Super Samurai Sweeper
One of Nerdook's first games was the minesweeper-inspired mystery puzzle ClueSweeper, and obviously he has a soft spot for the genre because he's dipping in that well again to bring you Super Samurai Sweeper. This one ups the strategy quotient by making your tiny samurai's path to revenge against the shogun one-way only: you can't go back and grind earlier levels, so if you plan badly in the beginning you can get stuck in an unwinnable gamestate. Just make sure you think carefully and if you're worried, choose an easier difficulty level.
In each of seven daimyo levels plus the final shogun level, you're presented with a large board with tiles. You only have a limited number of clicks to find and defeat the boss. Click on tiles to flip them over. The territory effects (whether good, like bonus silver, or bad, like a booby trap) will automatically trigger, and if there is a party of mooks there, you can click again to fight them, which will make the final boss fight easier, as all undefeated mooks join the boss. You'll be able to see some things about the adjacent tiles which will help you decide where to click next. Footprints on tiles are especially important, as they indicate the direction of the boss. During levels, you can spend silver at a shop to buy things like extra time and better armor, and in between levels, you can spend experience to upgrade and expand your party.
During the battles themselves, the only way you can affect the tide of battle is by clicking on one of three specials (assuming you have enough kill-fueled chakra in your bar to unleash them), and you can also use this chakra to resurrect fallen party members. For the most part the AI is pretty good, but the archer has a disturbing tendency to either forget he's a glass cannon and charge right up to the boss, or stand stupidly outside of range and fire arrows at the ground. Maybe the ground insulted his grandma. The real fun of the game is in the main minesweeping sections. Since leftover clicks translate into major experience and final score bonuses, you want to hoard them, yet you also need to make sure you're ready for the boss, because dying wipes out anything you've earned in-level and dings your score to boot. Even which daimyo to fight first is a tactical decision, since different daimyos increase the difficulty in different ways (increasing mook numbers vs. buffing a certain class of mook for example). Truly a game for the cerebral ronin.
Walkthrough Guide
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Super Samurai Sweeper Walkthrough: Tips and Tricks
Posted by: joye | February 15, 2012 11:42 PM