Thus far, I give Afro Samurai a B-.
The graphics are good, not great. Game play seems kind of easy and repetitive (mind you I’m only in a couple of levels thus far). The actions are also kind of confusing. Pushing the d-pad down gives you an on screen guide (Samuel Jackson) to point you in the right direction. But he’s very quick. Sometimes you don't have a chance to find him before he disappears.
There are no traditional health bars. There’s a star kind of thing that trails behind you that changes colors as well as some heart beat sound effects that activate when you’re close to dying. You definitely need to read the instructions on this one, they tell you how to restore health and restore your "focus". “Focus” is kind of weird, but kind of cool also. It allows you to concentrate your attention towards one enemy (or direction) as well as perform special offensive maneuvers.
Speaking of fighting, you can actually hit two or more characters with the same sword swing. Nice! Not that the fighting in RPG’s should be too complicated, but here it seems a bit too easy. All you need to do is move the stick in the direction of your enemies and push the jelly bean colored buttons like a crazy person! Now, there are fighting “strategy” directions available when you push the back button during game play. But I was able to get the character through all the major moves without even reading it. Carpal tunnels risk is greatly increased with this game. So make sure you put the controller down frequently and massage the wrists. Oh, and no greasy finger foods either, trust me. Otherwise your controller may become a deadly UFO.
All-in-all, it’s not bad. It sure as $%^* ain’t worth no $59.99! (Which reminds me that Samuel does a fair amount of cursing in the intro and during gameplay.) Fortunately, I paid much, much less than that. Else my grade for it would be quite a bit lower.
I owe it to my pocketbook to put more time into the game. However, only time will tell if I'll be a true fan of the Afro.
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