Join Samurai Jack on a journey of honor and revenge through an advanced world filled with wonders and help him drive out evil once and for all.
"Samurai Jack™ - A warrior unlike any other, trained by masters of weaponry and combat from all corners of the globe, he hails from the past, but was sent far into the future by the shapeshifting wizard Aku. His mission: to find the missing segments of the Amulet of Time which will allow him to return to the past, fufill his destiny, defeat Aku and save the world from his evil."
— Back of the box
Samurai Jack: The Amulet of Time is a 2003 metroidvania game developed by Virtucraft Studios and released for the Game Boy Advance. Based on the cartoon series, the game follows Jack's quest to collect the pieces of an amulet that supposedly can send him back in time and allow him to finally undo the future that is Aku. Yeah, like that would be settled in some obscure licensed game.
As can be expected from the genre, Jack travels across a variety of maze-like areas while collecting gear to increase his stats and relics that allow him to break barriers and jump over tall ledges.
Tropes back, back in this game include:
- Animated Armor: Several kinds of them, including ones that spawn a demonic shadow after you think you're done fighting.
- Annoying Arrows: The bow-and-arrow can be used to press switches and open gates but is worthless as a weapon.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: The general who attempts to force a maiden to marry him is easy as pie to beat. The robot priest next to him, less so.
- Because Destiny Says So: The titular amulet was first found in ancient times wrapped in paper apparently picturing Jack using it to summon a time portal the same way Aku did. What actually happens is that the amulet teleports Jack away from Aku after the villain manages to strike Jack with a laser beam. The amulet then proceeds to disappear without Jack ever knowing if it was even capable of time travel at all.
- Big Brother Is Watching: A billboard in Neo Tokyo reads "Aku sees you!"
- Bittersweet Ending: As with most time travel attempt plots from the series, the adventure is only not completely wasted because Jack got to help people along the way.
- Brain in a Jar: One controls a machine that assembles robots to fight you. Every now and then it reveals itself for no drat reason. It is the replica of a scientist's brain, used against his will for evil by Aku.
- Charged Attack: The elemental attacks of the amulet are used like this, but all they really amount to is being fancy keys for the broken bridges' locks.
- Contrived Coincidence: It just so happens that the place Jack is meant to use the complete amulet in is Aku's main chambers. Jack suspects it is a trap, but we never find out if Aku made the amulet warp Jack out of his lair on purpose or if he even knew about it.
- Cutscene Incompetence: Jack beats Aku to a pulp but still gets hit by an eye beam during the ending cutscene, missing yet another chance to kill him.
- Double Jump: Granted by the Winged Shoes, but shouldn't Jack know how to "jump good" on his own by now?
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Your attack and defense are divided between several types, but the game never explains how they relate to each other.
- Excuse Plot: Jack hears of a method of time travel, but it is bogus and Aku escapes by a hair once again.
- Final Boss: Aku, who takes on several forms during the fight.
- Foreshadowing: When Jack first arrives in Neo Tokyo he asks around for information on who made the minotaur robot he fought earlier. A woman tells him that person could be anywhere in the city, even the sewers. It just so happens the Professor is in the sewers.
- Game-Over Man: If Jack runs out of HP it cuts to a shot of him sitting in the dark, looking depressed.
- Giant Spider: Foot-sized spider bots are among the first enemies you see. Soon enough you'll come larger ones and the first boss, a proper giant spider robot.
- Heart Container: HP max ups can be found at certain points, such as possible drops from the eyeball enemies in the final stage.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: One of the three subweapons is an ice shield.
- Mercy Invincibility: Neither you or the enemies have this, so several attacks can take a huge bite off your health bar in an instant if you're not careful.
- Metroidvania: The game is actually awfully linear from the latter half on and there's no fast travel between areas.
- New Game Plus: The game starts over after the ending. You lose your relics but not your gear and stats.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: There's a wolf enemy who appears in one screen and is merely knocked out when defeated, instead of being chopped in half.
- Randomly Drops: Enemies can drop all sorts of gear, healing items and stat boosters.
- Robotic Reveal: As usual for the series, organic-looking villains tend to be revealed as just nuts and bolts after Jack cuts them to ribbons.
- Save Point: Jack can record his progress on books scattered across the world. They also recover his HP and MP.
- Video Game Tutorial: The tutorial area in the beginning is skippable, but do come back later to access a machine that transforms your lesser items into better ones. Also, in any case, there's a guide in the pause menu if you have any questions about the controls.
Watch out!
