I'm a fan of samurai games as well as fighting games. Onimusha Blade Warrior is sort of like Super Smash Brothers with sharp swords.

While some might think of this as a bad thing, I thought it was a brilliant idea. Instead of bouncing around with Yoshi and Link and other cartoon characters, I get to have the fast paced multiplayer fun of the Super Smash Brothers gameplay, but with more rich, robust characters. You get to build up experience and weapons as you go, choosing from a wide range of characters. You can be a young woman, a zombie, a fat old man, or many other characters in between.

There are five levels of difficulty, so even if you get through the entire game on easy you still have quite a lot of challenge ahead of you. There is a full tutorial to get you going, and then quick play as well as campaign play. You can even bring your fully developed campaign charcters into multiplay and see how they stack up against your friends!

There are nice cut scenes that move the story along, and good graphics in general. I do have to say that I had several issues with the control of the characters. Up lets you jump up to higher levels, but down just lets you squat in place. Other keys seemed very un-intuitive at first. But like all games, the more you play it, the more you get used to what the game requires of you.

You can unlock new backgrounds, characters and weapons as you go, and there's a fun variety to work with. This isn't a complex, strategic game like Halo or Splinter Cell, but it definitely is a fun way to blow through a couple of hours of free time with friends.

Recommended!

Buy Onimusha Blade Warrior from Amazon.com