Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time
Become Samurai Jack, the greatest warrior across time, in Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time. Journey across time to finally stop Aku’s evil reign in this new untold adventure that ties into the epic series finale, as told by the creators of Samurai Jack. Voiced by the original voice-actors, Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is an action platform game that spans across time and space, where your actions will determine a new legend! An Untold Adventure That Ties Into the Epic Series Finale Team up with trusted allies from the show to face off against familiar enemies. Explore Worlds from the Award Winning Series Visit classic worlds and moments from your favorite episodes. Travel to a dark future to free mankind. Dive into the past to face off against diabolical monsters. Seek your fate as you travel across space and time. Create Your Own Legend Equip and master over a dozen different weapons in combat. Increase your power even more by training and unlocking new skills to support your playstyle.
Steam User 72
This game only exists to give Jack his happy ending with Ashi. That is this game's sole reason for existing.
10/10
Steam User 25
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~
Steam User 35
WHAT IF THEY GAVE THE BUDDHA A GUN AND PTSD?
Steam User 25
Dear friends! Today I want to share my opinion about the game Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time. I, as a fan of the animated series since childhood and waiting for the release of the 5th season, was very happy to see a new game based on this wonderful cartoon.
I must say right away that the graphics of the game are simply amazing! The creators have made a noticeable effort to transfer all the characters and locations from the cartoon to the game space. In addition, the controls in the game are very convenient, and the combat system is quite diverse and makes it possible to try out various attacks and abilities of the characters.
However, there are no perfect games, and in Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time I found one significant drawback: the creators of the game missed a huge potential in terms of the number of enemies, leaving only the main characters from the cartoon. It would be great to see more variety in the form of new enemies and bosses.
Despite this shortcoming, the game still managed to win my heart and is fully consistent with the spirit of the animated series. I got a lot of pleasure and unforgettable emotions, remembering the characters and their adventures on TV screens.
Also, if you, like me, have been waiting for Season 5, then this game will definitely help you after or before watching. The overall impression of the game left me moderately satisfied. I sincerely recommend this game to all fans of the animated series that influenced our childhood so much and left unforgettable memories in our souls!
Steam User 16
BUY IT, BEFORE THEY TAKE IT OFF THE STORE!!!
Steam User 21
New Ninja Gaiden hidden under a love letter to what's arguably the best show Cartoon Network ever canned. Both impressively faithful to the source material and shockingly hard, the title serves as a "greatest hits" of fan-favorite episodes and villains and you gotta get back, back to the past.
While I could do without the abundance of collectables and need to constantly fix or get new weapons that aren't the magic samurai sword and fist (which sort of discourages their use at points), it's the enjoyable sightseeing, fun combat and formidable clashes that keeps you hooked. The game perfectly manages to capture the feel of the show in so many ways that outside of the price I would have no problem recommending it to anyone who loved the original series.
Steam User 18
da samurai is in da houze