#65 Mazan: Flash of the Blade

During my recent travels I stumbled across a London arcade called Play 2 Win. The place ingeniously combines legal gambling (video poker, etc.) and arcade gaming. It's a setup which, in theory, would give adults something to do while their kids play video games, or vice versa. I didn't see any kids there at all, but I did see some great, contemporary arcade machines including Police 911 and House of the Dead 3. I also spotted the ubiquitous bemania game; Dancing Stage 2: Euromix by Konami, which is just like our DDR. The most intriguing of the games was Mazan: Flash of the Blade from Konami. This Mocap (Motion Capture) game is played by swinging a physical sword around. Onscreen samurai, demons and monsters split with the diagonal slash of your blade. This involving gameplay makes Mazan satisfying, and, like other Mocap games, quite physically challenging.