Black and White Bushido Review

Black and White Bushido is an excellent skeleton for a game which feels like it should bring more to the table. With the pacing and reaction requirements of games such as Hotline Miami, BAWB pits samurai teams- a Black side and White side- against each other in a duel to the death. The environment is split equally into patches of darkness and light, into which the corresponding team blend while motionless.

This is an excellent premise for multiplayer fun, giving way to different tactics becoming desirable for the player. Would it be better to strike quickly and risk death, or stick in their own camouflaged state? This can lead to a dramatic and effective change in pace during gameplay, if you lose track of your opponents’ whereabouts after a scuffle, the atmosphere changes to a cat-and-mouse scenario, asking which player will make the next move.

The single player missions are fun, but quickly become repetitive. New arenas, differing numbers of opponents and challenges help to give the game longevity by offering variety, but after the first few playthroughs, it does boil down to the same ol’ song and dance. It’s something I found increasingly frustrating with the game; I was loving it intensely, but only for a brief period of time.

Multiplayer, as arguably with most games, a further dimension is added. As a big fan of the old local co-op/ splitscreen games of yesteryear, Black and White Bushido was refreshing as something to just throw on and play. Playing against another human mind is very often more rewarding than playing against bots, and BAWB proves this. But again, the tedium with the lack of variety becomes the most challenging factor, and it’s not long until we browsed the games library for different multiplayer fun.

Black and White Bushido demonstrates itself to be an excellent concept for a game, with superb mechanics, unfortunately it suffers from a brilliant surface but offers little depth. I’m certain that with a little more development it absolutely has the potential to become so much more entertaining. Perhaps with differing modes beyond ‘Kill these people’ or a different scoring system depending on how stealthily or quickly you completed the objectives becoming a factor. On the whole, very entertaining but best enjoyed in short bursts.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.