In anticipation of the upcoming holiday season Sony has prepared a rather delicious lineup of quality games, my most favorite being Genji: Dawn of the Samurai. Inspired by the 11th century Japanese novel Tale of Genji, this button mashing hack-and-slash combat fest succeeds where others have failed simply because of the great attention to detail and its candy coated exterior, a superb presentation that immerses the player in a wondrous fantasy world full of powerful magic, terrifying monsters, and kick @$$ weaponry.

The game follows the lives of warriors Yoshitune and Benkei as they struggle to cleanse feudal Japan from an evil samurai clan known as the Heishi, powerful and demonic creatures that wield a dark magic and have imposed a tyrannical rule on the people of Kyo. The world map contains numerous points of interest, and you basically travel to each area and interact with the locals, buy items and/or weapons, and cut down waves of violent freaks. There are copious amounts of blood as well as dismemberment, and for the most part, all you have to do is dash into a group of enemies and rapidly press the Square or Triangle buttons to wedge cold, shining steel inside of someone's now gushing torso.

Like any great hack-and-slash title Genji has a hook. Actually, it's got a few, but it's most important is Kamui, which is basically a state of consciousness that enables your warrior to sidestep enemy attacks and counter with what'll most likely be a finishing blow. Throughout your travels you'll run into a magical substance called Amahagane, a powerful essence that can be used to upgrade your fighter's Stamina, Attack, and Defense, but it will also replenish your Kamui. Once you've filled up one or several bars located directly underneath your character's health meter (top left corner of the screen), you can engage Kamui to seriously kick some twisted samurai @$$.

By pressing L1 you enter Kamui mode, so to speak. The screen flashes, everything takes on a purplish glow, and things occur in slow motion. At first lesser enemies will be slightly knocked back from the force, but after regaining their composure they'll charge (either one at a time or all at once) towards your character and attempt an attack. Just as they're about to hit you, press Square (the Square button will briefly pop up on the screen before you're struck), and if you time it right Yoshitune or Benkei will side step the attack and then launch one of their own. Most times it'll just take a single slash or a whack across the chest or back and the enemy will go down, but other times heads will fly from necks and torsos will get cleaved right off an enemy's pelvis.

After killing the first guy the others will take their respective shots, and if you still have some Kamui left (because it unfortunately doesn't last forever), they'll meet the same fate as the first idiot, so it's possible to complete this sweeping ballet-style maneuver where you slash the first guy, spin around and cut off the head of the second attacker, then perform a flip and conclude the dance by running your blade through the last enemy's mid section. However, if you're really lucky they'll all attack you at once, which gives you the opportunity of finishing them all off with a single blow. I once had about four enemies leap into the air at the same time and I cut them all in half.

It's very easy to get used to Kamui attacks and even easier to do them with style. If you're good enough the game will award you with a Kamui rating, though at this point I'm unsure how this factors into gameplay.

In addition to Kamui counterattacks there are also numerous weapons and items you can purchase or find. Some of them include Gosensui (which is medicinal water that protects you from sorcerer attacks), Senrikisui (medicinal water that adds some extra oomph to your physical power), and Futsumasui (protects you from various disasters). There's also different armor as well as weapons such as swords, clubs, and halberds.

Yoshitune and Benkei are two totally different characters and you'll get to play as both, sometimes by taking turns (one character completes an objective, then the game transitions to another mission starring the second character) and others where you actually have a choice who you want to play as. Each will provide you with a different gameplay experience, Yoshitune being the lighter/faster of the two and a master swordsman, and Benkei being a lumbering giant that wields these humongous clubs. Benkei's a lot slower, but he makes up for that with his brute strength. Where Yoshitune needs to perform numerous attacks to slay a single enemy, one or two good shots with Benkei's Rokkakubo (an iron covered club) is usually enough to kill just about anything.

The demo that I played is divided into a handful of levels that include temples, a forest, and a spooky village, among other locales, and each, though extremely short, offers a different taste of what the final game will include. The Highway, for example, is this lush, green forest dotted with Japanese architecture. Featuring a water fall and steep drops, it allows the player to leap from the top of a mountain, safely land (because huge drops shouldn't hurt warriors of this caliber), and practice grabbing onto ledges and jumping between platforms. Dissimilarly, the Myogyo Temple environment lets you go inside of a building to collect a bunch of items as well as battle a hideous creature known as the Mononoke at the level's conclusion.

It is important to note that the two bosses I fought, the Mononoke and some huge evil samurai found in Gojo were somewhat immune to Kamui. They both didn't like it (the samurai actually had a fit and began stamping his feet like a child), but I wasn't able to effectively counterattack.

Genji's greatest quality is it doesn't feel cheep. While the bosses certainly tested my skills (as they should), I wasn't getting struck in the back off camera or overwhelmed by a gang of enemies looking to get their cheap hits. The fixed camera perspectives allowed me to get a fairly excellent view of the action and plan my attacks accordingly. Things got a bit distorted when my character was further away and surrounded by enemies, but some frantic button mashing or even better, the use of Kamui, enabled me to overcome all of the more dangerous situations. To that end, Dawn of the Samurai is immensely enjoyable. The combat is solid and rewarding, the Kamui counterattacks are simple to use and highly effective, and the plethora of different items that can be picked up add an extra dimension to the gameplay so it's not just about mindless action.

Of course, it also helps that the game is positively gorgeous. Developer Game Republic has just done a marvelous job with its interpretation of feudal Japan, but past the Japanese architecture and the outfits the characters wear, Dawn of the Samurai is this wild explosion of color, so much so that at times it's like watching a flower quickly blooming before your eyes. One minute you're wandering through abandoned temple grounds full of red buildings and the next you enter a sea of bright, yellow leaves. In some respects the game reminds me of the Jet Li film, Hero, though the color is nowhere near as pronounced as in the movie.

Microsoft continues to sound off on the next generation of gaming but I'm finding it difficult to buy into its system with titles like Genji: Dawn of the Samurai on the horizon. Its graphics aren't pushing any envelopes, but this is just a damn fine looking videogame that's wonderful to play. With that being said, do yourself a favor and mark its September 20 release date on your calendar.