The guys who did Killer7 have brought us all a Samurai Champloo game. And it is good albeit basic.
Anyway, square and triangle do most of your fighting and you can follow a combo tree diagram on the top of the screen to try out what kinda moves you can do, but you're done experimenting by the time you've switched to your other selected LP and back. You'll hear the same beats constantly and that does indeed suck after a while, so it ain't getting high marks on sound.
However, with all the simple Devil Kings cut and run stuff, there's also some truly weird things... like an eating contest for prizes, which plays like the tates you can perform on certain enemies once your Danceman's tension meter is full - mashing buttons like you've never mashed buttons before unless you've played Rising Zan... Samurai Gunman... Johnny no more... Whenever you successfully get 100 slashes in tate mode, you're treated to trance mode. In trance mode, you slash 100 enemies without getting hit more than thrice to a blaring techno rave track... Then there's the dueling beetles. You bet money on a beetle to fight a masta killa beetle named Buraiden but you can't control the fight... you just watch and see what happens. If you win, your enemy's voice starts screaming. "What have you done!?" ...I love this game.
In all, if you like Samurai Champloo, you'll most likely like the story in this game. It's kind of like a mini-arc placed in the middle of the series for you to enjoy, another tale in the Champloo universe. Whether it's canon or not, it's cool storytelling and some straight up interesting things go on. The game's voice acting is good and the dialogue is pretty funny. So, if you get past the bland action, there's good episode-worthy story and acting, and even some pretty weird stuff for you to check out. It might not be worth a buy, depending on how much you love the series or how much faith you put in Grasshopper, but you should rent this game out and see how you like it. And once it gets cheaper, why not, right?