Bujingai: The Forsaken City
Taito
Swordy Action Platformer
PS2
1 Player

The Concept: Is cool for about half of the first level. Yes, it's tha bad. Hell, it even sounds like a bad idea: You are Lau and you have to kill things in the Forsaken City before they kill the last humans. Honestly, I think the demons already got all the human...

The Execution: If you haven't gathered already the story of this game is utter, utter shite. Like, on the level of Arcade Gamer Fubuki. Wait, Fubuki had panty shots (Pro? Con? You decide). And classic gaming- can't forget that. And the cool duotone porcupine haircut...yeah, back to that...game. Well, I don't know what to say. Your eighteen hit "square mashing" combo is fun until you realize that quite a few parts of it are a lock-in. You have to finish the motion, which leaves you vulnerable. It's annoying. In fact, most moves leave you open. Wall acrobatics are fun, but can be frustrating. That's really it...sad.
The graphics are pretty good. Not spectacular, and certainly not what should be expected for a fairly late generation PS2 game. Maybe I should clarify, Lau's (Gackt's- yes, Gackt is the main character. Can it get any worse? Yes.) character model is well done, well animated, and looks scarily like Gackt, which I guess is the point. The environments and other characters...leave a lot to be desired...like Shinobi. Barren, almost featureles levels and simple enemies with simple animations.
A good sound track can make or break a game and Bujingai's is likely to disappoint, unless you like extremely repetetive and low quality music. in general, this game was probably made so Gackt could star in his own video game. Of course, the silly Americanaiztion team removed even the option of the original voice files. The voices are...not very good. Really I don't even see why I'm trying to do a proper review. It's not worth the $15 I paid for it unless you're actively seeking a shallow button masher.

**/10