Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time

This game has a weird status of being a great example of a show being made into a game, or rather a game adding onto a show. For those that don't properly know, this takes place right at the end of the final season of Samurai Jack on Adult Swim; who are also responsible for creating this game of course. If you haven't seen it, this game won't make much sense story-wise, although you can still enjoy the love letter to Samurai Jack as a whole. Call backs are plentiful and I'm sure I didn't remember or notice a lot of them, having not seen the original run of the show for many years. But I digress.
The main body of this game is the same as the show: You have to get back. Back to the past. You're Samurai Jack. You Jump Good. You slice evil and Robots are jerks. Also you're stuck in a weird time bubble, trying to get to your girlfriend, and Aku is trying to stop you at every turn and taunting you quite a bit. If I had to give one huge negative on that, I think they could have had him talk more throughout the game to taunt you. Sort of a Aku meets Handsome Jack kind of deal, y'know? But as a side, while we will always miss the original Aku voice actor Mako, the current one, Greg Baldwin, does an amazing job himself. Thank you for the great work; I'm sure Mako would be proud.
That aside, the gameplay is rather simple, similar to a FromSoftware kind of game with blocks and dodges, but far more simple. Your blocks can send back some attacks, completely negate others, or just gets ignore by a few bigger attackers too. So you block often, but usually offence is the key. This game is notably different in how you can gather up a huge amount of different weapons, each subtly different than the last, but with a general "style" to them. Maces, swords, guns, bows, etc. Sadly almost all of these have durability to deal with except your which is a permanent attachment; a bit weird you never really lose it as he does briefly in the show, but meh. At the end of the day, you don't actually need any weapons, you have your fists. That's what a Samurai Truly Needs.
The Melee in the game is fairly simple and fun, although there are many attacks an enemy does that just renders them invulnerable. It's very weird as the same applies to Jack, there were plenty of fights where I felt like I was totally going to get destroyed, but I kept attacking and was basically invulnerable. I also had a part where I stun locked a boss with a hammer, using a quick guard-break attack you can learn... which was silly.
The guard-break I got was part of the skill system, which is a huge part of the game as well. As you gain experience, or rather "Skill Points" and "Bushido", you can level stuff up so you can learn how to Jump Good... which usually leads to more stuff to find. Like Gems you use to level up the higher tier stuff, but often I found I had plenty of Gems from talking to friends along the way and killing stuff, but never enough Bushido. I felt like a failure of a Samurai... but I got over it after a few robots were murdered. That's honorable.
Still, the skill system is kind of a huge grind and you aren't expected to max it out, or even get half-way through it I feel, in your first playthrough. They really want you to go back, back to the past, and do the whole game again. This is evident from the very star too, where stuff is right out of your reach until you can Jump Good or have a proper Bow. Bows are also required for quite a few things, like a collectible you need to get the "True Ending", which I highly recommend. Fixes probably the biggest flaw the show's ending had.
But that also brings me to the ranged weapons, which are... eh? Both guns and bows explode like crazy, which fits given how they survive in the show, but I felt ... limited. Granted I didn't use too many guns, and they're somewhat effective, but both bows/arrows or guns/ammo take up the same item slots, so you have to either upgrade a lot... or just not have that many weapons, yet several types of arrows or ammo. It's weird! But I think my biggest issue was the Bow being the only thing you can properly aim, with a dedicated button and everything, yet it's not just its own item despite the dedicated button. You have to equip it. Every. Time.
I mostly used Shuriken for ranged fights, too. In a lot of situations most enemies will show up in huge groups and can juts be one shot. Some even with guns and... well, they're like... over there? I'm lazy and didn't want to run over there to cut them, so I just toss Shuriken to split them in half. It usually worked pretty well. But with guns and bows, they just explode in my hands before the robots are finished exploding, and it felt pretty gross. Especially since to get more, you either have to find them, get them from random friends, or buy them. Buying stuff takes money, which requires more grinding, and you use money to buy upgrades or small "charms" that can help you out too, but they're so expensive that you have to grind back up after buying one.
Da SamurAI ain't no one's fool when it comes to capitalism.
All that said! I had fun with the game, even I ended up taking a 3 year break after playing it once; the start just didn't hold my attention, but I don't regret finishing it. Especially for the "True Ending" as I mentioned before. Strangely, in those three years I didn't play it, no one really talked about this game. But I personally love that it's a final love letter to Samurai Jack as a whole and once again gives Jack the proper ending he deserved. Thanks for all the hard work~

Its okay now this game will not be removed

Recommended for Samurai Jack fans, but not anyone else.
The combat is atrocious. I respect what they tried to do, but I don't see how anyone playtested this and was like, "Yep! This combat is fluid and satisfying." It has a lot of good things about it, but MAN, the bad game design choices start to weigh on you after awhile. Weapons that break. Having to go into your menu to equip items and use others. Repetitive enemies. No XXXY combo. Or maybe I haven't unlocked it yet, but that should be open from the beginning! That's standard in games like this. I enjoy it for the Samurai Jackedness, but if you removed that, as a game on it's own, it's not good.

if you haven’t heard already, warner brothers intends to delist every game published under adult swim games, along with some other indie titles. the fate of every game published under adult swim games is yet uncertain. however, word has been circulating that the delisting will commence within the next 60 days or so.

battle through time, a title under adult swim games, did not go on sale during steam’s major spring sale, despite being available during every other major seasonal sale on steam. the reason for this omission is still unclear. if battle through time is indeed going to be removed, wouldn’t it be ideal to promote it one last time and give fans a final chance to grab the game? on the other hand, do the corporates believe that leaving it at full price is a better decision, assuming players will buy it anyway as it nears removal from the platform?

The likelihood of battle through time going on sale in the near future seems slim, given that it has only been discounted during steam’s major seasonal sales. the next seasonal sale won’t occur within the next 60 days.

battle through time has always been on my radar ever since it was first announced. purchasing it has always been on the agenda, so it's disappointing that I couldn’t acquire it on sale. I would recommend samurai jack fans and followers of the game alike to consider purchasing the game at full price due to the mere possibility of it being delisted.

this situation is particularly distressing because battle through time is actually a great game, a well-thought-out title that captures the essence of samurai jack in an appropriate manner whilst offering thrilling gameplay and a captivating alternate take on the saga, rather than simply capitalizing on a well-established property with a cheap product.

The only disappointing thing about this game is that it doesn't play the theme song after it plays the intro monologue.

Good action game, great Samurai Jack and a must play if you're a fan of the series. Genuine shame it's gonna be delisted within a couple months.

A short but enjoyable adventure with surprisingly well-thought-out combat mechanics and enemy design that, despite being held back by less-than-stellar animations, still manages to be engaging.
For those looking for a challenge, know that, on the highest difficulty, some of the encounters feel like they came straight out of Ninja Gaiden 2. The chaos and amount of projectiles on screen can be overwhelming at times. Whether that turns out to be a thrilling or frustrating experience may depend more on your personal preference rather than your level of skill.
The lower difficulties should provide a smoother, more welcoming experience for most players, but there is a difficulty spike in the last stage that some may find off-putting. Don't hesitate to lower the difficulty to Easy if you feel like you need to, as it can take some time to not only unlock your moves, but also learn how to correctly apply them in combat.