I was recently looking for a fast-paced, flashy game that required a minimal amount of thought after taking my midterms. “Genji: Dawn of the Samurai” seemed to be the right game for me.

The game is loosely based off an actual piece of 11th century Japanese literature. I hoped this game would not suck away all my time and mental energy, and soon enough, all my fears were laid to rest. After the opening scene ends and the player first takes control, all it requires is hitting one or maybe two buttons, and it’s still fun.

The plot in this game includes a lot of names and places, all of which are spoken in Japanese and have English subtitles. Because the prospect of having to read subtitles was too much for me, I happily ignored most of the plot as a result.

I did pick up on some key points. First of all, you play as Yoshitsune, and you try to overthrow the oppressive Heishi Clan that is ruling most of Japan. You accomplish this by collecting power stones called Amahagane. To top off the story, you are fighting to revenge your late father.

Actually, the plot of the game is not as bad as I’ve made it out to be. However, the presentation of the story is annoying because it is always interrupting the action of the game. “Genji” is over-flowing with cut scenes. At points, there are only a few seconds of game play between cut scenes, giving the game a disjointed feel that makes you long for each scene to end.

In addition “Genji” features room-by-room action sequences that only exaggerate the stop-and-go motion of the game. In every room there are only a few enemies that make for short combat sequences, which are followed by a pause until you enter the next room to repeat the process again.

On the plus side, this format makes the game easy to play, and rarely requires restarts. Also, “Genji” does make the best of the room-by-room format by incorporating special powers. Defeating a small number of enemies quickly charges these powers. The room-by-room game play then allows the player to utilize these special powers very often, usually once in every room.

Generally, the special powers slow down time so the player can react quicker. Even with these special moves, combat is truly simple in “Dawn of the Samurai.” During the toughest fights with bosses, it still only takes hitting two buttons to win.

You may think this would become repetitive shortly into the game. Sadly, you would be wrong. “Genji: Dawn of the Samurai” is a very brief game that ends far before the simple combat system can become boring. This is the kind of game you can beat on a weeknight instead of finishing the recommended readings for class or going to a group project meeting.

The fact that the game is short does not mean it is not worth playing. “Genji” is a fun game with amazing lifelike graphics. Granted, the game does have its share of flaws that also include a fixed camera angle for all combat. Yet, “Dawn of the Samurai” provides at least one night’s worth of entertainment.

I could never recommend attempting to play this game for much longer. There is clearly no reason to buy this game, but renting is a good choice. Because the game is so short, you have plenty of time to beat the game and still return it with time to spare.

I can’t explain how fun it is to beat the game without ever having to leave the couch. Xbox users may be disappointed to hear that this one is only for Play Station 2, but most likely they would rather still play “Halo.”

Bill Hanley is a senior in LAS. His column appears on Tuesdays. He can be reached at [email protected].