Burton's Bytes: Putting a classic to the sword

JAPANESE film-maker Akira Kurosawa's classic The Seven Samurai has already provided the inspiration for a generation of Hollywood movies from The Magnificent Seven to The Wild Bunch and even The Dirty Dozen.

Given the love for Ninja and Samurai among video games players it's no surprise that Kurosawa's 50-year-old film has given rise to yet another re-make, this time on the PS2.

What does come as a shock is the decision to relocate the time frame from 16th century feudal Japan to a Blade Runner-esque science fiction future.

But while the locations may have changed - and some liberties taken with the characterisation - the plot remains essentially the same only now the bandits have been replaced by genocidal robots.

And not content with nicking a few crops and burning a few village huts, these humanoid fiends want to wipe the human race from the universe.

It has to be said, though, that Seven Samurai 20XX owes more to Japanese manga cartoons than it does to a three-hour black and white movie.

Fans of anime will recognise the Bambi-eyed heroine with untapped powers and the headstrong young hero as the familiar ciphers used in every Japanese cartoon over the past 20 years.

That's rather strange given the star-studded array of talent that helped pull this game together, including Academy Award-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, French artist Moebius, Hisao Kurosawa, president of Kurosawa Productions and son of the original director.

Natoe is a rebel who quit his training for a life on the road travelling the world and honing his fighting skills. Naturally enough this unruly young ronin hates authority but still has a soft spot for the under-dog and signs up to defend the homes of villagers facing death from humanoid robots.

In order to free them from this space-born threat, Natoe must battle his way though 11 relentless levels using his trusty katanas - Japanese fighting swords.

That's right, for all the potential in the story of Seven Samurai, this game is just another hack 'n slash fighting title.

Natoe can use one katana or both at the same time by tapping L1 and R1. Fighting with both is limited to 100 seconds, although extra time can be earned by executing key manoeuvres, so it's best to keep your second katana covered until you really need it.

Pressing button combos allows Natoe to switch defence into attack by appearing behind enemies and slicing them up while they are vulnerable. There's also a block move and a parry.

The game also interprets button presses in different ways depending on how long and how hard you press them. It is one of the few fighting games to make use of the different pressures available via the PS2 game pad.

If all this sounds complex, don't worry. Simply bashing buttons at random usually does the trick of despatching most foes. Unfortunately Seven Samurai 20XX doesn't reward skilled players or anyone who takes time to study the game's moves in detail. Most players will just hammer away until Natoe's energy is depleted then run around aimlessly while it recharges (which doesn't take long).

Fighting is for the most part good-looking and swift but the game's ambition sometimes outreaches the power of the PS2, leading to chronic slowdown.

The story is told via cut scenes that look nice and there's a bit of adventuring, although the bloodthirsty can skip the exposition and move on to the next scrap.

Sadly there is no multi-player element. It would have been fun to get six mates round for a real-life Seven Samurai but this isn't the case.

Gamers are spoilt for choice with this kind of game. Sega itself offers PS2 players Shinobi. Seven Samurai 20XX is a diverting enough button masher but I reckon the definitive interactive version of Kurosawa's seminal film has yet to be made.

PDF Transformer, Publisher, Abbyy, Price. £34.99: THE growth of the Internet has led to an explosion in the popularity of the PDF, or portable document file to give this format its full name.

Using the PDF method allows us to send very complex documents, complete with pictures and formatting, to our friends as relatively small files.

Unfortunately, once you have read a PDF there's not much you can do with it apart from printing it out.

Wouldn't it be great if you could convert a PDF into a fully editable Word document? Just think how that could help kids with their homework or make things easier for small businesses?

PDF Transformer from Abbyy does exactly that. Just load you your PDF hit the transform button and it strips the document down, reconfigures it and opens your word processor for editing. It's fast and simple.

The software can transform a PDF into Word, Excel, RTF or HTML files. It even runs as an in programme plug-in if you have a recent version of MS Office.

We tried it with several complex documents and it proved almost faultless. PDF Transformer goes on sale on September 6.

* You can win a copy of PDF Transformer by answering this question: Who publishes PDF Transformer? Answers to Burton's Byte PDF Comp, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF by August 31. Prizes will be despatched on September 6.