Katana Senpou by saint11

[raw]
made by saint11 for LD26 (COMPO)
A game made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare.
It was inspired by Alex Kidd and Samurai Kirby (from Kirby Superstar).

This game is a tribute to the games that I liked when I was young, so all the Japanese text and voice (and even the tittle!) make absolutely no sense.
I wanted people to feel the way I felt when I played Japanese games, where nothing made sense.

The single player mode has 11 levels and an ending image. If you to check out more about my work you can find it here: http://www.studiominiboss.com

Special thanks to my lovely wife @amora_b and to @ninaringo, who kept feeding me cookies and cupcakes while I was making this game!

INSTRUCTIONS:
The game should be self explanatory, but here are the controls:
First player (or single player):
SPACE: Attack.
Z or X: Change move.
Second Player:
ENTER: Attack
O or P: Change move.
Wait for the Signal to attack (Watch out for the fake signal!)! And the moves works in a similar way to Rock, Paper Scissors.

KNOWN BUGS:
- There's a bug that sometimes may freeze the game if you attack right before the signal. But it's very uncommon, so just refresh and try again if you get it! I'll fix it on the next build!

Ratings

Coolness 39% 1564
Overall 3.98 34
Audio 3.88 42
Fun 3.78 53
Graphics 4.51 7
Humor 3.35 111
Innovation 3.19 494
Mood 3.92 36
Theme 3.45 646

Feedback

7Soul
29. Apr 2013 · 03:09 UTC
Great job. It's a very simple concept but the level of polish is very high.
pvwradtke
29. Apr 2013 · 03:35 UTC
Polished and nicely done. Had a good laugh with the voice over job :).
Tuba
29. Apr 2013 · 04:11 UTC
DAT GRAPHICS :o

Very beautiful and fun game (also quite hard), great job. :)
CyberYeti
29. Apr 2013 · 05:18 UTC
Really amazing atmosphere and style while keeping some incredibly fun and challenging gameplay. One of the best entries I've seen yet. Great job!
namuol
29. Apr 2013 · 05:21 UTC
Astounding polish. I just wish I had someone to play with!
Andre Kent
29. Apr 2013 · 05:25 UTC
As expected, simple, but so different! It's hard to see a well-designed rock-paper-scissors game with some level of challenge! I'm astonished! :D (The sound effects are great too!)
NAMKCOR
29. Apr 2013 · 05:28 UTC
Fantastic little game, the rock/paper/scissors element really makes it tense.
FuzzyWuzzie
29. Apr 2013 · 05:35 UTC
Great game! My only complaint is that I had a hard time making sense of the Japanese characters (and what was what).
SnoringFrog
29. Apr 2013 · 05:36 UTC
I hit one bug (I struck early in round 2 or 3, then the game never let me continue), but never hit that issue again after a refresh.

Otherwise, excellent game. Samurai Kirby was one of my favorite things as a kid, and this is a great tribute to it (with a nice twist as well!).
Muu?
29. Apr 2013 · 05:42 UTC
Cool and polished rock-scissor-paper implementation.
gabehollombe
29. Apr 2013 · 06:55 UTC
I really, really enjoyed this one. This game gets my highest ratings yet. Fantastic art direction, simple mechanics, great soundtrack, moody feel. You should be very, very proud of this. Fantastic job!
Zathalos
29. Apr 2013 · 07:53 UTC
Simple mechanics with super sweet art wrapped up in a nice package. The game is nicely made and has a great mood. Awesome job.
dissonance
29. Apr 2013 · 08:26 UTC
Great job! Very polished! A little too easy, but great nonetheless!
omaromeir
29. Apr 2013 · 11:08 UTC
Amazing, the idea is simple but the graphics, music and level of polish is just amazing :D.
jhrrsn
29. Apr 2013 · 11:18 UTC
This game is the bomb! Really love the simple idea and solid execution, the style is awesome.
DrGeraud
29. Apr 2013 · 11:41 UTC
Great !
That's so amusing, we have more or less the same gameplay and the same theme (samurai, ninja, whatever). My game is also about dueling with the sunset as backdrop.

They are not exactly the same, but one thing is sure : you handle it way better than me ! (I even aiming for the jam, I couldn't make it to the compo).

So, congrats ! \o/
lucasncv
29. Apr 2013 · 12:40 UTC
Excellent entry! Incredibly polished, good job.
Infin8
29. Apr 2013 · 12:52 UTC
Awesome game. Hard to beat the AI, until you start acting randomly against it.
semi
29. Apr 2013 · 12:53 UTC
A very polished rock-paper-scissors! Nice one!
Clodial
29. Apr 2013 · 13:00 UTC
Definitely one of my favorites so far XD
Tiago Ling Alexandre
29. Apr 2013 · 13:24 UTC
Nice game! Best audio so far! Congrats!
FredericRP
29. Apr 2013 · 16:04 UTC
Very nice, simple and efficient :)
Sestren
30. Apr 2013 · 00:20 UTC
I love the decisions you made with both the sound and the art style. Very cool entry.
AlanBazan
30. Apr 2013 · 00:29 UTC
!@#!@#$! Good game!!!
Jan Marcano
30. Apr 2013 · 00:39 UTC
Awesome! Really nice level of polish. Has a high quality bar.

The last samurai was though!
Hegemege
30. Apr 2013 · 00:42 UTC
Stunning graphics, really fun and a bit challenging game! Lovely audio as well. 5/5 hands down
Sakuyan
30. Apr 2013 · 00:43 UTC
This is really good! :)
Foxtacy
30. Apr 2013 · 00:46 UTC
Once again...

Very well done! :D
saampahlavan
30. Apr 2013 · 01:07 UTC
One of the few games I played to the very end. Kinda wish there was a bigger ending, but overall the use of simple rock x paper x scissors and the tension of waiting for an attack really worked well with the theme. Fantastic job!
PAMVllo
30. Apr 2013 · 01:11 UTC
Nice Game! Very Hard but I liked it!
reverso13
30. Apr 2013 · 01:19 UTC
I love how you take such a simple idea to a very enjoyable game!! Also the graphics are really beautiful.
SaintHeiser
30. Apr 2013 · 05:53 UTC
Nice job!
Graphics and gameplay looking interesting =)
Prelucid
30. Apr 2013 · 06:27 UTC
I'm impressed. You managed to make a Rock-Paper-Scissors-like game work as an actual game I would play.
Chman
30. Apr 2013 · 07:39 UTC
Simple concept but very effective, and quite fun in two players mode !
Casino Jack
30. Apr 2013 · 08:04 UTC
A simple concept, beautifully polished.
Angerus
30. Apr 2013 · 09:28 UTC
I really liked the humor, mood and overall degrees of realization of the game! I think that the concept, even in its simplicity, was well done and really answered the theme!
So... Banzaï Saint11! Banzaï!
P.S : And thanks for your LD 23's code source. Really help me a lot for this LD! :)
matthias_zarzecki
30. Apr 2013 · 13:43 UTC
Love the idea of a "single move", it makes this quite tense.
henrykun
30. Apr 2013 · 17:41 UTC
Very nice graphics and good mechanics :)
ataxkt
30. Apr 2013 · 19:46 UTC
Really nicely polished. I wasn't sure which guy I was sometimes though! Maybe differentiate them slightly more? 5 stars!
PsenFilip
01. May 2013 · 02:18 UTC
The art is gorgeous. Overall aesthetics are sweet.
I find it pretty humorous too. Had a good laugh when I first read rocku, papperu and scizoru on there.
Jacob
01. May 2013 · 04:09 UTC
Well done!
GranaDa
01. May 2013 · 16:05 UTC
Totalmente Excelente! :D
Dohan
01. May 2013 · 17:15 UTC
This has been the most funny rock-paper-scissors game I've ever played. Great look and feel!
Jellycakes
02. May 2013 · 01:54 UTC
Pretty decent game. Well polished and was fun to play. Although the tron character at the end needs desperately to be nerfed or something
lekochen
02. May 2013 · 08:25 UTC
What a coincidence, I made a Rock-Paper-Scissors like fighting game as well. Good game. Amazing polished.
KevinZuhn
02. May 2013 · 14:48 UTC
Excellent! The long-haired ninja was my favorite.
RobKat
02. May 2013 · 16:14 UTC
So cool! I presume there was a rock paper scissors thing going on but instead I rapid tapped the change move button and launched when the signal came :D Love this game!
rubna
02. May 2013 · 18:40 UTC
Great job! Really simple idea but effective none the less. The AI seemed a bit random though, and therefor unfair, but you can't really help that with this kind of game. Haven't tried versus, but I bet that's loads more fun.
Great entry overall!
Zccc
02. May 2013 · 22:47 UTC
So awesome, I love the animations, but the game itself is kind of confusing!
sharbelfs
03. May 2013 · 00:19 UTC
Hard as hell!! But it's very polished, and have great animations!
Alucard J
03. May 2013 · 00:48 UTC
Very hard, would suit 2 player better. Awesome graphics and audio, Well Done =]
Travis Irby
03. May 2013 · 07:55 UTC
Love the graphics and animations! Game is fun too :D Nice job
lotusgame
03. May 2013 · 08:21 UTC
Very well polished game ! Excellent graphics. Well done !
Knighty
03. May 2013 · 09:26 UTC
Fun game! It feels like the opponent is cheating and changing his move after I attack, but maybe I just have a slow reaction time.
Xanjos
03. May 2013 · 22:20 UTC
A really interesting twist to one of my favourite minigames ever. The rock-paper-scissors element adds an extra depth of strategy to this reaction-based game that makes it really fun and addictive (which basically means mindgames when playing against another person in versus mode :D)
lightsoda
04. May 2013 · 20:01 UTC
Looks great, I like the animation when executing a move. Well done.
Kali Purr
05. May 2013 · 10:11 UTC
This game is really cool. It starts off a little jokey ("Mitsubishi!") But then becomes a game of concentration and patience. Wonderful!
MinionStudios
11. May 2013 · 18:14 UTC
Awesome game with fantastic gameplay.
TurboDindon
12. May 2013 · 09:36 UTC
Very dynamic mise-en-scene.
I suck ; I can't win the first level of the game. I don't understand why.

- SEPHY (@sephyka)
dalbinblue
13. May 2013 · 02:07 UTC
Well polished game, and fun. Played with my brother; turns out I'm pretty terrible.
sP0CkEr2
13. May 2013 · 03:53 UTC
one of my favorites from the dare -- great job
xploitgames
14. May 2013 · 20:03 UTC
I had fun playing. No idea what I was doing. But I seemed to win. Versus mode is a ++! Great job!
rsodre
15. May 2013 · 06:19 UTC
muito bom!!
Puzzlem00n
15. May 2013 · 21:13 UTC
Very, very fun! I love it! This would actually make a pretty good combat system in some larger RPG. Not that the game isn't already plenty good on its own!

Suggestion: If you want to add more visual polish (as if the game need it) you could make the rock-paper-scissors thoughts put the enemies in different stances, to reinforce the idea that it's a "move."
brantkings
19. May 2013 · 02:07 UTC
Great game. The amount of polish is outstanding! Versus mode is a +, it really is.