There are two types of nice suprise on the App Store. The first is when a game you know you want suddenly appears on the store without fanfare, like Mr Driller. The second is when a developer you’ve never heard of, who hasn’t hyped their game, quietly releases an excellent game.

Saumrai: Way of the Warrior, is one of those.

It’s an incredibly stylish, lovingly polished hack and slash game, perfectly suited to the iPhone hardware.

You’ve got gorgeous comic book cut scenes told in slightly broken English.


You’ve got a top-down view of the world, where you tap to move around and swipe to perform slashes and combos, which slice enemies up into pieces in an incredibly satisfying manner. It starts off easy, letting you get used to the game, but soon ramps up the challenge. I didn’t die in levels one and two, but level three is proving to be a challenge, in a good way, with enemies that can do you a great deal of harm if you’re not careful.


It took me a couple of levels to get used to the timing of combos, but my skills developed in the time I needed them to. So far, it’s all been very well judged and has been a great surprise. The £1.79 price tag seems very fair, maybe even a bit of a bargain.

Very, very impressive, especially for a game which was apparently put together in the developers’ spare time.