REVIEW : Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time (PS4)

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REVIEW : Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time (PS4)

REVIEW : Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time (PS4)

It was the year 2017 when US viewers had to say goodbye to Samurai Jack, one of the spearheads – in terms of quality – of the entire Cartoon Network small screen production. 

created by Soleil and published by Adult Swim Games, the title gives the style, situations and characters acknowledged by fans of the show to the needs of an action game with a very common playful setting, which does not appear to aim at anything other than a mild one. celebration of the brand. With all that goes with it.

REVIEW : Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time (PS4)

Anyone who remembers the original work should know that you can’t talk about Samurai Jack without bringing up Aku, his grinning demonic nemesis. And in fact Battle Through Time, on a story level, does nothing but carrying on the bitter rivalry between the two, creating a scripted plot to lead our hero – as usual – between the folds of space and time.

It must be said that if the videogame story can be said to be unprecedented, it is also true that the nine stages of the single-player campaign aim more than anything else to re-read and reshuffle some of the events already seen, specifically, during the last TV season. However, we are sure that the admirers of the warrior with the magic sword will rejoice in being tossed from one world to another of the reference universe, between locations with a futuristic-fantasy glance and landscapes of an ancestral past. Places where, moreover, the faithful will be able to easily recognize a lot of familiar faces, from the moustachioed Scot to the dog-explorer Sir Rotchild, passing through a large group of henchmen, robot monsters, alien races and charismatic end-of-the-scene villains. Among other things, a small gem, the tone of the talking characters benefits from the identical voices of the cartoon.

The pivot of Samurai Jack’s gameplay is obviously the combat system, based on a very classic set of moves that range from a couple of melee attacks to the use of tools to hit from a distance, passing through the actions of dodging, parrying and counterattacking. Along the way, our will also be capable to harden up and learn combos from the reasonably basic implementation, unlocking them and then improving them through a traditional skill tree that timidly winks at the avatar growth mechanisms typical of RPGs.

REVIEW : Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time (PS4)

As for weapons, however, the leader will always be able to count on his lethal blade of trust, and also on a good dose of spears, hammers, maces as well as bows, knives, ninja stars and pistols, all subject to wear but repairable at the friendly Sam-Moo-Thai, an NPC who also acts as a seller of various items. It should be noted that machines meant for ranged attacks do exorbitant damage, so much so that they beat down all fluttering rivals in one fell swoop, unlike melee tools, which are less efficient without real justification.

REVIEW : Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time (PS4)

Not to mention that even in terms of performance, on the standard PS4, the movie shows the side of some stumbling stones, losing some frames particularly in situations in which the action leads to get particularly excited. The visual sector is also of antique style, luckily, compensated by an artistic direction that is, after all, in line with the style of the cardboard of origin, even with the important distinction between a polygonal work in three dimensions and another centred on exquisitely two-dimensional drawings.

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review-samurai-jack-battle-through-time-ps4In short, the overall yield of Battle Through Time leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, more bitter than ever as here and there, in the course of the progression, the game also puts on the plate some genuinely fascinating ideas. For example, the moments of transit between one meeting and the next are often subjected to a change of perspective which, from the third dimension to free exploration, passes to a beautiful "scenographic" horizontal scrolling, that is, aimed at showing the settings in a long shot. and very long. Even the direction of some cut scenes reserves some small touches of class, including use of the split-screen such as that sported by the serial Samurai Jack. Precious drops of creativity poured, however, amid an arid experience on several fronts.

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