Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked Preview

It was a peaceful day. A sunny day, a time when two unlikely heroes might spend their time searching for the samurai who smells of sunflowers. An all-powerful Oni stands in front of victory's gate. Gangster monkeys make their presence known, showing no mercy as the biggest thugs in the primate world. Is this game crazy? Most likely. "Crazy" is this game's specialty.

Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked stars Jin and Mugen, two sword-fighting anti-heroes who are destined to save the world whether they want to or not. Inbetween rounds of draining their enemies' blood, Jin and Mugen will communicate in dozens of real-time sequences that will lead the player down a path of intrigue and confusion.

Most are amusing, with witty dialogue and clever anecdotes. Some end with a cliffhanger and a "to be continued" line, which is where the confusion comes in. The next scene might at first seem to contradict what you just saw, or it might have seemed to resolve the conflict without explaining what happened. Or it could just be that this is work-in-progress and the developers aren't ready to show us every sequence yet.

Samurai Champloo's gameplay, that goes along with this story of gangster monkeys and sarcastic samurai, is like a single-player fighting game on steroids. Attacks are heavily combo-based. Players will use the circle and triangle buttons to execute combos, all of which are laid out on the top of the screen at all times. I wasn't sure what to make of this prior to playing the game. Gamers have a lot of experience memorizing button sequences -- do we really need a constant reminder? 

But that's not why they're there. The "combo trees" (as the developers call them) are listed in order to designate which combo sets you are able to perform. There are several combo sets, each with a unique combo set. Combo sets can branch into other combos, and if you're quick, you can switch combo sets and perform even bigger combos! It's very much a game for fans of fighting games.

Separating the combos from each other is an exclusive soundtrack to each set. Though it does not seem to have any effect on the gameplay, each set is put on a record. You're given two records at the start of the game and must buy the rest. Equip two at a record shop, then switch between them at any time during battle. The music changes the second you change the record, as does the combo tree shown on top.  

Players may have also noticed large button icons displayed on some of the screens. Those are your counter attacks. If you hit an attack button just before your opponent strikes, up to four of the face buttons (X, square, triangle and/or circle) will appear. Press any of the buttons shown and you'll counter the attack. If done too slowly your opponent may be able to block it, but at least you won't have received any damage. Press the wrong button, however, and you'll be knocked down, leaving your warrior vulnerable to group attacks.

Thus far levels have been either short and cramped or long and linear, with dozens of enemies spawning in each area. Enemy types change every level. Most appear to belong to the demon species, with sickly faces, inhuman actions, hunched backs, sword-resistant flesh, etc. The whiny, gotta-have-their-way-or-else gangster monkeys turned out to be the easiest of the bunch, even though they don't appear until the fourth level. Could this be changed? Anything's possible, but I think the monkeys were created for player amusement more than they were to be a great challenge. That being the case, the mission was accomplished.

(If only they had thought to include a few hip-hop hippos. Before sitting on you, they'd rap about how much pain they were about to unleash.)

Although this is only a preview build, it seems that Samurai Champloo will not be the most realistic-looking game on the planet. That's a small price to pay for the interesting direction the artists took with this game, utilizing a couple filmmaking techniques to jolt and excite the player.

Loading occurs after every scenario in this game, whether interactive or just a movie sequence. Before the loading takes place the load screen image flashes on the screen. The screen goes back to the previous image, then pops in the load screen with rectangular flashes and a sped-up soundtrack. They use unusual sounds during the load screen. The movie sequence changes don't have conventional dissolves, but will instead jump back and forth between angles and scenarios to keep "been there, done that" players from getting bored. The angles themselves are pretty good, and the dialogue during these sequences is excellent.

Coming this April, fighting fans and Samurai Champloo nuts alike will want to get sidetracked with Sidetracked. It looks like it's going to have just the right amount of combo oomph to carry it over the anime game slump, winning the hearts of gamers with great action and great storytelling.