POSTED 30/12/10


SENGOKU BASARA: SAMURAI HEROES

Capcom
PS3 (also on Wii)

Japanese emo warriors leading choreographed Devo armies in frenetic battles to recolour Tetris pieces. That was our first impression of SBSH, and we weren’t under the influence of anything other than cough medicine, we swear occifer.

Upon actually playing this latest in Capcom’s very Dynasty Warriors-like Sengoku Basara series, something struck us. Those initial impressions essentially summed things up to a tee (also the shape of said Tetris pieces – spooky!)

It would be easy to refer you to our last Dynasty Warriors review and sod off back to the couch, however unlike Mike Patton or Lionel Richie we ain’t easy. What you’re looking at is a fighting game set in the annals of Japanese history that combines whiffs of strategy mechanics (weapons that level up, etc) with OTT mindless hack ‘n’ slash mayhem. Tonnes of it, mountains of it – shitloads even.

Now, we like a good horde mauling as much as the next possessor of opposable thumbs, and when you clock up combos of several hundred-plus kills and the superlatives start flying there is primal yayness. However, save for the occasional end of level boss who takes more than a few flicks of your own personal emo’s weapon to sayonara off, it’s essentially all you do. Obliterate horde – ooh, power-up – another horde, slash-shoot-stomp, overtaken area, rinse, repeat... lots.

You can buddy up, which is wise if you’ve one about as otherwise AI does your partnering, and it’s generally shitnificent – like hanging around scratching its arse whilst you get pummelled shitnificent.

Still, the corny voice acting is so gloriously mind-fucking that it’s almost worth the price of admission – almost. It’s like anime soapie on LSD, and breaks the horde monotony with regular ‘WTF?’ curveballs. But the odd curveball does not an awesome game make... erm, unless it’s baseball.

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