Samurai: Way of the Warrior Review

Every once and a while a game comes along without much hype and you just have to scratch your head and wonder how this snuck up on you.  But that’s usually only for a second because you’re spending too much time just enjoying the fact that you found it.

A perfect example of this for me is “Samurai: Way of the Warrior”.  Didn’t hear anything about this game but once it came out I had to check it out.  A few beheaded bad guys later I was amazed at what I’d found.

The title of the game gives you an idea of what is going on.  You’re a Samurai… no wait… you’re a Warrior… heck, you’re both.  It’s like Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.  You are two very cool butt-kicking things rolled into one.  Oh, and while you’re two things in one, you can turn one enemy into two things (you’ll see).

Graphically this game is beautiful.  I can’t believe that I just described a game where you hack and slash enemies with a sword, splattering blood everywhere, as beautiful, but that’s what it is.  I really liked the cel shading here.  It really ads something different and everything in the game is easy to make out.

And then there’s the cut scenes that are all done with a comic book feel.  I really liked the way the story played out in this fashion.  Though I have to wonder about the writing in the game.  I couldn’t decide if the bad grammar was an accident or if it was done on purpose to make it seem more like a crazy martial arts movie.

I’m going to go with the “on purpose” method because playing this game will really make you feel like you’re the star in a movie.  It’s just you, your sword, and hundreds of bad guys… none of whom have figured out that a better weapon (like anything with range) would have ended the fight a lot sooner.

While the things I’ve mentioned above really make this game stand out, they’re just the appetizer to the games bigger draw.  The controls are pretty fun in this game, as you work your sword with your finger.  No, it’s not quite like Flight Control, but a little more like a Wii.  You make a few different swipe motions on the touch screen and then watch them played out.  Do the right moves and you’ll see body parts flying, or even a body cut in half.

And there are plenty of moves to use.  Simple things like a swipe to the left and then to the right will give you the Burning Blade while a Left-Right-Up gets you the Flying Dragon which sends your warrior up into the air to crash down with the killing blow.  You can pause the action by touching a scroll in the top right corner and see all the moves that are available to you, but I found that just trying some different combination’s on my own and seeing what they did.

The touch also works for your movements as well.  You simply tap the screen where you want the character to go or drag your finger and let him follow.  But really it’s all about the slashing.

I’ll admit that this type of control scheme isn’t for everyone, but I found it worked well and was a lot of fun.  But it does suffer from the same problem that all games like this have… mainly the fact that you’ll find your “go to” move and stick with it, again and again.

This can make the game very repetitive and that is the real con that S:WotW has going for it.  I recommend not getting caught up in this trap.  Mix up your moves a bit and you’ll have a better time with the game.

The game play comes in two modes; Story & Dojo.  The Dojo is perfect for practicing your moves since you’ll have enemies coming at you one at a time.  This is where you’ll find the moves that work best for you.  And the Story takes you through your personal movie.  A lot of nice work was done on the comic book story telling and is just the type of thing to keep your from just flipping through things quickly.

The one thing I was longing for in the game is a multiplayer feature.  I found the enemies (including the bosses) to be a little too easy and I wanted to see what it would be like to go up against someone who offered a bit more fight.  If they can work this into a future update you’ll have an amazing game… though it’s still a lot of fun right now!

So here you have a nice little surprise in the app store.  Samurai: Way of the Warrior allows you to get your sword on and take out more minions than any bad guy has a right to own.  Here you have a game where the fun flies like the heads you lop off and all of it is done with a very original control scheme that makes it even better.

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Tags: death blow, fatality, ninja games, samurai, swords, warrior games

Category: Games