From Gaijin Entertainment and publisher, South Peak Interactive, comes X-Blades, a third-person hack n’ slash game. You play as Ayumi, a blade/gun wielding bounty hunter who searches for treasure and keeps all the loot. She is the best there is and she knows it. She follows an ancient map to an old abandoned temple that is said to contain an artifact into which a god poured all his power. Upon discovering it, Ayumi is commanded not to touch it by a werewolf. Being the rebellious, determined individual she is, she touches the stone anyway and becomes infused with an evil power. Suddenly, she is pulled into a vast magical power struggle that escalates into something far beyond her.

X-Blades has a mature rating from the ESRB. Ayumi wears a very revealing costume that includes a very narrow thong that reveals her backside. It is very similar to a bikini. Some of her other costumes cover up her cleavage, but are no accessible until later in the game. The combat is very unrealistic, but still very violent. Solid hits result in large amount of blood splashing out (though unrealistically) onto the ground where they remain for quite some time. Magical spells are used often throughout the game, as well.

X-Blades is in every way, a disappointment. The visuals are stimulating, sometimes. In under lighted areas they become something reminiscent of PS2 generation graphics. X-Blades’ M rating is well deserved, but the content that incurs this rating is unrelated to the game and useless, needlessly cutting away the younger fan base. Any positive aspects are drowned and forgotten in the wake of tedious, unforgiving, repetitive combat. The poor voice acting, annoying (and greatly repetitive) music, and unlikable characters are the icing on this cake of regurgitated video game culture. It seems as though they tried to emulate God of War or Ninja Gaiden and failed in virtually every way possible. X-Blades may someday be worth picking out of a bargain bin, but for now I can in no way justify telling someone to pay the hefty “new game” price for such a ruined “old game” concept.

» By Daniel Straite, Plain Games. Published 4/11/2009 8:08:05 PM.