Kenseiden

STORY / GAMEPLAY
You are Hayato, a samurai who lives in a peaceful village. But this peace and galore is compromised by evil warlocks and spirits that plague Japan of the 16th Century. The warlocks attacked your village and stole the five Secret Scrolls and the Sword of the Dragon Lord. Hayato, a dragon-born hero, must now recover the Scrolls and the Sword, eliminate his enemies and finally kill Oda Nobunaga. Kenseiden is a classic action platform game with some adventure touches comprised of sixteen different levels. Apart from the incoming Samurai, skeleton and spiders hordes, Hayato must also watch for deadly traps and pits. Nothing is more frustrating than jumping over a pit...only to be hit in mid-air and knocked into your... doom! This game requires some skills and to memorize patterns in each level since if you get hit once you'll have to start the area all over again. At the end of each level you are called to fight a Warlock or one of their henchmen. One unique feature in this game is that you can choose your own path through the story and thus progression is not linear. After completing a level you'll gain the ability to choose among multiple paths or even to backtrack.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics are nicely presented, featuring colorful backgrounds and sprites. I particularly liked the smooth sprites' animation and the fluid background scrolling. Each stage is well detailed offering (mostly static) Japanese Medieval-style indoor and outdoor scenes. The sound is cool too composed with some nicely done Japanese-style tunes and a variety of typical hack 'n slash sound effects during gameplay.