The First Samurai

Developer: Vivid image	Graphics:
Publisher: Image Works	Sound:
Year: 1991	Difficulty:
Genre: Action/Platformer	Replay value:
Number of players: 1	My overall rating:	8/10

The First Samurai (wink to The Last Ninja game series), takes place in medieval China (at least initially). Armed with a magic sword, he must avenge the death of his master by killing an evil wizard. . . .

The story is beautifully illustrated by a long intro that immediately immerses you in the mood. Everything in this game is enchanting, from the fantasy style scenery to the monsters design, not to mention the quality of animation, music and sound effects. The only thing that gets annoying after some time is the samurai, who utters a wild shriek every time he waves his sword. . . .

Controls are intuitive. The various moves are easy to achieve, ditto about using items or secondary weapons. It is a pleasure to evolve in this dreamlike world, teeming with monsters and traps of all kinds. The action is sprinkled with little puzzles based on picking-up items and using them at the right places. Sometimes it takes a minimum of reflection, without ever turning into a headache, we know you hate that.

In terms of grievances, let's just say we regret the absence of a 2-player mode and the character' slowness, who can move only by walking.
We would have liked to gag him too, admittedly!
Finally, the game is rather long, without backup or passwords and weariness eventually shows up.

Places to download:
Amiga World
Insert Disk 2
Planet Emulation
The Game Archives
The Old Computer

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