Super Samurai Rampage

The visual style in Super Samurai Rampage is a great homage to the classic 16-bit games of yesteryear. While everything's dressed up in a pixel art style, the game's still incredibly detailed when it comes to the environments, backgrounds, and character sprites. The color palettes range from soft pastels (like in cherry blossom trees) to muted earth tones to gloomy dark hues and bright, vibrant shades to indicate powerful special attacks. Animations are smooth and fluid, with no lag on my iPhone 7. To top it all off, there's a fitting Japanese war-style soundtrack that plays in the background to get players into the mood of samurai hack-n-slash action. The sound effects as you swing and slice up your foes is a nice touch too.

Since Super Samurai Rampage is an arcade high score chaser, there's only one game mode, but three different stages. The other stages get unlocked by reaching a certain point threshold in the first area. Honestly, though, that's all you need, and it's perfect for those times when you just want to relieve some stress. The goal? Just kill as many enemies as you can before they get a hit in on you. While this sounds easy enough, it's worth noting that you need to be careful when playing, because even the smallest mistake can cost your samurai his life.

Controls in Super Samurai Rampage are simple enough and rather intuitive. To attack (and move), just swipe horizontally on the screen. An upward swipe lets your samurai jump, and then you can swipe in the direction that you want to perform a midair attack. If you do a swipe-and-hold, that lets the samurai go into Focus Mode, where you can target foes better and the attack dash ends up covering slightly more ground. To get great scores in this game, you'll have to be quick on your feet with attacks, rack up combos, and dodge enemy attacks.

Each round starts off easy with basic enemies that don't pose much of a threat. However, as you make progress, tougher foes begin to appear, and their attacks will be stronger and more deadly, such as ranged lightning. It's critical that you learn the various enemy types and their moves, so that you can dodge them in time and get revenge.

The point values for enemies will vary, depending on the type. Less threatening ones net you a point each, while stronger ones can get you much more. You'll also earn more points for multi-kills (multiple kills with one attack). If you're fast enough to get several kills quickly in a row, then you'll get the multiplier for even more points. Once the multiplier gauge is full in the top right corner, you'll enter Lightning Mode, where you can truly devastate many foes at once. However, reaching this ultimate form is easier said than done after all things considered.

Super Samurai Rampage is an excellent game to help one get rid of some stress. The graphics are a great homage and tribute to the classic games on SNES and Genesis. The music is true-to-theme, and the sound effects are rather realistic. Controls work well and are clearly designed for touch screens, so anyone can pick this up and get the hang of things after a few moments. And since this is an arcade high score chaser, the replay value is high, especially when there are multiple stages to unlock with different enemy types to master.

While the controls work well enough, there are times when my swipes didn't seem to register correctly, resulting in an untimely demise. It could be that I did not swipe correctly, but I think that the controls could be even more optimized to prevent such mishaps.

I've only just started with Super Samurai Rampage, but I can tell that this is a title I'll be returning to for quite some time. I get stressed out easily, so the fast-paced hack-n-slash action of Super Samurai Rampage is just what I need most of the time. As a child who grew up with pixelated games, I love the detailed art style and music. Controls are simple but take a bit of practice to master, and the gameplay mechanic is downright fun. And with the unlock method for the other stages, there's plenty of reason for me to keep coming back to this game.

I highly recommend giving Super Samurai Rampage a try if you're in the mood for a fun and action-packed samurai slasher. Super Samurai Rampage is available on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $1.99. There are no in-app purchases.