Afro Samurai

Overview

Afro Samurai follows the two main characters of Takashi Okazaki's original graphic novel of the same name; Afro and his companion Ninja Ninja. As a child, Afro witnessed his father getting slain by a man named Justice. Justice's goal was to get a hold of the Number One head band that was worn upon Afro's fathers brow. Once Justice obtained the Number One head band, he threw away the Number Two head band he previously wore. In the world of Afro Samurai, who ever wears the Number One head band is considered the strongest warrior in the world, with powers rivaling that of God, and

the only person who can challenge the Number One, is the Number Two. The problem with being number two however is that anyone in the world can challenge you in order to get your head band. Afro takes the Number Two band thrown away by Justice and vows to get revenge for the death of his father.

The game follows the story of the anime, but the developers got permission from Okazaki (who has compared the Afro Samurai universe to that of Western comic book heroes; key elements remain the same but the details vary by story and medium) to come up with new canon in order to fill a ny of the holes left by the anime. New battles, scenarios, and characters were envisioned, and Samuel L. Jackson, and all other main cast members have returned to give their voice talents to the game. The game uses an cel-shaded look that allows it to resemble the anime very closely even rendered in the third dimension.

Gameplay

Afro Samurai is a third person action adventure game that gives you control of Afro as you hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies in a number of beautifully poetic, and violent ways. Afro Samurai uses a dynamic death system where no death animation is scripted, instead the player can cut enemies in any number of ways, and the body parts of the enemies will detach in real time. So you can cut off a variety of things, from the standard head and arms, to the more intricate hands, nails and toes. You can enter focus mode while playing, when you do this the screen goes black and white, and you can aim at where you wanna slice your foe. You can also use a ton of combos as well, using the X button for a light attack and Y for a heavy attack.

Soundtrack

While RZA is credited as the music director, he was unable to fully contribute due to time constraints. Instead, he instructed the team on how he had went about scoring Afro Samurai and put them in contact with individuals able to assist them in delivering a sound similar to Anime. However, he did contribute a couple of tracks for use in the game.

Xbox 360 Game Installation

Afro Samurai requires 3.3 GB of space to be installed on a Xbox 360 HDD. There is a slight improvement to load times when the game is installed.

Useful Links

• Official Site (US)
• Official Site (EU)