Now is perhaps a good time to mention that other than in name and number, Seven Samurai 20XX bears little relation to its elder brother. There are one or two backwards glances – Natoe rests his sword across his shoulders, a bell-ringing scene calling the villagers to arms - but other than minor touches, there’s little that recalls the subtlety or style of the film. The storyline is wafer thin, bordering on nonsensical at times, perhaps relying too heavily on familiarity with the original tale. What’s truly baffling is that despite some lengthy, dialogue driven cut scenes, story and character details are barely fleshed out, remaining stereotypically two-dimensional throughout. Nothing is explained properly, from how the characters got here, to where ‘here’ actually is. It’s difficult for a player to care for a game world that the developers themselves don’t seem to care for.

What’s left is an action game by numbers; with your action game checklist at the ready, you can tick the following – young, hip, sarcastic male lead character, ‘comedy’ sidekick, maniacally cackling and over-confident bosses, wise old man, potential love interest, mysterious stranger, bullet-time effects and so on, and so on. What’s left out is fun, excitement, varied and rewarding combat, skill development and a robust game engine. Natoe enters an area, draws his sword and is attacked by wave after wave of uninspired, generic enemies; its hack and slash, hack and slash from then on in – hitting R1 and L1 produces a second sword, sending our hero into overdrive, where for up to ninety seconds he can dispense pyrotechnic death to anything and everything around him. When time’s up, Natoe goes back to his single blade until his sword counter is full again, at which point the mayhem begins again, though the counter refills so quickly you’re never without your second blade for too long, negating any need to use the technique carefully. If your second sword does disappear in the middle of a brawl, simply running around avoiding enemies for a few seconds buys enough time for you to get it back, rendering combat repetitive and uninteresting.

And yet Sammy could so easily have salvaged something worthwhile from the basic mechanics – there are a number of sword attacks to learn, which when added to the dash and guard techniques add a potentially stylish dimension to the melee. In theory, you could deftly despatch a number of enemies well into double figures in one slick, graceful combo – if it weren’t for the fact that Natoe controls like a dog, and that unleashing special moves is as much down to luck as it is skill. Unresponsive controls mean that during crucial fights it’s not uncommon to find yourself facing in entirely the wrong direction, and whilst the majority of enemy AI is limited to simply charging at and surrounding Natoe, the bad guys mostly fall with such ease that there’s little value in expending the effort to finish them off in style. Only bosses put up more of a fight, and even then quickly familiarising yourself with their simple patterns won’t take long.

That Natoe never interacts with his six comrades during gameplay is another oversight. No other character is playable and there are no heroic seven-man stand-offs to be enjoyed – the only time characters engage each other is during cut scenes. There’s no spirit of teamwork, nor feelings of camaraderie expressed. It’s a solitary experience, and begs the question of why is there a Seven in the title, when six seem to do nothing.

There are some reasonable graphical touches; certain character models are well detailed and the bullet time attacks, parries and sidesteps are all accompanied by pleasing flash effects. Naturally these are offset against bland, lifeless backdrops – the village under protection seems to consist of just four buildings – and draw distance on non-playable characters is questionable as they materialise from thin air before your very eyes. It doesn’t help that arenas are entirely non-interactive; nothing breaks, nothing can be climbed on, jumped over or moved. Exploration gets you nothing – venturing down side streets and alleyways greets you with dead ends; no doors open other than those needed to progress to the next area. The programmers have been very specific in not wanting you to veer from the well-starched beaten path - invisible walls keep you very much on the straight and narrow, and in recognition of your inability to find the one door that opens once an area has been cleared, Sammy have been good enough to mark it for you with a big green arrow. The game world feels like a never ending set of corridors as you shuffle from one random locale to the next without any idea of how the disparate areas relate to each other or the universe as a whole.

Musically, the game offers easy on the ear oriental flavours, switching to up-tempo techno when Natoe engages the enemy. The change in pace works well, with the frenetic beat doing its best to liven up each battle - swords clash with a satisfying clang, and spot effects are perfectly adequate. Unfortunately, the voice acting has real fingernails on blackboard quality – granted, the script’s brevity hasn’t given the actors much to work with, but delivery generally trades subtlety for volume. After every single encounter Natoe proclaims ‘That was a good workout’ in a tone that makes you wish his sword-hand would slip and he’d accidentally cut his own head off - but the voices truly reach their excruciating nadir when Natoe begins a rap that will have you reaching for a cushion to hide behind.

There’s little to recommend about Seven Samurai 20XX. Using the licence probably sounded like a good idea at one time, but practically every element of the finished product feels half-hearted and incomplete. The action is fast and furious, but falls short on entertainment value. Presentation is mediocre at best, and other than some decent music, there’s not much else to attract the player. There are far superior action games available for the PS2, allowing this one to hopefully disappear into nothingness. If you must have some Seven Samurai action, go and rent the film – it’s wholly a more satisfying experience.