Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked

The three wildly different takes on the main story should take around 15 or so hours to complete (including the cut scenes) and the ton of music tracks, weapons and items make for quite a bit of collecting.

Samurai Champloo is by no means perfect--the repetition bug nibbles away now and again and the characters lack subtle animation nuances such as walking--but for what it is, and more over what its fans expect, it smells pretty damn sweet. [Apr 2006, p.47]

Samurai Champloo is a game that’s definitely more flash than substance, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a shallow game.

The gameplay can get rather tiresome after a while, but Samurai Champloo's goofy sense of humor and stylish touches make it more than just your average button-masher.

The unique fighting styles of Jin and Mugen, combined with quick combos and awesome effects, create an experience that's as fun and exciting to play as it is to watch.

If you're a fan, rejoice and get this game, flaws and all.

The game, while sometimes bordering on repetitious fighting sequences, holds together as an entertaining and fresh game in the world of copy cat titles.

This is one of those games that while beatable on a weekend rental, is solid enough that the excess of strangeness means you'll probably have an enjoyable time with it, and crack a smile while playing through at least once.

As a whole, Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked is a surprisingly well done button masher which should be even more appealing to anime fans.

Provides an overall fun experience simply because of its reasonably fun combat system and its totally whacked out sense of humor.

Grasshopper Manufacture, best known for its work on the underappreciated "Killer 7," has done a great job capturing the essence of the show while incorporating its own signature elements, and the result is an entertaining hack and slash adventure that serves up plenty of action that's been marinated in tasty Samurai Champloo shenanigans.

A good game with a few bugs. If you're a fan of the anime series then you'll probably fall instantly in love with Sidetracked.

Sure, it does have some taxing level-design problems, but its presentation and sheer wackiness and randomness saves it from being just another statistic.

It's too bad Fuu isn't playable, other than a wacky mini-game where she gets to speed-eat, but then again, you'd probably just be doing a different mini-game where she gets kidnapped anyway.

Fans of the series will appreciate the games faithfulness to the show, but to everyone else, Sidetracked will just feel like an uglier version of countless games you've played before. [May 2006, p.101]

Sidetracked is a hard sell due to it just being so weird. Strange gameplay styles and psychedelia combine to make a game that is at once compelling and borderline offensive in its ways.

The lack of any camera control can be frustrating at times, leaving you with a less than optimal view of the action. [May 2006, p.78]

When you finally realize that most of your moves are going to be accessed by only two buttons with the occasional button-pushing mini games, it's likely to be game-over for most players.

Were it not for its creative direction's admirable job of filling in its patchy mechanics' gaps it would be entirely skippable. With those gaps filled it's a charming, if flawed, achievement. [June 2006, p.96]

Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked does a lot that's interesting - for a little while, anyway - but we get the impression that this is the product of too much thought and not enough work.

The title is certainly not technically impressive, nor is it even that impressive gameplay wise - its greatest strength lies in its style which isn't even as strong as it is in the series.

Sidetracked is a perfect example of a great idea that didn’t get the proper work to make it shine. With a little more effort, the game could have gone from mediocre to must own.

Halfway in between something that was rushed out the door to capitalize on the popularity of the series and a game that actually had some crafting. It’s worth the look for some mindless fun, but the price of admission is a bit high.

What's not so impressive is that actual combat is pretty sucky. The combos themselves are simplistic. [Jun 2006, p.94]