The sudden appearance of a fro-stachioed samurai on the stage during Namco-Bandai's presentation this morning of Afro Samurai was met with such surprise and bewilderment that everyone seemed to be frozen for a moment. And then he was joined by a trio of ninja, kicking off a six minute long performance by the four that involved much sword waggling, mismatched sound effects and blurry visuals. It was sort of like a live action Wii game.

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Ah, Fall 2008. It's the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, because early on in a year, Fall 2008 seems to be the Promised Land of game releases. Everything's coming out in that pleasantly hazy "Fall 2008" window.

That is, until the delays begin. "Fall 2008" is liable to become any date from October to February, and that's exactly what's happened with the impressive-looking Afro Samurai, now delayed to January 27th. Feels funny calling it a "delay" when we never really had a date, huh?

Afro Samurai Delayed to January 27 [Shacknews]

Namco Bandai treated Comic-Con attendees to a playable — but all too brief — demo of Afro Samurai, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 title based on the manga of the same name. The demo, which feels like an early, tutorial-style level, helps get the player up to speed on the fighting mechanics in a tight, enclosed portion of a Japanese village.

After a brief voiceover from character Ninja Ninja, voiced with super salty language by Samuel L. Jackson, Afro Samurai is set loose on a steady stream of sword wielding bad guys.

The attack system is rather straightforward, using the X and Y buttons for light hits and heavy hits respectively. Afro jumps with A and kicks with B. Blocking is performed with the right trigger, but it's the left trigger that makes the combat more interesting.

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Afro Samurai will be demoed to the public for the first time at this week's Comic-Con International in San Diego, Namco Bandai announced today.

The playable demo will give gamers a chance to check out what looks to be a pretty stylistic fighter based on the Samuel L. Jackson executive produced anime series. There will also be an Afro Samurai panel on Thursday featuring the creators behind the show. Panelist members will include Samuel "Snakes on a Plane" Jackson, THe RZA, Takashi Okazaki and Leo Chu. The group plan to talk about the development process, dish on some behind-the-scenes anecdotes and explain the inspiration behind the characters, music and story.

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These three videos show you the two types of power-ups in this hip-hop slasher. You've got the basic "In Focus" mode, which turns the cel-shading from colour to black and white, slows time and gives you accurate swordplay--you can chop off different body parts. The "Over Focus" mode makes time practically stand still as you run around chopping the limbs off of multiple enemies. The rap soundtrack intensifies during these power-ups as well. I'm looking forward to spending some hands-on time with this game when it comes out early next year.

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Bandai Namco just sent over a batch of fresh screenshots for Afro Samurai. The upcoming hip-hop, Samurai, action-adventure game for the 360 looks to feature an interesting blend of hand-drawn and cel-shaded art. It's very pretty stuff. Hit the jump for a clutch of dazzling screens. I hope the play lives up to the fidelity.

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Senior Producer David Robinson talks up the upcoming stylish slasher Afro Samurai. It is, he says, a game "carved out of style." Sounds like it, you can cut up a person anyway you want, none of it pre-canned animation. You can cut of body parts, nose, fingers. Sounds pretty damn cool.

Fans of Afro Samurai have a treat headed their way in the form of a game based on the show about a renegade African american Samurai seeking revenge on the killers of his father. Armed with his father's trusty katana, he goes forth to slice and dice the evil doers.

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Hard to tell what's going on besides blood and Sam Jackson's voice. But really, what else do you need? Other things. Oh, right. Gotcha! The cell-shaded Afro Samurai game follows Takahashi Okazaki's manga and will feature a hip-hop soundtrack with appearances by The RZA. Out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this fall in North America. Afro Samurai Game [GameSpot]

Like Afro Samurai? Excited about the Namco Bandai console game of the same name? Buddy, have we got the ghetto captured, shaky-cam video for you. During Roger Hector's DICE presentation today, the VP of Development at Namco Bandai Games showed off the first trailer for the game, which looks to stay true to the series' trademark art style. Hector showed off work in progress versions of Afro, in 2D and 3D form, a transition the character seemed to make with ease. Hopefully, we'll get a direct feed version of the above clip soon and put this whole bush league video capture job behind us.

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