Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword = Pretty Good Game: Downloadable of the 3DS.

A few days ago and for the first time since the heyday of the Wii’s Virtual Console I woke up after a hard night of drinking to find that at some point my drunk ass busted out the credit card and decided to peruse the 3D’s eShop. The lucky treat I picked out for myself was this game: Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword. Now normally, this would be an appropriate time to impart a serious message: Kids, don’t drink and download. But in the case of Sakura it actually wasn’t such a bad call. Thanks for the solid, drunk me.

Trailer time:

Now at first glance you’ll notice one thing. Sakura is not very pretty. As in a “the poor game hit every branch of the ugly bonsai tree on the way down” kind of thing. It deliberately chooses a simplified style which for many other titles works beautifully *cough*Pushmo*cough* but not at all here.

The single worst character design since Tingle?

But that doesn’t matter so much once you actually start playing. She might not be much to look at but she’s got it where it counts, kids. So, in the game you go from stage to stage learning the nuances of sidestepping, dashing backwards and forwards, and finally slashing up innocent women and children once their “tell” is revealed. Sort of similar in the way you have to read the patterns of your opponents in a Punch-Out!! game but not quite as varied or satisfying.

Still, there is something that I can’t quite put my finger on that makes this game enjoyable. The control is nice and responsive and the levels are broken up into bite sized bits that make it perfect for pick up and play short burst sessions. At $7.99, the price is just right for something like this and it’s a nice addition to your home screen if for nothing else than the sake of variety.

Oh right, that’s what I like about it. Having yet another game to glaze over during those hours of indecision as to what I’m in the mood to play.