First Samurai

My mind is settled. The First Samurai offers great Arcade-Action and many nice innovations. The beautiful visual appearance, the mixture between moving, fighting, exploring and puzzling and last but not least, the well-balanced yet diverse level design result in many hours of game entertainment! Vivid Image have done an amazing job and even for today’s standards The First Samurai is a very recommendable challenge to all fans of this genre.

From the moment First Samurai explodes onto your Amiga you know that you're in for something very special. The graphics catch your eye immediately and the sound complements the cosmetics perfectly. The oriental tunes are varied while the digitised chorus of Hallelujah and similar sounding voices are beyond adequate description. Most importantly though, the gameplay is first class with just the right blend of ingredients. It's seemingly impossible to find fault with what is quite obviously an outstanding programming achievement.

The First Samurai is not going to hold your attention longer than a strategy game. However, it may well do surprisingly well against the other arcade adventures in your collection, largely thanks to the blend of action and adventure. Neither side has been skimped on, so the player gets an imediately gratifying opportunity to crack some skulls before being gently lead into the adventuring side. The most serious criticism of Samurai is that owing to the occasionally less than gripping nature of the puzzles, and the size of the levels (some of which are H-U-G-E) the player may find himself slightly frustrated by the amount of ground he has to cover while collecting the various nick-nacks necessary to leave the level.

The sound is above average for ST sound chip stuff – it manages to combine a wide number of different noises for the effects and you even get snatches of tunes every now and then. Maybe it is an indication of the market not being worth the effort, but it seems as though it goes nowhere near as far towards stretching the machine as other formats did. Despite these gripes, the gameplay remains, and a fine amount of gameplay it is. Highly addictive and excellent fun, it's style is based around action and adventure with a bit of exploration checked in to break the monotony. You might find a better looking or a better sounding game you you'll be hard pushed to find one that's more enjoyable.

Nicht so flott und schnell wie Turrican II, dafür detaillierter und hervorragend animiert: Der Vorzeige-Samurai springt mit dem Schwert durch die anspruchsvollen Levels und räumt herrlich geschmackvoll mit den Bösewichtern auf. First Samurai ist ein klasse Jump'n'Run mit Adventure-Touch, von dem man erst wieder abläßt, wenn es langsam wieder Tag wird. Zwar reagiert der Held etwas behäbig auf die Joystick-Kommandos, doch bügeln Grafik und Soundeffekte das wieder aus. Die abwechslungsreiche Mischung aus Baller-, Prügel- und Taktikspiel fordert viel Geschick, um alle Levels durchzustehen. First Samurai ist nicht nur für Hardcore-Ninjas, sondern für Geschicklichkeitsfans jeder Art ein lohnenswerter Kauf.

Muzyka i efekty dźwiękowe są zrobione dość dobrze. Ładnie zrobiono grafikę, jednak głównym asem tej gry jest bardzo dokładna, płynna animacja. Autorzy nie zapomnieli nawet o efekcie rozmywania się przedmiotów w czasie szybkiego poruszania.

Any computer games that are ported over to console should make the most of the better machine. Otherwise, it's all a big waste of time - as demonstrated here...

It is weird, First Samurai is obviously one of those computer games that has tried desperately to be like a console game - with simple platforms and a slick and fast-moving main character - but now that it has finally made it onto the SNES it looks like a fish out of water. First Samurai really does feel like an old Spectrum game, which was no bad thing - five years ago.