Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked
Score: 75% ESRB: Teen Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Games America, Inc. Developer: BANDAI NAMCO Games America, Inc. Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Action
Graphics & Sound: It’s always interesting to see how a popular action-based anime is made into a game. With different shows having different “rules” about how people can fight, it’s always fun to watch how that world’s unique fighting laws are translated into gameplay. Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked takes the hip-hop soundtrack that makes the show unique and transforms it into a 3D action game where combat revolves around hip-hop themes and soundtracks. Sidetracked looks just like typical anime adaptations tend to. The characters, environments, and especially the effects, are all highly stylized. Many recent anime-based games go the route of cel shading, for obvious reasons. Sidetracked incorporates some minor cel shading into it’s look, but nothing as extreme as say, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Its hip-hop soundtrack is one of Samurai Champloo’s most unique traits. This particular trait has been heavily incorporated into the game. Every menu, cut-scene and game action is accompanied by a hip-hop or hip-hop inspired sound. You’ll be changing music on the fly during combat as part of the game’s fighting system.
Gameplay: Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked follows the story of the anime. Two samurai warriors, the quiet and traditional Jin and the brash and wild Mugen, accompany the young woman Fuu on her quest to find the warrior that smells of sunflowers. Sidetracked, like its name suggests, is a sort of side story to the series. Conned into boarding a ship offering free food, the trio finds themselves stuck in the northern province of Ezo. And thus the adventures of Sidetracked begin. Players can purchase new weapons in towns, as well as supplementary items to help them in battle. In keeping with the spirit and humor of the show, there are also two amusing mini-games you can participate in, power-eating and beetle-wrestling. After you have completed the game once with either Jin or Mugen, a 2-player Deathmatch mode is unlocked.
Difficulty: As with most action games, you’ll run into some hairy moments in Sidetracked that may require a little diligence to get through. The game does an excellent job of weaning you into the game’s combat systems and you typically won’t run into terribly difficult challenges until the appropriate time. The difficulty curve is excellent, but you’ll have to work for your supper by the end.
Game Mechanics: Once you strip away all the hip-hop flash and unique style elements, Sidetracked is a pretty basic third person action game, though with some interesting gameplay elements for players who can perform well. The basics of combat involve performing series of combos based on a particular musical track. You can even switch tracks in the middle of a combo. New tracks can be purchased at shops, diversifying your repertoire. The really interesting stuff comes into play with Sidetracked's secondary combat elements. Things like counter-attacking based on pressing the specific button flashed on the screen and entering into “Hyper Mode”, slashing through baddies incredibly fast. If you can perform well enough in Hyper Mode, you can enter Trance Mode where the game shifts into silhouette and you can begin destroying huge groups of enemies one at a time. Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked doesn’t break any new ground in the realm of 3D action games, but if you’re a fan of the show or it’s particular style you might enjoy being Sidetracked.
-Alucard, GameVortex Communications AKA Stephen Triche
Alien Flux Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires