Sometimes, life brings pleasant surprises, and this is one such surprise that everyone would be hard-pressed not to be excited for. The classic samurai that graced television screens from 2001 to 2004 (with a brief stint of Season 5 in 2017) is finally getting a video game, and from the gameplay announcement trailer, it’s shaping up to be a mesmerizing foray through outlandish environments with deadly enemies. Titled Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, and being developed by Adult Swim Games with the blessing of Cartoon Network, it looks like an enjoyable romp that may mirror the era of the television show.
It’s making the round-robin of platforms as well, with Jack coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
There’s a bit of confusion in regards to what Adult Swim Games is referencing for PC, as the concluding screen has a text box that shows neither Steam nor Epic Games Store, or any other distributor for that matter; it just says PC Game. It seems decidedly vague, which might imply that Adult Swim Games is currently in talks with everyone’s favorite game store to hate, Epic Games Store.
It’s important to note that any PC platform exclusivity has yet to be announced; nothing has been announced yet besides the game trailer. Yet there is empirical data that tells us that when a developer is beginning to shy away from PC platform announcements, it’s typically being sold as an exclusive somewhere.
In the trailer, we can readily make out a couple of things that the game seems poised to bring. A 3-dimensional game that appears to be relatively linear, with a smattering of platforming taking place between engagements.
The combat seems fluid enough with Jack using various attack combinations to fight enemies, and even visibly decapitating an alligator in one scene. The scenes for the combat all appear to occur within designated segments of the level where enemies are scripted to spawn and attack Jack within these ‘arenas’.
IGN via YouTube
Note the rubble around Jack as he attacks enemies creating a natural fighting ground while restricting the player’s movement; meaning that Jack won’t likely be able to escape combat until he clears the necessary mods to progress. It may be a dampener to the hype for some, as it may hurt the replayability after an initial clear versus other, more open titles such as Dark Souls and the ilk.
Nonetheless, even with all of these questions, one thing is absolutely sure; our boy Jack is finally getting his own game, and it looks like it’ll host all of the wonderous drama and combat that made us fall in love with the franchise decades ago.
