We love all sorts of games. Sometimes it is hard to cover a game in our traditional review style that’s why we have tidbit-style reviews. These shorter reviews cover games that deserve attention too but simply don’t fit our good, mixed, and bad template.
Samurai Academy: Paws of Fury | 65%
Publisher: Maximum Entertainment France SAS
Developer: ZEROlife Games, Fishing Cactus
When I first laid eyes on Samurai Academy: Paws of Fury while checking upcoming releases, I immediately thought, ‘This looks like Legend of Kay. I’m intrigued.’ At the time, I didn’t realise it was based on a movie of the same name. I haven’t seen the movie, but in a way, that probably makes me more neutral toward the game. So, without further ado, here are my thoughts and observations on Samurai Academy: Paws of Fury.
The best way I can describe the soundtrack is that it’s very reminiscent of the samurai stereotype, meaning you’ve probably heard something very similar before. The sound effects aren’t bad, but the protagonist saying ‘boing’ in different ways every time you jump wasn’t the most pleasant experience.
Graphically, Samurai Academy: Paws of Fury doesn’t look bad. It has a certain charm that I’m sure reflects the movie’s design quite well, but I could easily imagine it releasing in the Xbox 360 era with barely any changes, if any.
There are several types of side content available. You’ll find collectables scattered across the three maps, along with plenty of coins earned from minigames and missions, which you can use to buy accessories. There are a few simple side quests where you track down someone or something for an NPC, essentially fetch quests. You’ll also come across various minigames, including racing through purple indicators while following a butterfly, a 2.5D racing challenge, a target practice activity, and ninja ambushes.
The main content consists mostly of the tower defence raid mode, where you defend a village from attackers using traps you can buy, along with manually fighting them. Combat is very simple, with only regular and jumping attacks available, plus a few weapons scattered around the maps to help you out. It’s fun, but it does become repetitive, even with the occasional new element, and I found myself growing tired of it after a few raids. It’s directly tied to the story, as the plot is essentially about defending villages from samurai attacks ordered by the shogun.
The biggest issue with Samurai Academy: Paws of Fury is that its jokes didn’t seem to land consistently. At the beginning, it poked fun at the tutorial, with the protagonist saying that he is experienced and doesn’t need to relearn how to jump; that was a good joke. But at other times, it had humour that I’m sure came directly from the movie, like the village names Kakamucho, Dookiehill, and Pippishore. There is a joke here and there that lands, but I’m thinking that I’m not the target audience for them.
In short, Samurai Academy: Paws of Fury was fun and somewhat interesting, but the content present wasn’t as enjoyable as I’d hoped it would be.
Hi there, I’m Gabriel Colombo (Hence my reviewer name), I live in Brazil and I’ve been gaming since I was around 5 years old. Xbox became my main platform on the Xbox 360 era, before that I had played a bit on PC, Polystation (basically a skinned SNES), PlayStation 1 and 2. I really enjoy to experience immersive worlds, but I also enjoy playing silly games to have a laugh or just have fun.
