Genji: Days of the Blade (PS3)

In Genji you get to play as four characters each with their own weapons, combs and techniques. But is the game any good?

Yoshitsune is an all round character, average attack and defence but offers some very quick attacks with his two swords. He can be very useful especially when fighting one to one with an enemy, but can struggle when fighting larger groups of enemies.

Benki the strong man he's there when a lot of enemies need taking care of with his huge oversized club he can easily clear the way for everyone else. Very strong and offers high defence but because he is so big and slow he's just a walking target and can sometimes struggle when it comes to bigger enemies.

Shizuka is very weak but can offer some good combs hitting allot of enemies at one time some of her weapons at the end of a combo stick a sort off energy bomb to the enemy which when explodes not only knocks down that enemy but those close around it. She can be quite useful at times but takes twice… more »

In Genji you get to play as four characters each with their own weapons, combs and techniques. But is the game any good?

Yoshitsune is an all round character, average attack and defence but offers some very quick attacks with his two swords. He can be very useful especially when fighting one to one with an enemy, but can struggle when fighting larger groups of enemies.

Benki the strong man he's there when a lot of enemies need taking care of with his huge oversized club he can easily clear the way for everyone else. Very strong and offers high defence but because he is so big and slow he's just a walking target and can sometimes struggle when it comes to bigger enemies.

Shizuka is very weak but can offer some good combs hitting allot of enemies at one time some of her weapons at the end of a combo stick a sort off energy bomb to the enemy which when explodes not only knocks down that enemy but those close around it. She can be quite useful at times but takes twice as long to kill enemies as the other characters

Buson. This guy uses a staff and again is a all round character with average attack and defence but this guy is a lot harder to control and get used to from the other characters he offers some seem good attacks at the time but can get stuck in some combos leaving him wide open for attacks. Good for one to one fighting but not much else really. The most irritating character out of the 4 I found.

Knowing these characters strengths and weakness are the key to surviving the game as you can switch between characters at the touch of a button anytime within the game. This option can make for some fast paced action and it also means the option is there if you don't want to be stuck with the same character throughout the game and if a character is running low on health you can swap between characters until you get a chance to heal. However don't be thrown by thinking you can do this throughout the whole game, for starters you have to get the characters to meet up at the beginning of the game and then throughout the game characters are always getting split up (mainly in pairs) but this means if you don't like a certain character then you will have to just grin and bear them as you will no doubt be stuck paying as them somewhere down the line.

Each character can also use a special technique (once your gauge is full) that allows you to slow down time and attack all enemies on screen one at a time by following a sequence of buttons. This can be a lifesaver when available as you can kill most enemies within a few hit, and weaken the stronger enemies dramatically but depending how many enemies you're attacking can make the experience drag on a bit.

The major problem with the game is it camera angle which make the game so frustrating and annoying making some jumps very hard to judge, some enemies you won't be aware are there until they are on top of you. Another problem with the game is fighting the same enemies over and over can make the game repetitive even with the four characters and their own and new weapons and combos they unlock as they progress through the game.

The graphics for the backgrounds in the game are quite nice but the characters are let down they sort of stand out from the backgrounds detail with themselves just being simple, colourful, plain models with very little detail.

Genji is a straight forward hack n slash button bashing sorta game with very little thinking to be done. The story is good and there is plenty of fun action to be had but with the games problems many people will just give up on it way before the end. An average score for a average game.

This could and should have been brilliant. Think about it, it's set in a feudal Japan type era, you get to run around with a samurai sword (plus other weapons) and hack demons to bits. You have a choice of characters who have very different attributes and weapons, plus you can change between them at the press of a button during the game. You've also got RPG elements where you collect various objects to improve your weapons, health etc. And personally I think the graphics are good for the style they are in (though probably not pushing the PS3 anywhere near it's limits). So far so good you might think, but then we come to the thing that completely destroys the game. The camera angle. You see it's fixed, and if it was fixed directly behind your character that would be ok, but it isn't. Each scene you go into it's in different directions and most of the time completely useless, you can't see what's going on around you. In one bit near the beginning you have control of the female… more »

This could and should have been brilliant. Think about it, it's set in a feudal Japan type era, you get to run around with a samurai sword (plus other weapons) and hack demons to bits. You have a choice of characters who have very different attributes and weapons, plus you can change between them at the press of a button during the game. You've also got RPG elements where you collect various objects to improve your weapons, health etc. And personally I think the graphics are good for the style they are in (though probably not pushing the PS3 anywhere near it's limits). So far so good you might think, but then we come to the thing that completely destroys the game. The camera angle. You see it's fixed, and if it was fixed directly behind your character that would be ok, but it isn't. Each scene you go into it's in different directions and most of the time completely useless, you can't see what's going on around you. In one bit near the beginning you have control of the female character and you have to use her weapon as a sort of grappling hook to bridge a gap. You have to aim at a stone pedestal thing across the gap which then winches you across. But the camera is behind and to the side so it makes it ridiculously frustrating to hit the object. This is completely unforgivable for any next gen game. You should be able to just flick to first person mode or be able to move the camera view around to aim. But you can't and it ruins the game so I cannot recommend it even a little (unless you enjoy being frustrated to the point of launching your sixaxis across the room).

The price of £19.99 is very reasonable for a PS3 game but look what you could get instead.

1) Super Stardust HD. Probably the best downloadable game I have ever played. At points there is a ridiculous amount of things on screen at once (100's I would say) and it gets so frantic you're convinced you're going to die at any moment, but you manage to fight through it and it's fantastic. I remember Super Stardust from my Amiga CD32 days (anybody else have one of these?), it was good then, it's brilliant now.

Plus

2) Tekken 5. Well it's Tekken, if you're a Playstation owner you have to have Tekken (and this is a good no-frills fill in until Tekken 6 comes out).

Plus

3) flOw. Not technically a game but it shows that the motion sensing will work and was a good idea to include. And it's a very relaxing experience after playing Super Stardust HD.

We've still only spent around £15 so that leaves us with enough money to buy a pint and a couple of lottery tickets!

So the choice is yours, do you want a game that will frustrate the hell out of you or 3 excellent PS3 experiences, some booze and the possibility of becoming a millionaire? Not a difficult choice is it?