by: John Olin

September 18, 2007

As the name suggest there are nine samurais to choose from, and the game comes at a bargain price of forty dollars, as well as being an Xbox 360 exclusive. I have played a lot of these Japanese ninja/samurai type titles, and it have always thought that you can’t go wrong, even in a hack-and-slash with sword play. Well, apparently that isn’t true. Kengo moves slowly, and the controls can be unresponsive, taking most of the excitement out from the start. Well it goes further downhill thanks to the fact that unless you are facing a boss. You can change stances for a total of three stances, and you may find that a certain stance works better for you, or may give you some kind of edge in boss battles, but they don’t really affect the gameplay that much. The coolest thing about the game is there is a showdown where you can challenge each other. In the showdown, you clash swords, but from there it can be tricky, as you may try to direct the opponent one way so you can cut them from behind, but it doesn’t always work out the way you want it to.

If you can get past the repetitiveness and the questionable controls, then you actually have plenty to do. There is a Main Mode, but the Main Mode is exactly the same for all characters, a Mission Mode that has you doing specific challenges, a Combat mode which is setup more like a fighting game, and you can upload your high scores on a leaderboard similar to how you could in Ninja Gaiden on Xbox. The only redeeming quality about going through any of these modes more than once is using different characters to do each will give you achievements for all of them, and those of you whom are achievement addicts out there will find that the game gives them out pretty fast, in about ten hours of gameplay, and for only forty dollars brand-new.

The visuals can be muddy, cloth and hair flows realistically but the visuals as a whole could have been better, a lot of Xbox 360 launch titles stack up better against the visuals. The details that are there, the main characters specifically are crisp but have a plastic look to them sometimes. The presentation of the menus is pretty well done, but the subtitles can be very small and hard to read on some television screens. The game sticks completely with Japanese voices, making it feel even more authentic, almost like you imported the title even.

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I wish I could write more about the game, but there really isn’t much to say. You have a few different story lines and a slice of variety, but there isn’t anything here that screams Xbox 360 titles, and especially nothing in the title to have you coming back for more. Achievement addicts and fans of the series from PlayStation 2 might find it to be a treat, but otherwise don’t waste your time.

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