The Sword of the Samurai

The object of the game is to rescue the hostages who are being held against their will by a renegade martial arts gang.

The hostages are held on the knees, under the protection of an armed and deadly guard. The number of hostages left to rescue are shown on the bottom left hand side of the screen, with Samurai lives shown on the right. To rescue the hostages, the Samurai must walk up to them, often killing their guard in the process.

The renegade gang have threatened to begin eradicating the hostages if their demands for a ransom is not paid. If the time to this deadline reaches zero, the Samurai has failed his mission and looses a life for bringing shame on to the name of these Noble Warriors.

The Samurai has the ability to drop a magical crystal by pulling down on flat ground. This means that the Warrior will return to this spot after he has lost a life. The Samurai can also pick up the crystal by the same method and take it with him to a later part of the level.

As well as the deadly Sword which can only be drawn in hand to hand combat, the Samurai has Shurikans which can be thrown at the enemy from a distance. Once two hostages have been rescued, the Samurai has the ability to throw cut throat daggers instead of Shurikans.

After all of the hostages have been rescued, the Samurai must take them to the end of the level to successfully complete his mission.