Game based on Lone Wolf and Cub. After Ogami Ittō's wife Azami gives birth to their son, Daigorō, Ogami Ittō returns to find her and all of their household brutally murdered, with only the newborn Daigorō surviving. The supposed culprits are three former retainers of an abolished clan, avenging the execution of their lord by Ogami Ittō. However, the entire matter was planned by Ura-Yagyū (Shadow Yagyu) Yagyū Retsudō, leader of the Ura-Yagyū clan, in order to seize Ogami's post as part of a masterplan to control the three key positions of power: the spy system, the official assassins and the Shogunate Decapitator. During the initial incursion, an ihai (funeral tablet) with the shōgun's crest on it was placed inside the Ogami family shrine, signifying a supposed wish for the shogun's death. When the tablet is "discovered" during the murder investigation, its presence condemns Ittō as a traitor and thus he is forced to forfeit his post.
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First thing you notice is that it captures the spirit of the source material pretty well, even though the visuals are limited. You stomp around stoically as Itto (with Daigoro comically hanging off your back the whole time) and blow through scads, just entire armies of mooks that mostly only take one hit. This makes it feel a little more scrolling-shooter-y than brawler-y (which makes sense, of course, because the latter barely existed yet), but also makes for fast-paced and satisfying action, even if it gets repetitive by nature. The best parts are the end of level boss fights, which begin with appropriate anime-style fanfare and are treated much more like true samurai duels, where only a couple hits kills either one of you and blocking and positioning are key. They're really intense! Especially so because you don't continue where you died if you go down. This can be a bit frustrating, of course (especially for your average beat 'em up fan looking to brute force it to the end by just dumping infinite quarters in) but means these battles actually get your heart racing pretty good, which you don't see a lot in this type of game.
There are flaws. Levels can get long and are peppered with unfortunate bottomless-pit platforming. The enemies get old rather quickly. There's only one main song. But listen, one of the temporary powerups is the baby cart and you it drive it around blasting fireballs at people while the music goes nuts. So.
Overall, pretty impressive. And apparently this is the only videogame adaptation of Lone Wolf and Cub? Could have done a lot worse!