Fashionably Late Review: Onechanbara (Xbox 360)
We all have those games that we miss the first time around. With the busy release schedule of modern gaming, no one has time to play everything. That is why we at WingDamage present to you “Fashionably Late Reviews“. This is our series on games from the current generation of consoles that we may have missed on their initial release, but have gone back to experience now.
Sometimes, when I’m hanging out in Gamer Time, I come across the most ridiculous looking/sounding games I’ve ever heard of. Enter “Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad”.
It goes without saying that this game was designed with a young, male demographic in mind. Even if you were to look past the name, the translation of which is basically “sword fighting big sister”, and the cover art, you’d still have the back of the box to deal with. Here it explains that this game features “Sexy Samurai Sisters”, “Nonstop combat and swordplay” and a “dress-up mode”. Yeah, you read that right.
The game is a pretty simple hack-and-slash where hordes and hordes of zombies pop out of the ground for you to dispatch with the aforementioned samurai swords. The controls are fairly basic. You have your regular attack, a kick, and a miscellaneous. Depending on the character and the stance, this can be either a projectile, a quick run, or a different, slightly more powerful attack.
Since you are fighting off hundreds of zombies, there is one major problem that most games overlook. All that blood has to go somewhere, right? Don’t worry, D3 has thought of that. There is a meter right next to your health that lets you know when your sword has too much blood on it to do any more killing. You have to tap the left bumper to get your character to clean off those blades.
The main characters also fly into a rage mode when they have too much zombie goo on them. This greatly increases your speed and strength at the cost of your health, which then slowly starts to drain. You can use items or find special statues that will cure you of your rage. I guess art is good for the soul.
One feature that I found pretty neat is the ability to swap characters on the fly. If you are playing single player, you can simply tap the R-trigger to do so. Anna, the gun wielding, yet still scantily clad, police woman is a great secondary character to stick with. She has infinite ammo and can keep her distance.
The game is not great by any stretch of the imagination. However, I did find myself having more fun with it than expected. It may not have any long term re-play value, but if you are looking for some mindless zombie-slaying fun, this might be the game for you. Probably as a rental. But parents, as always, look at the ratings on the back of the boxes. They are there for a reason.
Tags: Beat-em-up, Bikini Samurai Squad, D3, Fashionably Late Reviews, Hack and Slash, Onechanbara, Simple 2000 Series, Xbox 360, Zombies
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Jesse "Main Finger" Gregory says:It’s looks like a high budget triple A title to me
March 18th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Dave "shaolinjesus" Corvin says:Check out the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdY7im7DEFI
March 18th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
MrColinP says:If someone had come to me before this came out with the concept of “girl wearing a bikini and a cowboy hat riding a motorcycle holding a katana surrounded by zombies” I would have dropped everything and made a comic book about it immediately. For real.
It bears noting that I have actually seen the trailer for the film long before this article was posted. Was the game based on the film or the film based on the game?
March 18th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Jonah "spambot" Gregory says:The film is based on the game. I find it funny that they start the movie trailer with game footage, just in case people forgot it was a game franchise.
The 360 version is actually the third game in the series (unless there are more I don’t know about). The first was on PS2, the second on Wii, and the third on 360. Oddly enough, the Wii and 360 versions came out the same day in the states.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Jesse "Main Finger" Gregory says:that movie looks at LEAST as high budget as the game