Well, you're not the only one. And fortunately, at least one game publisher thought the same thing, and the result is a small but still fairly epic game.
7 Ronin is a small 2-player game that attempts to capture the feel of Kurosawa's film. One player controls seven individual heroes with different abilities, who must defend the village from the other player's hoard of faceless bandits. Players plan their moves in secret, with the hero player trying to anticipate which approaches to the village the bandit player will attempt to use, while the bandit player tries to guess which areas will be left undefended.
The seven heroes have individual abilities which resolve depending on whether or not they end up with bandits in their space, and the bandits gain game abilities based on which areas they are able to occupy, either by fighting their way through the heroic ronin, or by attacking an undefended area. The number of areas the bandit player can attack increases each round, so that much like in the film, the heroes find themselves spread more and more thinly.
As the game progresses, both players find themselves needing to manage dwindling resources. The bandit player has to commit a minimum number of units to the battle, a number which increases each round. At the same time, the heroes take damage as they fight off the bandits, and eventually they will succumb to their injuries. Managing which heroes die, and when, is a major part of the hero player's strategy.
The only thing I really don't like about the game is how small it is. The main board is only 7 by 10 1/2 inches, the individual planning boards are half that size, and the playing pieces for both sides are tiny, especially the bandit tokens. I would love to create a large-scale version using 28mm miniatures, although painting 50 bandits might be a bit daunting.
With the bandit hoards making increasingly bold attacks against the dwindling group of heroes, the game really does capture a lot of the spirit of the film. The illustration and graphic design are serviceable, but they're a bit colorful and on the fantasy side of things, lacking the movie's somber contrast.
It's unfortunate that a license couldn't be secured to use the actual Seven Samurai characters and their images, but even without it, this game will call the film to mind.
Rating: 3 (out of 5) The tiny size of the board and pieces are the main thing keeping this game from a higher rating, but it's still a fun game.