Lone Wolf and Cub is the story of a former samurai turned assassin and his infant son as they travel the path of meifumadō , “the Road to Hell.” The epic fight scenes go hand in hand with historical detail and philosophical lessons. This manga has influenced everyone from Frank Miller to Quentin Tarantino and popularized the idea of the Ronin (the masterless samurai).

There have been 7 films, 2 television shows, and a futuristic sci-fi comic retelling. Yet here in the west, Lone Wolf and Cub has remained at best a cult hit. I was thinking how amazing a video game based on this series would be.

I was even going to write an article about how kick @#$ a game based on this would be. Then, like the good phony journalist that I am I started doing a little research and found someone had already made it. But it doesn’t exist.

Read on to learn more about the mythical Lone Wolf game and why it needs to be remade for XBLA.

The mythical game is called “Kodure Ookami” and was a japan only beat-em-up arcade release. It featured Ogami Itto, the titular assassin slashing through wave after wave of assassins while carrying his infant son on his back. Every once in awhile, you get a baby cart power up which enables you to mow enemies with a baby cart machine gun.

Where things get weird is there are no known instances of the game being owned (which means this game is so rare it almost doesn’t exist). Basically we have a side scrolling beat-em-up where you can get a baby cart machine gun.

I am no scientist but I am pretty sure that would have to go on the periodic table under kickassomium (its a rare earth metal). Any game that encourages babies to use guns would surely get the endorsement of the NRA, which means sales my friend, big sales.

This game needs to be remade for XBLA. It is perfect because it is old school awesome, and yet completely new since most people have never even heard of it. Take the old game, slap a fresh coat of HD paint on it so the buckets of blood look extra crisp, add a few achievements, and an unlockable version of the original and you are good to go. This needs to happen.

Come on Universe. I have been a good boy. I have eaten all my vegetables. So what if they were on a pizza? That still counts.

Or if the Universe truly loves me, someone will make a full on modern action game. They can take the art style of Lone Wolf and Cub and use that as the in game graphics. A hyper stylized literal moving manga of sword fights and blood. Think Afro Samurai done really well, and with the slightly dirtier and more raw Lone Wolf art style. You could still have the machine gun baby cart so the NRA will still love it.

Tags: 3rd Person, action, beat, Beat-em-up, Digitize This!, Lone Wolf and Cub, NRA, samurai

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