Have You Played… Samurai Lantern?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

It’s like Super Crate Box, but with only one weapon and three levels. Does that sound a bit rubbish? It’s not. It’s streamlined.

Let me fill you in. You’re a little samurai and the bad things are coming. Slice the bad things and pick up the lanterns to open the door and proceed to the next level. Sounds easy, but it’s not. One hit is insta-death and also there are buzzsaws. It’s a good thing you are a human, capable of instinctive twitching and fearsome perseverance.

I gain great satisfaction in discovering a game with perfectly-suited controls. There’s a sense that if a platformer can just feel right, then everything else will follow. That’s nonsense, of course, you need to have a game there too. But Samurai Lantern adds just enough of one to be a bite-sized delight. It’s free as well. Get playing.