Here’s Rengoku II in a nutshell: you hit things with your entire body. It’s the sort of game that subscribes to the theory that smacking things in the head is always amusing. The benefit of Rengoku II is that it enables you to smack things in the head with pretty much your whole torso. That’s a lot of fun right there and it’s surprising how consistently it holds up. But then this is an action game and it thankfully never loses sight of that. Instead it exploits the elements that best complement games of this ilk, while forgetting the more superfluous stuff.

So there is no vast story or history to the world in which the game is set. None of the characters express even the slightest hint that there’s more to them than an excuse to further hit things. It’s all about the hitting. And it’s with this ethos that Rengoku II elevates itself to one enjoyable and action-packed experience.

You take the role of an Autonomous Dueling Armed Machine – or ADAM – and spend the majority of the game pummeling things, collecting Elixir skins and taking advantage of the morphing abilities of ADAM. Elixir applies itself to your head, arms and torso and lets you tool ADAM with some awesome weapon designs. One of the first looks we gave our ADAM was akin to a praying mantis with a massive gun for a head. He had long arms that could better reach opponents, and a gun that could pop shots if we were low on health and wanted to stand back.

You have to work your way through clearing out the various floors and sections in the tower of Rengoku, which you do by entering rooms and killing the enemies that spawn one-by-one. That’s the game. Combat is simply a case of locking onto enemies with the L-button and double-tapping different directions, evading attacks and causing your own (and you’ll want to play it with the D-Pad because the analogue is pure torture). Be careful though, as overuse will cause ADAM to overheat temporarily.

But that’s Rengoku II at its heart: a series of one-on-one encounters with ADAM rolling left, right, backwards and forwards like some drunken gymnastic ninny. It’s not deep – and by virtue of that it isn’t convoluted either. It’s just fun. Rengoku II is action-packed and amiable fun – if nothing else.

Craig Gilmore