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A friend had asked me about Samurai Western, what it was, what it was like, and my lazy description was something like "A Kessen-Ninja Gaiden hybrid and with enough bloodletting to satisfy both games over." That's the visual way to talk about this game (the third in Spike/Acquire's Samurai series, the first entries being the Way of the Samurai games), but if I were to think of it on a more subtle level for, say, a website review, I'd attach it to a modern shooter.
For something that requires such consistent enemy juggling, Samurai Western is less like an arm-twisting button masher than a bizarre, fascinating relaxant. While every newspaper cartoon depicts video game players as young folk slowly grafting themselves into the couch, complete with slack jaws and flies hovering, Samurai Western is the only game that I've encountered that does what all those misguided artists and politicians picture. The game doesn't actively encourage regression, but is more like a nice side effect, like taking a daytime pill at midnight. So much in the same way a manic shooter can soothe the player's fingers and nerves, giving way for a boozy, creamy weave past bullets and certain death, Samurai Western is its brainless 3D incarnation: dodging, bullets, death, and chaining, all embodied in one samurai, who has the ferocity of a stray rabid dog looking for a place where life is destroyed.
How does this become Samurai Western's accomplishment? First, imagine your typical 3D, hacky-slashy action platformer, along with a combo and experience point system, bullet deflecting, unlockable equipment and characters, and big heady bosses. Then remove the things you think would make it functional, such as a useful targeting system and a button that instantly locks the camera behind the view of your character. This isn't as big as detriment as you might think because this (and forgive the lameness of the phrase) forces you to think, move, and chop sock like a samurai, developing a preternatural feel for the environment and the placement of enemies. It's like this: the action is way too fast and, once the game really gets going, there are too many bad dudes on screen for the camera to follow coherently. But through furtive glances at the onscreen radar in the corner and keeping mental note of the last general location of enemies when they leave the view of the camera, you can jump towards the camera and start pounding the attack button (your character attacks whoever's closest) and as the camera pans out it reveals your character slicing up the baddies you already knew were there. Jump behind a box where you know a guy is hiding and as his blood begins to spray, jump out and continue the samurai's rampage, stringing hits and kills for huge combos, which you are judged upon at the end of each stage (along with time taken, amount of damage, if you were knocked down, and so on) are rewarded accordingly with new characters, stages, and equipment. With the right timing, lay down your enemies and watch them bleed like a garden sprinkler system. But yes, because you're able to keep track and compute the location of enemies even when they're not on screen, that means they're pretty stupid and only move around enough to stay alive and never enough to put up a real fight alone. As its worst, Samurai Western is mindless and repetitive, and at its best it's sadistically addictive.
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