Eduardo the Samurai Toaster review

A run %26rsquo;n%26rsquo; gun shooter in the vein of Gunstar Heroes, Eduardo is the first effort from indie developer Semnat Studios and as a debut title from a bunch of young guys with barely any cash, it%26rsquo;s pretty reasonable. However, while it%26rsquo;s crammed full of style, there%26rsquo;s a real lack of substance; there are definitely the green shoots of a solid game in evidence here, but they fail to blossom into anything remarkable. Which is a shame.

But let%26rsquo;s consider the positives first. All the graphics have been hand drawn using a mixture of styles and it looks fantastic, bursting with colorful levels and surreal enemies. The hero (who, as you may have guessed, is a toaster) fires toast and other toastable pastries as he faces a succession of utterly bizarre enemies that include spear-throwing carrots and bees wearing sunglasses. The music is excellent too. Ranging from chilled to frantic, it draws on techno and traditional Eastern music to create a great sense of atmosphere.

While it%26rsquo;d be hard %26ndash; or at least very mean %26ndash; to fault the presentation, that%26rsquo;s all there really is here and you can%26rsquo;t help but feel it%26rsquo;s more of a showcase for the skills of artist and director Daniel Coleman than an actual game. For starters, there%26rsquo;s no semblance of a story. You%26rsquo;re a toast-firing samurai toaster who does battle with freaky things across 13 levels. That%26rsquo;s it %26ndash; there%26rsquo;s not a jot of explanation as to why.

More importantly, there%26rsquo;s barely any meat to the fighting. You scroll from left to right, and occasionally from up to down or vice versa, and either blast away using the 1 button with your standard toast or powered-up ammo that you%26rsquo;ve picked up. You can jump using the 2 button and grab enemies or projectiles and hurl them using B, but there%26rsquo;s no real skill involved. There%26rsquo;s no scoring system either, which would have given things more focus and added to both the game%26rsquo;s appeal and lifespan. Overall, it%26rsquo;s underdone.

Jul 07, 2009