Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo

Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo

released on Sep 25, 1988

Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo

released on Sep 25, 1988

Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo is a computer game released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms in 1988, by the now-defunct label Firebird. The package artwork comes from the cover of the comic book Anything Goes #6. It was developed by Beam Software, published by Firebird, and distributed by Thunder Mountain. It is a one-player Beat 'em up game that comes on either a Cassette tape or Floppy disk (depending on the platform), and is played with a joystick. The game was released in the United States under the title Usagi Yojimbo as part of the Thunder Mountain Action Pack, Vol. 1. It was contained on Disk 1, Side 1 along with the games Great Escape, Paradroid, and (on Side 2) Implosion. The packaging for this version used artwork from the cover of Usagi Yojimbo Volume 1, # 17 along with images from the other games included in the set.


Released on

Genres


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

A rare action sidescroller that manages to slow things down and still be fun. The karma system is a thoughtful way of forcing the player to consider their actions which just blends well with a Samurai tale like this. The protagonist is a bit of a "cartoon with a 'tude" stereotype, but the serious samurai thing counterbalances it surprisingly well. This definitely feels like a breath of fresh air compared to its contemporaries. I do wish there was a bit more variety in the enemies or the combat though.

A game with surprisingly appealing graphics for the time, an open world, and some really cool mechanics like gambling and a karma system which must have been really rare back then, only held back by the fact that like most linear games on microcomputers at the time, you can beat it in less than three minutes, in this case by killing some guy just outside town.
I can't believe we seriously got NOTHING videogame-related about Usagi Yojimbo up until the new Shredder's Revenge DLC 35 years later.