PlayStation 2

Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku

Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku is an action-platformer based on a television show. It was picked up from a previous publisher that never brought it to market. And it's a colorful, cartoony game seemingly aimed at a pre-teen audience. As any long-suffering gamer can tell you, these are all troublesome signs. But worry not, Samurai Jack is a surprisingly solid, entertaining, and satisfying session of animated action.

I have never really been a huge fane of the Cartoon Network. My heart is on watching Nickelodeon and Spongebob Squarepants. And I have only seen Samurai Jack only a handful of times. My daughter watches the show from time to time as well, and like myself I don't think she really got it either (the show). I am not really a huge cartoon fan. I can watch the stuff but after about 30-45 minutes of the stuff I have to change it to something else (well, with the exception of The Simpsons). With that being said, Samurai Jack finally makes his way to a home console. This time around I got to review the Playstation 2 version of Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku.

Je ne sais pas si c'est une bonne idée mais je ne peux m'empêcher d'effectuer la comparaison entre Samurai Jack et Batman Vengeance. Malgré une esthétique fidèle, les deux softs ne parviennent pas à retranscrire l'esprit de la série dont ils sont inspirés, et accusent des faiblesses de gameplay qui rebuteront les fans du dessin animé. Du coup, on ne conseillera le titre de Sega qu'aux jeunes joueurs curieux de prolonger leur série préférée sur leur console de jeux.

Overall, The Shadow of Aku comes across as an amazingly generic action title. It's a shame, as Samurai Jack is easily one of the most unique cartoons on the air today, so this could have been so much more.

Cult cartoons often rely on slick animation, furious action, or offbeat humor to power their way into the minds of geeks everywhere. The spectacular Samurai Jack, part of Cartoon Network’s excellent lineup of original programming, deftly uses a combination of all three to defy genre and keep fans consistently enthralled. The show follows (you guessed it) Samurai Jack, a hearty warrior trained in the ancient arts to defeat the evil shape-shifting demon Aku. Aku banishes Jack to a strange future world under Aku’s control via a time portal, and Jack must somehow find a way back to his time and defeat Aku.

Shadow of Aku is generic in the extreme. While it's hard to recommend it to people that actually play games, I would usually say that most licensed games are worth a look if you're a fan of the series. Shadow of Aku is perhaps even worse to be played as a fan because its faults are even more glaring. If you're curious to see what it's all about, give it a rental, but the six hours of mediocre gameplay and few unlockables (background art, sketches, and character models) don't justify a purchase -- even if you are a die hard fanatic.

The only remarkable thing about Samurai Jack is how utterly unremarkable it is, and that's certainly not a good reason to play this game.

Every single one of the four points I'm giving this game is for the animations seen in sakai mode. Sakai, apparently, makes time slow down and allows Jack to execute some really nice kung fu-inspired moves. But to be kind, the rest of Samurai Jack's latest outing is less than inspiring.

If ever there was a sure-fire, can't-miss license ripe for a video game adaptation, it would have to be Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack. Boasting some of the most stylish animation seen since the heyday of Max Fleischer Studios, each episode of Samurai Jack finds the stranger-in-a-strange land swordsman searching for a way to get back to the past and defeat Aku, the shape-shifting master of darkness who has conquered the future. Cinematic production values, anime-influenced action sequences, and a razor-sharp sense of humor have earned Samurai Jack the extensive fan following that it so richly deserves. How then is it possible that Adrenium Games' Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku could wind up as such a lifeless, monotonous, by-the-numbers game?