Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku manages to replicate the artistic style of the cartoon perfectly. The bizarre landscape, trees, creatures and robots look exactly like the ones on the show. Some objects and characters are cel-shaded while others are not - similar to how characters in the show appear. Combined with an excellent soundtrack and the voice of Phil Lamarr as Samurai Jack, the atmosphere of the show is perfectly replicated. Jack must travel from village to village, looking for that elusive portal to the past and undoing Aku's various misdeeds.

The game world is divided and linked by 'hubs' - after finishing the first village, Jack moves into a central location and then to the next village. Each village center then has entrances to each level. Besides finishing the level, there are two other objectives; gathering relics and rescuing villagers. With enough relics, Jack can grow stronger.

Jack can hack and slash with quick or heavy sword slashes, and he can use his 'Sakai' ability for this game's version of bullet-time. This ability has its own meter that refills as enemies are defeated. By experimenting with the two different attack buttons, some new special combination moves can be found. For example, hitting light, heavy, light and another attack will activate a cool jumping spin slash. There are some other moves that can be discovered; Jack can learn a move where he does a slow-motion jumping spin slash by hitting a combination of buttons while blocking. Jack can also use throwing stars, arrows, and an element-powered version of his sword.

Enemies in the game are largely Aku's minions, black and red robots that would love to chop Jack into little pieces. Some are recognizable as being perfect replicas from the show. A few of the robots are easily diced up, but others are only vulnerable at weak points. As they wear Jack down, his gi will be torn away, showing his scratches and wounds (just like on the show).

With hub-based exploration and lots of slashing, this game is a bit reminiscent of I-Ninja. The difficulty is adjustable, so players of all ages can get into it. It releases March 23rd.