Samurai Jack is one of those cartoons that people my age look back on with nostalgia. After its initial run from 2001 to 2003, the show was revived for a fifth season in 2017, providing a definitive conclusion to the series. Now, Soleil and Adult Swim Games have teamed up for Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time. The title is a surprisingly solid 3D hack-and-slash game that provides a fun, if familiar, experience.
The game’s level design involves the player going through time to revisit some of the iconic settings and time periods throughout the cartoon’s run. Each setting and time period is a separate level, and within them are areas where players can do some light exploring for various items while also going through battle sequences. In these levels, players will encounter beloved characters throughout the series that Jack can interact with.
The title’s battle system consists of transitioning between light attacks and strong attacks to pull off combos with Jack’s weapons. In addition to his iconic sword, he also has access to several other weapon types, including clubs, spears, and even guns. The guns are a part of Jack’s ranged arsenal which consists of other quick draw weapons like kunai. There’s a surprising amount of variety in the types of attacks Jack can utilize and it helps keep the gameplay fresh.
Pickups range from Gold, Spirit Fire, Bushido Spirit Points, and more. Gold is exchanged for items, weapons, and upgrades. Spirit Fire is essentially this game’s version of skill points; accumulate them throughout the game to grant Jack new skills and abilities. Bushido Spirit Points are needed in addition to Spirit Fire for higher tier unlocks.
After completing each level, the game will grade you depending on how well you did and takes into consideration factors such as whether or not items were exhausted or if continues were used. Of course, the better your grade, the more reward you receive.
Overall, the game’s design is very similar to that of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and old school God of War. It’s also quite pleasant to see Soleil stick to this type of game design, as opposed to going for an open world like Sony Santa Monica did.
The game offers several different difficulty modes, and I can definitely see players replaying levels to achieve as high of a score as they can considering some of the bosses can be somewhat challenging. After beating the game once, missions become available, which consist of a variety of enemy and boss rushes.
The Samurai Jack TV show has been lauded for its beautiful 2D animation. While Soleil did a great job translating the characters into 3D models for the game, it feels like some of that unique visual style was lost during that transition. There were a few cutscenes presented in-game that felt flat and lacked punch, that I imagined otherwise would have looked great on TV if it employed the show’s animation. Still, the music and voice acting are superb, fitting perfectly with the spirit and tone of the Samurai Jack property.
On the Nintendo Switch in particular, the game also suffers from framerate problems whenever too many enemies show up on screen. Besides that, the game plays well in both docked and handheld mode.
Chronologically, the game takes place during the penultimate episode of the show’s final season. This can be seen both positively and negatively. Players don’t worry about having to have watched all episodes of the TV show prior to playing the game, as the game is a self-contained story. On the flip side, the experience is even more enjoyable if you’re already familiar with the characters and aware of what has transpired up until this point.
This presents a problem as people can easily watch the show without ever playing the game, but the game itself doesn’t necessarily add anything new to the show’s canon. It helps keep the established canon intact, but it would have been nice to see Soleil take a bigger risk with the game’s narrative.
The Verdict
The caveat for Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is that it’s a game for those who are already fans of the show. Sure, you can still enjoy the game even without seeing the show, but veterans will appreciate the most out of. The settings and characters are presented assuming that you already know the context and backstories surrounding them. It’s usual to be wary of games based on licensed properties, as historically they tend to be subpar quality churned out for a quick buck. However, Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is unexpectedly a fun time.
