Afro Samurai, cut down by wonky camera!

Afro Samurai is based on an anime series currently airing on Spike TV. I’ve never watched it but figured its anime, it looks cool but the story is shit. Well playing the game proved me right. You are Afro Samurai. You and your “Afro Ninja?” companion (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) are on a quest for the #2. No not a turd of power or anything. Apparently Afro is on a quest to find the #2 “head band” created by the gods. Samuel L. Jacksons acts as a narrator to the story and does so with all the style that you would expect from him. This game is all about style and flash, but does it have substance?

Afro Samurai is a sharp looking game. I’m a big fan of cell shading when it’s done right, and this game does not disappoint. Otherwise Afro Samurai is your run of the mill hack and slash. You will progress through the game and fight thousands of the same enemy, over and over again. I guess the devs thought that if you were fighting a female ninja in a g-string with her naked titties flopping around, the game would stay fresh. They were wrong. Sure chopping a ninja bitch down the middle and watching 1 titty go one way and 1 titty go the other was fun. Eventually, like 20 minutes in it gets old. The controls are good, it’s easy to pull off sweet combos and the better your combo the more blood will be splattered on the screen. As you level up you gain better abilities and better combos. The problem here is that there is no real reason to learn the combos. You can beat this game by spamming your fierce attack. All of this is forgivable, and I do believe that Afro Samurai could have been a good game that I would enjoy. Unfortunately the completely broken camera is unforgivable. Every 15 seconds I was fighting with the camera so I could see what I was doing. There is no “locked follow behind” option or anything like that, and to top it all off they added platforming aspects to this game that require a steady camera. I honestly think that the camera in Afro Samurai is worse than in the Tomb Raider series. The soundtrack is great, I do not know why hip hop and Samurai action go hand and hand but they do. When you enter a boss battle, the hip hop starts and it does get you pumped up.

This game had so much going for it; graphics, soundtrack, an IP that seems to have a pretty decent following, and Samuel L. “Mother Fucking” Jackson. Unfortunately it flaws out way all the good things. Only really hardcore fans will be able to pick up this game and enjoy it for over 10 minutes. If you are a hardcore fan of Afro Samurai, then run right out to your local gamestop and get your #2, and this time I’m not talking about a “magical headband”. I will sum up Afro Samurai with a quote from the game delivered brilliantly by Sam Jackson, “I see you came dressed as your favorite character, a guy who died like a bitch!” That’s what this game did, died like a bitch.