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Become the best samurai warrior in the land by playing one of nine real-life samurai, including swordsmen Musashi Miyamoto, Jubei Yagyu, Sanako Chiba, and more. Each has character has their own storyline, attack techniques and upgradeable attributes (health, stamina, attack power and defense). Four modes of play offer a range of gameplay options, including the storyline advancing Main Mode; Mission Mode which challenges players to complete 10 missions within a specific time frame; Combat Mode that features two-player, head-to-head battles; and Xbox Live Leaderboard where players compete for new equipment and the best ranking against other Xbox Live gamers by pitting AI profiles against each other.

Genre: Fighting Adventure

Publisher: Majesco

Developer: Genki

Online Play: 2 Versus

Local Play: 2 Versus

September 13, 2007 –
I really like swords. Who doesn’t, really? Videogames with swords, movies with swords, books about swords…. Yes, before today, I found it difficult to imagine that anything to do with swordplay could possibly be terrible. Before today. In a bold and nearly successful attempt to crush my love of swordplay, Genki and Majesco have crafted Kengo: Legend of the 9, a game that seems to go out of its way to make impaling and illegal dissecting as mind-numbingly boring as possible.

Combat in Kengo primarily consists of stringing attacks together into combos. Experience earned in every level can be used to purchase new moves–if players don’t use all experience points earned in Level X, those experience points are permanently lost–that sometimes look cool, but always feel stiff and unwieldy in execution. Players needn’t bother learning too many fancy moves due to Kengo’s A.I. patterns being almost as difficult to memorize as those of a dead cat. Most mobs will simply rush forward to surround the player, then just stand around, content to sometimes block, but most of the time content to take a sword thrust through the gut. Each character has three different stances that can be switched on the fly, but that, too, is irrelevant. Actual strategy need not apply here.

In instances where enemies decide that it might be worthwhile to attack, Kengo’s usually simplistic control scheme begins to crumble. Maneuvering the camera is left entirely up to the player, which is hard to do when attempting to both attack and block incoming attacks. Because the camera doesn’t adjust itself when necessary, players will sometimes receive an up-close view of their character while enemies attack off-screen from all sides. This problem also occurs when fighting close to buildings. An in-depth inspection of the side of a shack is the last thing I need when getting stabbed and sliced. Should players attempt to strike an enemy at the same time they’re being attacked, their tactic will almost always be overridden, and in many instances, the player’s sword will pass right through the enemy’s character model.

Environment kills, which is Kengo’s attempt to allow players the ability to quickly end almost any fight, are entertaining to observe, but sometimes not so easy to perform. Players must decrease their opponents’ stamina bars by approaching an enemy, pressing and holding X, then guiding the helpless sap to an area such as a wall. Releasing and then quickly pressing X will drain a good portion of the enemy’s stamina, with complete drainage signified by the enemy’s arrow indicator turning from yellow to orange. Pressing Y or B at this moment will perform an environment kill.

Stab an opponent pinned against a building, slice them in two next to certain objects that will also split in half from the strength of the player’s blow, send them flying over barriers, watch as they attempt to stab the player, miss, and catch their sword in something, struggling with it before the player cuts them down…. There are different animations depending on where the player places the enemy, and environment kills thankfully provide a quick way to get through the throngs of mindless grunts that make up every level’s bad guy population.

Retracting from the enjoyment gleaned from environment kills is, yet again, the game’s control structure. Steering opponents is bafflingly impossible at times, as the avatar will sometimes head to the right when directed to go straight, or straight when instructed to go backward. The formula seems to boil down to, “After receiving the desired direction, A, send player in either X, Y, or Z.” Sorry to recall bad memories from Algebra class, but no high school exam could possibly have been as horrific as the “control” players will have over their samurai.

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