Review - Black and White Bushido

Review by Jon Evans
Developers; Endemol Shine UK
Publisher; Green Man Gaming
Formats; PC 
Global Release date; Out now 
Black and White Bushido is, at its heart, a very pure and pared-down brawler. It has, appropriatley, a zen-like simplicity in its combat, with few distractions to confuse the player. Bushido means “The Way of the Warrior” and the game involves a selection of feudal Japanese warriors fighting in a 2D monochrome landscape with ancient and mythical weapons to help improve their advantage. With the ability for four players to play locally as well as play with three bots, you are presented with a platform-based environment, where you can jump, flip and dash to seek and kill your opponents. The main conceit here is the ability to hide in plain sight of your enemies. The platforms and walls create slanting shadows and bright rays that let your fighters blend completely into the background when they are static or creeping around. The ‘light’ Warriors are white and can hide in in the white sections of the level, whereas the ‘shadow’ fighters can hide in the black sections.
​The fighting is fast and satisfying with a combat style players of Niddhogg will find familiar. You can attack your player with a dash thrust combo that pairs your attack button with your directional button. I played the game with a controller, which is the preferred method of control for the game, especially when more than one person is playing locally, and a push of the stick and a press of the square/X button creates the thrust attack. Double jumping allows you to scale the heights of the level and avoid obstacles and you can wall run too. You can also attack other players in the air, and makes the gameplay much more frantic and satisfying especially when you make a downward kill from the air to players on the ground. There is no block button, which initially seems a mistake in design, however it makes the game play quite balanced, especially coupled with the difficulty of the visibility of opponents, and allows for a quick succession of kills in the games. Should your players attack at the same time in opposite directions, your weapons clang and no hits fall, thus this parry technique is your main means of defence. 
Around your the levels, there are various tools to help you in your fight. You can pick up shuriken throwing stars, caltrops and, most anachronistically, teleportation ‘sacks’ which contain a mystical powder that lets you mark a spot with a click of the circle/B button which you can then teleport back to at a later time if needed, again using the circle/B Button. These are the only other tools to your weapons, and feel meagre initially, but are actually quite useful and have different tactical advantages in the different modes you can play. The throwing stars can be thrown at another player, wounding or killing them and the caltrops can be left on the ground for an enemy to step on. Once they are wounded, they bleed and leave a persistent trail behind them, Super Meat Boy style, which gives away their position even if they are hiding in their own colour. ​
Picture
Speaking of the game modes, you have a Deathmatch with up to 4 players, two on each colour, and a capture the flag mode. In Deathmatch you rack up the kills (you can set the maximum number of kills in the initial level setup) and try and hit the maximum before your opponents do. In Deathmatch the level randomly changes from black to white and back again, allowing for a shift in advantage to each side. It’s the most frantic of the modes, as your only aim is to find the player and kill them and can be quite quick to complete. As the level loads, it can be confusing as to where your player initially starts, especially if they are in their own colour, so you can tap the LT/L2 button to reveal your position quickly to see where you are. If you stand still or creep, you remain invisible, but as soon as you run, your outline is revealed and your enemies can track you. I found the black player was easier to track than the white, and seemed to have an unfair advantage, but you can adjust the contrast of your game screen in the settings and it is worth having a fiddle with this to ensure well balanced play. ​
Capture the Flag mode was my favourite, where you have to stand near a flag and activate it with the triangle/Y button to change parts of the level to your colour. Meanwhile you have to also fend off your opponents who are doing the same thing. There is only one flag to the level, which spawns in random locations and the more flags you change to your colour the more your stealth advantage raises. Once your level is completely white or black, the last flag capture wins the level. This is where the tools become much more useful. Leaving a teleport mark by the flag means you can appear back on the flag after your demise and carry on changing it to your colour (in a cool twist, you keep your power ups even after death). Dropping caltrops by the flag means you weaken your opponents as they stand by the flag making them easy meat. I enjoyed the tactical to-and-fro of Capture the Flag, which lasted much longer as both sides kept tipping the colour in their favour like a macabre game of Death-Othello. ​
​You also have a challenge mode which tests your more specialist skills and hones you for higher level combat. You have objectives you need to meet as you fight, like killing an opponent from behind, killing from a wall jump, or just capturing one flag. These objectives stack up as you play and as you meet each one you also stack up your score. This mode is the least forgiving and can seem unduly difficult at times, however it does make you a better player and adds to the variability of gameplay, especially if you are playing solo. 
With a beautiful Japanese calligraphy art design in keeping with the theme and soft lilting traditional Japanese Zen music, Black and White Bushido is a visually satisfying game that sparkles with polish. The combination of the Biwa lutes, Taiko drums, the glug of waterfalls and the chirping of birds in the cherry blossom add a curious counterpoint to the violent actions going on in the surroundings. The monochrome colouring with its broad, spread-out sumi brushstrokes makes it feel like you are playing an ancient manuscript that has magically been brought to life and adds to the whole experience. Black and White Bushido plays best with friends, and is a great example of how local play can be rewarding and fun, but works just as well when playing on your own thanks to its bot mode. It is instantly accessible and fun to play, You feel empowered as you dive from the air with satisfying attacks and wonderful warrior grunts on every lunge and the rising-sun-red of the blood that spatters across the ground adds to the vicarious thrill of the kill. A great, high value party game for the discerning Japanophile. ​
Review copy provided by Green Man Gaming
Images courtesy of Endemic Shine UK and screen captured from reviewers PC.