Geek Specs:

Introduction: I, Gandalf, have decided to adopt a rating scale of 0.0 - 10.0 as opposed to 0.0 - 5.0. This will consequently allow me more flexibility in my reviewing. And the first review to be done in this manner shall be..........Genma Onimusha!

Review: Granted Onimusha is hardly new, in fact it began it's life as a PSX game, which was polished up for the Playstation 2, and has now finally been refined for the Xbox. Unfortunately, it is still the same game as it predecessor, just with a new level, more difficulty, and some X-tras(get it, Xbox X-tras..ha..ha, ok maybe not). One of the new x-tras is a set of cool samurai armor known asthe Ogre Armor.

The story remains unchanged. It is a wild tale set in feudal Japan and revoles around actual historical events. The actual story is fictionalized of course, seeing as it involves demon hordes poised to conquer Japan, which results in a show-down with the king of demons himself. Silly yes, but it holds together well through-out the game. I found that because this game is on the the Xbox, the controls are disappointing. A d-pad is just no good for this kind of game anymore, especially the Xbox d-pad. In classic survival-horror style, your character moves forward-back-side-diagonal-side which sucks in heated battles when you are surrounded, which is more often now in Genma. Another downer was the prerendered environments. With todays graphics processing abilities on the Xbox, nothing short of real-time environments will do.

In the end the shear fun and hack/slash action overcome these obstacles. For the action is just that, Hack n' Slash samurai sword bonanza. You aquire three different swords in the game, plus a super secret bonus sword that is a bitch to get. Each sword has its own magic attack. Magic, which comes from absorbing souls from defeated demons into Samonosuke's magic gauntlet. Soul absorbing is a major function in the game; health, magic, and upgrade points come from absorbibg souls. The big addition to Genma is the green soul. The green soul, when five are absorbed, can be used to make you invincible for a short amount of time. If an enemy absorbs the soul, he is supposed to become more aggresive and harder to kill. In actuality he just burst into flames, only occasionaly does this become a problem. Last but not least is the wonderful soundtrack. It is throughout the game and ranges from haunting melodies to John Williams-esque anthems. The sountrack itself is a must buy.

Conclusion: Finally, Genma, complete with a hot ninja babe you get to play as when Samonouke is in trouble, is a very fun action game. I recommend it to any Xbox owner, and I would recommend trying out Onimusha: Warlords for PS2 if Xbox isn't your thing.

Ratings: (scale of 0.0 - 10.0)