Seven Samurai 20XX - PlayStation 2

Description

Product Description Seven Samurai 20XX is inspired by Akira Kurosawa's renowned and timeless classic film: The Seven Samurai. You take on the role of the young samurai, Natoe, as the great tale is taken into the future where human survival is in peril. Fight an array of mechanical beasts and enlist 6 warriors to help you defend the humans' last city. As a salute to the original masterpiece, the game has cooperation from Kurosawa Production and the late director's son, Hisao. World-famous artist/designer, Moebius, and Academy Award® winning composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto, also contribute to the amazing visuals and theme music. Review In all honesty, the idea taking Akira Kurosawa's classic The Seven Samurai and turning it into a science-fiction themed video game sounded pretty damn bad on paper. Now, despite the cooperation of Kurosawa's estate and the involvement of both legendary comic artist Moebius and anime writer/translator Marc Handler, the end product turns out to be worse than we could have imagined. Sammy, here's a hint: If you're going to make a "respectful" update of one of cinema's most cherished films, it's probably a bad idea to have a cutscene that features two rapping boy band rejects on rollerblades. But maybe that's just me. Also, I suspect that dialogue like "Bite me!" (which, I swear to God, actually does make its way into the script) might possibly diminish the gamemakers' dramatic intentions.Of course, great gameplay makes up for any number of flaws, but unfortunately Seven Samurari offers nothing but mindless button-mashing, boring level design, and horrible pacing. Yes, there is some theoretical "depth" to the combat in the form of a dash move, blocking, combos, and the ability to equip new weapons, but in reality none of these techniques prove any more or less effective than just mindlessly punching the square button. Really, the only thing you'll have to master is the Nitoh-Ryu power-up, which lets you decimate your opponents with two swords for a brief period of time. Other than that it's a dull trek through levels that are alternately painfully linear or just plain confusing. Even worse, I suspect that the only audience that might have truly embraced 20XX's middling action – hardcore devotees of Kurosawa's films – will not only be put off by the juvenile voice-acting and poor dialogue, but will likely be offended at this affront to his legacy.Concept:Make a sci-fi hack n' slasher based on Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai Graphics:Really this game's only strong point; the characters and particle effects are nice Sound:Ridiculous voice acting, and the battle music is horribly repetitive Playability:Seriously, press square and you'll be fine Entertainment:Falls far short of living up to both its license, and the standards of modern-day hack n' slash Replay:Moderately Low Rated: 5 out of 10Editor: Matt HelgesonIssue: May 20042nd Opinion: Despite its high production values, Seven Samurai is an absolutely putrid game. The combat is so one-dimensional and yawn-inducing that I have enemies I wouldn't recommend this game to. It's so bad, in fact, that I would warn fans of Kurosawa's classic tale to not ruin their love of the movie by playing this pathetic button masher.Rated: 4 out of 10Editor: Matt HelgesonSubscribe to Game Informer -- Game Informer Review