First Impressions: Samurai Warriors Katana

February 5, 2008

The Wii is by and large still a very gimmicky machine to me. That said, I think we can all agree that the Wii’s gimmick-ocity (I’ve resorted to inventing words in this post) is in fact the reason the demand has outstripped supply for nearly 14 months in a row.

Gimmicky or not, I think some developers are falling into the trap of ruining very good concepts with very poor execution. Let’s take for example, the newest title in KOEI’s Warriors Franchise, Samurai Warriors Katana. As a big fan of the franchise, I couldn’t wait to see what Omega Force had done with the wii-mote and what kind of first person hack and slash adventure they had put together.

After sinking well over an hour into it this evening, I am just about ready to throw in the towel. The combat is maddeningly linear and the action is incredibly slow. Both of these things are the opposite of what Warriors titles are known for. Furthermore, the accuracy of pulling off anything more than a standard attack is bad enough that it’s barely worth attempting.

I’ll have a full write up for you on Samurai Warriors Katana very soon, but for now things are looking mighty grim.