Akuji the Heartless is an action-adventure

Action-adventure game

An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...

 video game, released in 1998 on the PlayStation. It uses a modified Gex: Enter the Gecko

Gex: Enter the Gecko

Gex: Enter the Gecko is a platform game released in 1998. It is the sequel to the 1994 game Gex. The game involves collecting 3 types of remotes to unlock different levels, and to aid in the fight against Rez.-Story:Since his retirement from the public eye in 1996, Gex has resided himself to a...

engine, and both games were developed by Crystal Dynamics

Crystal Dynamics

Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and founded in 1992 by Judy Lang, Madaline Canepa and Dave Morris...

. The gameplay involves hack and slash

Hack and slash

Hack and slash or hack and slay, abbreviated H&S or HnS, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat. "Hack and slash" was originally used to describe an aspect of pen-and-paper role-playing games , carrying over from there to MUDs, MMORPGs, and video games in general...

 combat combined with platform

Platform game

A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...

 elements.

Story

The game centres around the voodoo priest and warrior Akuji (voiced by Richard Roundtree

Richard Roundtree

Richard Roundtree is an American actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and in its two sequels, Shaft's Big Score and Shaft in Africa .-Personal life:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Richard Roundtree graduated from...

), who had his heart ripped out on his wedding day, and through the use of voodoo magic is now cursed to wander the Underworld. However, Kaisha, his would-be bride, finds him in hell and speaks to him in soul form: she informs him that it was Orad, Akuji's own brother, who orchestrated his murder. She begs Akuji to escape and stop him, as their families are preparing for war, and Orad is preparing to sacrifice her to the gods. Upon traveling through the first level of the Underworld and consulting loa

Loa

The Loa are the spirits of the voodoo religion practiced in Louisiana, Haiti, Benin, and other parts of the world. They are also referred to as Mystères and the Invisibles, in which are intermediaries between Bondye —the Creator, who is distant from the world—and humanity...

 Baron Samedi

Baron Samedi

Baron Samedi is one of the Loa of Haitian Voodoo. Samedi is a Loa of the dead, along with Baron's numerous other incarnations Baron Cimetière, Baron La Croix, and Baron Kriminel. He is the head of the Guédé family of Loa, or an aspect of them, or possibly their spiritual father...

 Akuji discovers he has a chance for redemption: if he traverses hell and collects the souls of his ancestors, which the Baron despises for their evil, then he will grant Akuji safe passage out of the underworld. On his way through, he must also defeat the wardens of each of the spirit gates, which will enable him to advance on his quest for the souls.

Trivia

According to the "Guinness World Records" webpage, the game has the honor to be "The earliest action adventure video game to revolve around a black lead character."

External links

• Akuji the Heartless at GameRankings