I'm not a huge fan of hack and slash games. I think I own only one in my entire videogame collection, and even that one I don't like. Well, along comes Genji, a martial arts hack and slash, which is looking to add something just a little bit more to the genre than just tap this button over and over 'til everything is dead.

First off, given that this is a PS3 game, you'd hope that the graphics would at least be nice, and that they are. The character models are nicely rendered as are the environments. Cutscenes detail the game, but really, who wants to watch movies at E3 when you want to be playing. The nicest environment was one of those paper houses you see all over ancient Japanese culture, only this one was on fire and you had to work your way through it. During this run through the environment you are battling enemies and dodging flames and falling debris as you try to reach the exit. Genji actually felt like Onimusha in many ways since both games dealt with sword combat against what appeared to be set backgrounds and cameras that the game controlled.

Given the game is a hack and slash effort, an emphasis must be placed on the combat, which here felt a tad slow and plodding rather than fast and reflective like a Ninja Gaiden type style. Now, slow and steady is okay when it leads to methodical planning and careful moves, but that didn't feel like the case at all here in this preview build. Though slow, the game featured your typical combat moves with your sword slices, blocks, jump attacks, etc.

The one move and bit of combat that makes Genji different than other hack and slash games (at least to my knowledge) is the Kamul feature. Kamul is a method of combat meant to easily deal with many enemies at one time if they surround you. I go back to it time and time again, but think of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and that massive battle The Bride has with the Crazy 88. Remember how she was surrounded at several points, most notable that one point when we only see the battle against a silhouette, and she dispatched the enemies with swift one time moves? Kamul acts exactly like that! So, whenever you get surrounded and have the Kamul meter built up, simply let loose the power, which gives you timed button cinematics where your lead character will perform one great sword move after another until hopefully you are successful with each and the enemies are resting dead at your feet. It was actually quite cool to perform.

Overall, the graphics were nice, though it didn't feel like they were pushing the PS3 at all. The Kamul move was cool, but everything else was slow. If the final version fixes the combat problem, Genji could be pretty fun when it is released.