From Ghost in the Shell to Yu-Gi-Oh!, the majority of anime-license-based video games tend to go for the lowest common denominator. As if the core audiences of these games have never played a real shooter, fighting game, role-playing game, or any other borrowed genre before, anime games generally seem to dumb down their mechanics to the point of banality and attempt to make up for it by including various bits of esoteric fan service that nobody who hasn't watched every single installment of said anime will give a flip about. Namco Bandai's Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked isn't completely above such pandering. A hack-and-slash action game based on the popular anime series that combines feudal Japan and hip-hop culture in ways that would make even the Wu-Tang Clan scratch their collective heads, Sidetracked doesn't do anything special on the gameplay front. It's basically a button masher that sends waves of dim-witted enemies at you for long stretches at a time and occasionally throws in some challenging boss fights and oddball minigames for good measure. But unlike most other games that take name and inspiration from anime, Samurai Champloo has appeal outside of its core audience. The dialogue, story, and style of the game are all delivered well enough to appeal to those unfamiliar with the series, and there's something oddly compelling about the game's brand of action, even if it is completely repetitive.
Here, two feudal-era Japanese fellows discuss the merits of post-Edo downtempo trip-hop versus high energy electro crash inside a record store. Welcome to the wonderful world of Samurai Champloo.
Samurai Champloo follows the continuing adventures of Mugen, Jin, and Fuu. For those who haven't been keeping up with the anime's storyline, the gist is that Mugen and Jin are unemployed swordsmen who are rescued from execution by a bubbly girl named Fuu. Fuu is on the hunt for "the samurai who smells of sunflowers," so Mugen and Jin grudgingly repay their debt to her by following her on her journey and protecting her as best they can. The trio is a comically mismatched group--Jin is more the cerebral type, whereas Mugen plays the brash and generally unreasonable role. In fact, the only thing any of the three have in common is their almost unhealthy obsession with food. The game's subtitle, Sidetracked, refers to the plot's nature as sort of a side story for the original anime series. In the game, Mugen, Jin, and Fuu settle into a town for a short rest, only to find themselves wrapped up in a conflict of mythological proportions between rival clans, European interlopers, and mystical prophecies.
The story veers wildly while still managing to maintain a degree of coherence with the overall plot. You play the game as both Jin and Mugen separately, and their stories are almost totally different. Some of the locations recycle, but the setups and boss fights are never the same. The common thread is that both characters are frequently getting into trouble with