Paws of Fury was a movie released in theaters a couple of years ago.  I never bothered with it then, as it looked like a Kung-Fu Panda rip-off.  But before writing this review, I did manage to watch the movie on Netflix.  I found it interesting that Mel Brooks did one of the voices and the plot of the movie is pretty much the same as Blazing Saddles (I wonder if Mel Brooks had anything more to do with Paws of Fury because of that).  Anyway, the game is kind of a spinoff/sequel.  Hank the samurai dog must defend his town from ninja cats and other baddies while trying to figure out why the Shogun is attacking the village.  It’s a 3D action platformer and is available on most current consoles but reviewed on Switch here.

Hank can run, do a double jump and even dash in the air.  He can attack with his samurai sword and even fire from a bow and arrow.  After a brief tutorial you’ll explore the cat town from the movie and talk to residents and take on missions from them.  Some have you play mini-games like 2D platform challenges or defeating waves of enemies with light tower defense elements.  Other times you must find other characters or collect hidden items.  You can unlock hats for your player to wear if you do well enough.  You can also gather cat coins but I don’t know what they do.

Remember back in the early to mid 2000s when every kids animated movie had to have a tie-in video game and most of them were 3D platformers?  Well this game reminds me of those days.  Heck, it even looks the part.  Controls aren’t bad, but the camera movement is very touchy.  Goals are a little vague and after being tasked with finding hidden bags of kitty litter, I got bored of it.  I think the only people who will enjoy this one are folks who REALLY enjoyed the movie or just long for the simpler days of movie tie-in games like this.

Kid Factor:

Samurai Academy: Paws of Fury is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Crude Humor and Fantasy Violence.  There are some poop jokes in the text and you can hit cartoony cat ninjas with a sword but they just fall over with dizzy stars and disappear when defeated.  Even though there is spoken voice to go along with the text, not all of it has that so reading skill is still required.  If your kids are OK watching the movie, they’ll be OK with this game.  Younger gamers may need a little help, though.

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children