So, Wii games don't really excite me ever. I play them for like an hour max and then I'm usually done playing it forever with few exceptions. Muramasa is one of those exceptions. I had it for a few days before even playing it, because I figured it would be like the other Wii games, but I had trouble putting the controller down on this one.

The game plays like a standard 2D beat'em up; think Onimusha, from the makers of Odin Sphere on the PS2. Instead of a faux 3D environment like Double Dragon or Ninja Turtles though, it's strictly 2D with platforms to jump up or down to. I prefer it because it kept me in the action more instead of moving a little down to the right so I wouldn't get hit by some roundhouse kick.

The action is fast paced with swarms of enemies. It's not really a hard game, even on the hard difficulty (Shura)...like Onimusha it can be a pure button masher. The A button is attack and block/parry/repel, based on timing. You get souls to make more Muramasa swords that can be equipped by leveling (you need a certain strength and vitality score to equip). The sword tree is huge, with 108 swords across 2 different characters, each with a separate story mode but the characters are controlled the same. After beating both story modes in the same save file, you can share swords across the characters. There are 3 endings for each character total and I actually logged about 35 hours getting to level 99 on both, all swords/items, and all 3 endings on hard.

The thing is, even though the fighting is repetitive and after a while the enemies are predictable I always wanted to go to the next screen. That to me speaks volumes, but it's also my type of game so maybe I'm a bit biased. Regardless, you can put more hours into the game if you want to play it on Very Hard (Shigurui, unlocked after beating one story on Shura) which gives you 1 health for the entire game, meaning you have to be flawless. I haven't even tried that mode yet but after playing through the game 3 times I can imagine how ridiculous it will be.

Anyways, if you have a Wii and like side-scroller beat'em up games, it's definitely worth a look. I'd say rent it first to see if you like it, but definitely give it a shot!