Comic-Con 2008: Afro Samurai Hands-On

Just off the corner of Artist's Alley and Toy Grower's Cultyard sits the Namco Bandai booth at this year's Comic-Con. One of the comic-themed games it's showing off is Afro Samurai, a bloody and stylish brawler based on the manga of the same name. We braved the crowds to get some hands-on time with this brief demo. Although it was rather short and almost entirely lacking in story information, the demo paints an intriguing picture of what the final game will offer

The demo in question seems to be a tutorial level from the game. The demo starts off in what appears to be a peaceful nighttime village, but it's not long before sword-carrying thugs start trickling into the village. You begin with an introduction to the basics of combat. The X button will do a light attack and Y will go heavy. Both of these attacks are pulled off with Afro's samurai sword, but you can also throw a kick in there by hitting the B button. You can easily take out enemies in one-on-one confrontations using your basic light and heavy attacks, but when more begin to appear on your screen at once, you'll need to mix in a few advanced techniques.

One option is to go with some combos. Hitting either of the attack buttons three times consecutively will unleash basic combos, but you can also perform advanced combos by hitting light attack three times in a row followed by three heavy attacks and one held press of light attack once more. We found these moves more than a little tricky to pull off, but if done successfully, you can mow through a group of enemies with a flurry of sword slices that's capped off with a dramatic impaling at the end.

It's not until you're introduced to waves of ninja and the focus technique, though, that you develop a good appreciation for just how bloody the combat is in this cel-shaded vision of feudal Japan. Hitting L will slow down time, at which point you can hold down one of the attack buttons to land a supercharged sword attack on your hapless foes. X does a horizontal swipe while Y does a vertical swipe, but no matter which you go with, they're both exceedingly brutal. Depending on timing and where Afro's sword lands, you'll take off significant chunks of the enemy's body. Landing a "perfect slice" with the Y button will cleave your enemy clean in two, while a sloppier attack might just remove an arm. In typical anime fashion, the body parts stay together for a second before sliding away with a burst of blood.

The impressive thing is that there really doesn't seem to be any limited number of dismemberment animations. We chopped an assassin's head in half more times than we can remember, and the end result--varying degrees of symmetry in the leftover halves--seemed different each time. It's definitely not for the light of heart, but it helps to add some spark to the basic combat. What also might not be for the faint of heart is the familiar voice of Samuel L. Jackson playing the main character Afro. You'll hear plenty of Sam Jackson's signature usage of four letter words peppered throughout the game, including a point in the demo where Afro exclaims in grownup-language wonderment when Brother Six of the Inner Seven (one of the game's enemies) pops in from nowhere to impale a helpless individual on his wooden staff.

So even though the presentation of the game might put a few people off, it's undeniably slick. The cel-shaded characters look nice, and enemies shed limbs with gruesome panache. The odd contrast between the feudal Japanese setting and Sam Jackson cursing over a hip hop score also makes for a uniquely charming experience. In our hands-on experience, the combat tends to be on the simple side, but this was a tutorial level that only featured two types of enemies, so we would expect to see more variety later on in the game. At any rate, Afro Samurai is shaping up to be a fun brawler when it's released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 next year.