" boss battles. Players will scream in frustration as they take on near impossible odds.

Concept: 7.5
Even though this game is based off the popular anime series, it is a very unique spin on the normal samurai stories.

Overall: 7.0
Afro Samurai is a good game that could have been a lot more. What this game needed was another month or two in order to squish all of the bugs, poor interior camera control, and weak bosses. If this was done, this game would have been one of the first "must have" games" of the New Year.