Score
Gameplay:	9
Graphics:	5
Sound:	9
FunFactor:	9
PlasmaFactor:	4
Overall:	7.2

Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked Review
August 14, 2006 by Christian Costa
Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked is a lot more enjoyable than I had anticipated. Through the years anime-based video games have not faired well financially or with quality. Yu-Gi-Oh and Dragonball Z can attest to this. They laid the groundwork for pieces of trash. Recently they have been getting a little better. Gundams, Inuyasha, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, etc have been getting better and better reviews. With Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked (recently shown on Cartoon Network, but downloaded by college students a year before hand) you take control of two samurais, one logical and follows the old way of sword style (Jin), the other totally nuts and uses break dancing as part of his attack style (Mugen). You accompany a young woman (Fuu) to find a samurai who smells of sunflowers and this is the basis of the video game. You kill many different bosses and types of enemies with a choice of these three characters. It sounds zany but it makes for a good video game.

Square, Square, Square, Square, TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE, Switch Track

Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked delivers in the hack-and-slash unending combo of games. Devil May Cry, Marvel vs. Capcom, etc cannot hold a candle to as many combo hits possible in this game. Imagine a samurai, of all people (not a ninja) getting over a 100-hit combo all mixed with 4 different styles of slashing, kicking, punching, and down right butt-kicking. Now try to remember the last time you went to a club and the DJ was playing that hot new mix of Hip-Hop and Techno. Yeah, that's Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked's score. Throw all of that together and you get a semi-fun and totally crazy game.

You buy new weapons with the money you collect from the bodies you have laid waste to. You also get to buy new tracks of music which allow totally new and harder combos. The "Tate" mode is where everything combines and it equals totally super-fun-happy-friend-together-time (that's how the Japanese say cool apparently). Once you hit over 100 with your combo the "Tate" mode ensues and you get to hack and slash over 100 enemies, all of which drop a lot of money and items. That was my favorite part of the game, I got to hack and slash nonstop until I realized I would be getting carpal tunnel syndrome soon.

Japan, You Lose

I never thought I would see the day when a game like this would get its tail kicked to an American game because of graphics. Really it is sad. The graphics are all right; nothing special, in fact the looks of this game should be on a PSP. The moves are executed as they should be but the problem is the background; the enemies that all look the same, the same lackluster ground texture, and shops that seem to be in 20 different spots but are all repetitive. It is evident that this title is on the PS2 because its huge array of memory from the combos, track sounds, and sheer awesome gameplay, but most definitely not for the graphics.

Hip-Hop FTW

Would it not be cool to have Kanye West fight along with you in the game? See him drop kick three enemies then break out into a song? HELL YEAH that would be awesome. You don't actually get to fight along Kanye or your other favorite Hip-Hop artists but you do get to listen to already famous tracks while you slap the hater trying to stab you. Don't like Hip-Hop? No problem. You can buy a new Euro club mix and stab people with glow sticks (figuratively). Too fast for you? Buy a slow drum and bass track to make sure your enemies feel the pain. Whatever your musical preference is to dispatch ninjas, you will never get tired. I personally like to listen to Radiohead or the Killers when I kill ninjas but unfortunately everyone likes something faster to bring the pain. The tracks to the game are top notch and when you run, kill, eat, sit, etc it never overlaps the music.

Samurais > Ninjas

Most games have you kill as a ninja. People like to sneak around and use whiney small swords and throw crap from yards and yards away. That's not fun! Samurais get in people's faces and are like "Yeah I'm better than you, wanna fight about it? OK HYGAH" Samurais are just manlier and do the job quickly instead of sneaking around. In, out, stab, repeat, etc. That's the basis of all things, kids. Just repeat "in, out, stab, repeat, etc" and you'll make it to the top of the food chain, top of your job, top of anything except finding a steady girlfriend. Just combo'ing it up as a samurai, nothing is cooler. They could have made this game based on a Disney movie but as long as I got to combo and be a samurai, I wouldn't care. Buy this game if you like to try to beat my 227 combo. I guarantee you can't. One of the most fun games Tim has sent me in a while.

No Comment

The PlasmaFactor definition is something that no other game has done before; something original. This game made me gag at the storyline. That's right gag, as in have a vomit reflex. It was atrocious. Correction: it is the epitome of atrocious. You're on a quest to find a samurai who smells like sunflower seeds. That's fine, that's part of the story in the show. But when you add warring clans, a fascist government, and witchcraft things get totally messed up. I couldn't follow it. A witch put some type of snake in me, some clan member helped me, I start fighting ninjas and I end up helping a different clan or something? I put the game down for a good 3 days just so my head wouldn't hurt anymore. This game has by far the worst storyline of any Japanese anime-based games and I play A LOT of Japanese games. But hey it gets the PlasmaFactor award because no game has made me have a vomit reflex.

 

You Can't Beat My Combo

Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked is a wholesome, overall well-rated, anime to videogame title. You get to take on the lives of your favorite anime characters and experience the fast paced hack-and-slash moments as they do. No matter how bad the story is you will not get bored of this game. If you love challenges, pick up this game and try to beat my combo.