March 12^th, 2004 (12:00am) - Sammy Studios today announced that Seven Samurai 20XX is now available in retail outlets in the US. Released exclusively for Sony PlayStation 2, Seven Samurai 20XX is a fast-paced action game inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece "The Seven Samurai." The game takes the samurai epic’s timeless tale of a courageous few standing up against evil and recreates it for the videogame generation. As a proper homage to the original work, Seven Samurai 20XX has been a collaboration of artists, with character design by the renowned artist and sci-fi visualist Jean "Moebius" Giraud ("Alien," "The Fifth Element"), opening and ending theme music composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto ("The Last Emperor") and support from Kurosawa Production. Seven Samurai 20XX is rated T for Teen and will debut at $39.99.

"We have an intense samurai action game with an epic story, one that’s withstood the test of time and continues to influence action film directors like Spielberg and Lucas," said Tim Pivnicny, senior VP of sales and marketing for Sammy Studios, Inc. "This is a must-own for fans of melee-combat and action games, as well as for Seven Samurai devotees who want to see an interactive, digitally remastered retelling of the original."

Featuring intense melee combat, with a variety of attacks and the ability to string together massive combos, Seven Samurai 20XX is an action fan’s dream. The action in the game is lightning fast and punctuated by breathtaking particle effects and dazzling special effects, such as temps mort (dead time) slow-motion attack. Seven Samurai 20XX also has a cast of more than 40 characters, a wide variety of usable weapons that can be collected from defeated bosses and entirely new modes of play and hidden secrets that can be unlocked in the game. Players take on the role of the young ronin Natoe, a masterless samurai who comes to the defense of a group on the run from a murderous army. With two razor-sharp katana and an arsenal of samurai attacks, Natoe must fight his way through a massive futuristic city as he leads the group to an outlying village. There he and fellow warriors make their stand to defend the villagers, becoming legend as the seven samurai who stood against an entire army.