The Samurai Collection Review

The Samurai Collection is a bundle of two classic beat’em ups from the 1990s: First Samurai and Second Samurai. Both games were first released in 1991 and 1994 respectively for the Amiga and Atari ST platforms. The first game was ported to the Super NES while the sequel got ported to the Genesis/Mega Drive. Don’t expect a deep and exhaustive story here as the main goal of the samurai is to survive waves of enemies and take down the Demon King.

The First Samurai and Second Samurai games are both action platformers where the goal is to explore and reach the end of each level in order to progress. The levels aren’t very linear and streamlined; some will require a bit of exploration (however limited it may be) to find out the best way to more forward.

So in the first game, you’ll start up with a sword. Take enough damage and you’ll lose it leaving you to use your feet and fists to punch the living hell out of your enemies. As you kill enemies, the sword meter slowly refills and you’ll be granted a new sword to help you. You can also find helpful items such as a bell that calls upon sorcery and provide a bit of additional support such as calling rain to extinguish a fire blocking your path for example. The HUD is an incomprehensible mess of information.

The second game is an improvement over the first game. The HUD is clear and more streamlined. Unlike requiring a meter for a sword, you need to pick up a scroll you’ll find by breaking blue gems. You’ll also find health items to regain some health. Unlike the first one, enemies never stop coming so you can’t even bother resting in a spot, killing everything and collect items dropped by the gems.

The games’ main issues are clearly the clunky, archaic controls that feel quite outdated and sometimes unresponsive. The other issue, which applies to the first game, is the counter-intuitive button mapping. Jump is delegated to the B button, where A would feel more intuitive. Buttons can be remapped but instead of using a clear system “Map Jumping to a button”, there’s a list that roughly translates to where do you want to map the A button. Really clunky and not very user-friendly.

The visuals are ok for what they are. Given the games’ age, some visuals and level design have not aged well. Often times you’ll see a platform you’ll try to jump on, but end up falling down because it’s just a background decoration and not a usable platform. The soundtracks aren’t anything special; they are buried under the sound effects and are pretty forgettable.

The Samurai Collection is another proof that if you want to resurrect past franchises, at least do minimal efforts to implement QoL improvements such as improved controls. The combat is fine as a whole and levels, for the most part, are well-designed and fun to navigate, but the clunky controls will definitely make your experience more cumbersome than it should be. If you have the patience and dedication of a samurai, The Samurai Collection is a decent bundle of two archaic games to conquer. If you’re looking for a seamless and intuitive game to play, don’t bother wasting your time and money.