Review: Draw Slasher
Score:
81%
Draw Slasher got my attention the second I saw the help screen. Any game that is explained by stating "your village is under attack from Zombie Monkey Pirates" will get a huge thumbs up in my book. Throw in some stylish graphics, a kicking guitar riff, and a control system that has quite a bit of subtlety, and you have a winner. How strong a winner? Stick Don't Stop Me Now on the jukebox and let's find out.
Version Reviewed: 1.00 (4)
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
Right from the off, Draw Slasher feels special. With a musical fanfare of eastern promise, taking you through some stylish anime-style graphics and a menu with a perfectly pitched font, Draw Slasher has had a lot of time spent on it. To be honest, Draw Slasher, while being descriptive, doesn't really get anything over about the game. Someone in marketing handed naming duties to the intern, and I'd like to see them re-think the title. It's the only weak point of the presentation.
Then there are the swooping red accents over the menu choices. Your eye is drawn to the options, mentally pulling you into the game. It's all smartly done. And thankfully the game underneath it lives up to the expectation.
If you glance at the screenshots, you might think this is little more than a repeat of Fruit Ninja (reviewed on AAS back in March) , but it's more than that. First up, you can see your hero on the screen, and you can move him about with a left or right cursor key on-screen. You'll take damage whenever the ZMP's (Zombie Monkey Pirates) attack you, so keep out of the way. There's no jumping or depth, this is a strictly one dimensional title.
But I'm not using these keys, because you also move whenever you slash your sword, which you do by slashing the screen with your finger. When you do that, your onscreen ninja moves to the start of the sword sweep, and then flashes his blade along the path - if that involves a lunging, massive kinetic move, so be it.
And that's where the subtlety that makes Draw Slasher so engrossing comes in. It's not about slashing at everything that moves on the screen, you need to think about where you are in the game world, where you want to be, how to get there without taking damage... and how to kill all the ZMPs that get in the way.
You have two aids. The first is that you can see where the ZMPs will appear as they lumber in from the horizon towards the plane you are fighting on; and you get an arrow saying how many are off screen in each direction. The second aid is healing powers. Which kick in when you stand still - and yes, that's as dangerous as it sounds in a zombie attack.
So you have movement to consider, the time it takes to attack, how to attack and where on the body to aim for, plus it's all against the clock, assuming you are going for the endless game, no matter which of the three types of styles you choose (waves of enemies, slowly increasing difficulty, or going straight to hardcore Romero level of too many zombied attackers). There is the obligatory tutorial (do spend some time on this, even though I think the movement cursor gets in the way), and a survival mode where you simply have to live as long as possible.
All this and you get the choice of two different areas to fight in (the Bamboo Forest and the Sakura Garden).
Draw Slasher reeks of style, like a good Kung-Fu movie from the 70s. It has far too much blood to be taken seriously, and gets everything right. it might not have a huge amount of depth, but it's engrossing and needs real thought to go alongside your reactions.
-- Ewan Spence, Sept 2011.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at