Samurai Riot: Definitive Edition

Samurai Riot is a decent 2D action arcade game, it just needs some refinement. It looks good, it (mostly) plays well, and it satisfies the old arcade beat-’em-up desire. If the developers fix a couple annoying glitches, it’ll be a solid options for genre fans.

The promise of branching story lines and visceral combat fall unfortunately short in this upgraded Beat ‘Em Up experience. Despite a fantastic animation style and strong technical performance, it can’t quite grasp what made the best of the genre so compelling. If you have a buddy you can unleash your inner warrior alongside you’ll find something worth risking your honour for. If you venture out alone however, prepare to be a rather disgruntled warrior, provided your non-playable counterpart doesn’t break the game altogether.

With the side-scrolling beat ’em up genre currently going through somewhat of a revival, it’s a shame that Samurai Riot: Definitive Edition disappoints. It’s unique in the space and genuinely does have some good ideas. But when it comes to the gameplay, it just can’t compete with the likes of Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Shredder’s Revenge. If you really like the game’s setting and art style it might be worth taking a gamble thanks to its budget price, but chances are you’ll find it overly repetitive, as well as a bit dull and frustrating.

While Samurai Riot has decent gameplay and an interesting choose-your-own-path mechanic, I cannot recommend anyone buy Samurai Riot for the Switch right now due to the save erasing bug.