Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword

Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword
Punch-Out!!, but with katanas and samurai!
Protagonist(s): Sakura Samurai Genre(s): Action-Adventure Hack-and-Slash Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS Release Date: JP: November 16, 2011 NA: February 2, 2012 PAL: October 11, 2012 Developer(s): Grounding, Inc. Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan

Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword, known in PAL regions as Hana Samurai: Art of the Sword, is a hack-and-slash action-adventure game developed by Groundings, Inc., and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released as an eShop exclusive on November 16, 2011 in Japan, then in February/October 2012 for North America and PAL regions, respectively.

Good Qualities

1. The gameplay is somewhat similar to the Punch-Out!! games, in that you attack, dodge, block, and unleash special moves to defeat your enemies samurai-style.
   • Whenever you dodge your enemy, this opens a Precision Point for you to deal critical damage with your sword. Unlike the Punch-Out!! games, mashing the A button could wear your katana down and make it less sharp.
2. Decent graphics for an early 3DS eShop game, with a unique art style that mixes deformed character designs with feudal Japanese environments.
3. Each of the three areas of the game has a village where you can save your game and take a rest at the inn, purchase supplies at the shop, participate in Master Melonbowl/the kappa's challenges, forge your blade to make it stronger at the blacksmith shop, etc.
4. For an eShop game, it was rather cheap, costing around $7.
5. The Rock Garden is a mode where you can make cherry blossoms grow for every 1,000 total steps you take. As the game progresses, you'll unlock new stuff for your garden per every 10,000 total steps as people come to visit it.
6. Once you beat each boss, you will unlock challenge gauntlets (30-Man, 50-Man, and 100-Man Challenge) that can be played from the main menu. The enemies progressively get stronger as you get further, making for a good post-game challenge.
   • Also, when you beat the Village Challenges and gain Stamps for Prizes, you'll get new Special Gems, which increase the attack radius of your special move.

Bad Qualities

1. The game is rather short (as is expected from an eShop game), with only three sections on the world map and the same number of bosses to fight. It can be beaten in about four hours if you're good at the game.
2. The game starts off rather easy, but progressively gets harder due to enemies using multiple, quicker attacks that can be hard to predict.
3. Due to this game being digital-only, and because the 3DS eShop closed down, you can no longer legally buy the game.

Reception

Sakura Samurai received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and users (scoring 73/100 and 7.4/10, respectively, on Metacritic).

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