Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo

Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo is a computer game released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms in 1988, by the now-defunct label Firebird. The package artwork comes from the cover of the comic book Anything Goes #6.

The game was released in the United States under the title Usagi Yojimbo as part of the Thunder Mountain Action Pack, Vol. 1. It was contained on Disk 1, Side 1 along with the games Great Escape, Paradroid, and (on Side 2) Implosion. The packaging for this version used artwork from the cover of Usagi Yojimbo Volume 1, # 17 along with images from the other games included in the set.

Gameplay

The game is a sideways-scrolling adventure, where Miyamoto Usagi has to defeat opponents in sword fights, and also have encounters with other characters , for example priests, who usually carry a cane and utter Zen Buddhist koans, such as "if you see the Buddha on the path, kill him". Usagi is often attacked by bandits and enemy ninja. These opponents frequently disguise themselves as harmless peasants, villagers or priests.

Although progress is always left-to-right, there are branches along the way that allow some gameplay liberty. There is also a sword training level, with bales of hay instead of enemies.

The scoring system is based on karma; doing good deeds raises Usagi's karma, and doing bad deeds reduces it. If, ultimately, Usagi's karma drops to zero, he will commit seppuku. Good deeds include killing armed opponents and donating money to peasants and priests. Conversely, attacking priests or unarmed characters or even drawing his sword in front of them reduces it (besides turning them hostile).

To earn money, Usagi can gamble at inns along the path and collect coins from slain enemies. The money can be spent on food, which in turn increases his energy.

External links

• Absolutist recreation of C64 game
• sid file of music from the game
• "Homage to Amida Buddha": an ocremix.org ReMix of the theme music from Samurai Warrior

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.