Neko Samurai Review! The Eternal Struggle between Cats & Frogs... Ninja Style ;)

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Neko Samurai is a surprisingly addictive hack and slash game by developer Bit Egg. An action game at heart, it combines Japanese anime with a plot of Samurai Cats vs Frog Ninjas, what isn’t to love?

The Beginning

You start the game off with a basic Katana and little Health that you can upgrade later for better weapons with special abilities such as “Slowing Time” or “Receiving More Coins” (obtained by defeating enemies) or Gravestones that “Increase your Hearts/Health.”

The Challenge

You need to tap at the exact right moment to land a hit, if you are off at all, you’ll end up missing and possibly taking damage if you are too slow. You can regain some health occasionally though your friend who will throw a sack of hearts at you, but be careful! You’ll also need to slice it at the right moment, otherwise it may take you out instead of helping you!

I found it a bit tricky in the beginning to get the timing right, but once you get into the groove, you’ll be racking up the kills and Coins to upgrade your arsenal for the bigger baddies you meet later on.

The malicious frog ninjas become increasingly more difficult as you progress and stack up your kills, starting off with unhooded enemies that often leap at you right before attacking, moving up to hooded enemies at around 100 kills and then to ones that throw shurikens at you at closer to 150 kills that you’ll need to parry back by tapping at the correct moment.

The Shop

Once you die, you can access the Shop to better prepare yourself for the next fight. Items will unlock according to how many kills you get which will allow you to then purchase and equip them with Coins you receive during the endless battle with the evil frogs.

What I Liked

1. Excellent Graphics - Beautiful animation of countless frogs being slashed to pieces with a katana wielding cat. Backgrounds are also seamlessly placed that fit the overall Samurai/Japanese theme with new ones that can be bought with your Coins.

2. Addictive Gameplay - Whether it is the seamless way I slice through frogs after doing a successful tap or the ability for me to keep upgrading my weapons after each fight, I keep smashing the retry button trying to outdo my previous Highscore.

What I Disliked

1. How short the game is… in fact, watch the trailer below, it only clocks in at roughly 1 minute.

Seen it? Good, that is basically the entire game, you face the Challenge, you die, go to the Shop to upgrade, and then Repeat. It becomes pretty old after an hour or two.

2. Repetitive Ads - I think having Ads in the game is fine to unlock the chance to revive or receive some other perks… But why they are all for the same game gets old pretty quick and it makes me not want to watch them, perks or no perks.

Improvements

1. Deeper Story - Add some cutscenes and answer some lingering questions, why are the Ninja Frogs attacking the Samurai Cat? Where do they come from? Is there a Leader? Will Samurai Cat ever be victorious?

2. Variety of Gameplay - More attacks or abilities or even some Boss Fights would prolong my willingness to play the game and make it more engaging. There is definitly room for growth.

Recommend It?

Yeah, Definitely!

Like I said, it is difficult to put down, even after it becomes a bit boring. It has very addictive gameplay and great animation effects, it is also free and doesn’t take up too much space so there isn’t anything to lose, go cut down some frog ninjas ;)

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