Gekido Advance: Kintaro's Revenge review

Since the birth of the Gameboy Advance last summer, one of the main thoughts of gamers has been 'How can I play these on a bigger screen?' It was disappointing that the Gamecube cannot provide instant linkup, but a recently announced adapter may pave the way for an increase in popularity of many top GBA titles. From a gamers point of view, the GBA is seen as a haven for SNES-type titles, and it seems that developers have grasped that too. Kintaro's Revenge is a follow up to Gekido on the PSX, also coded by the Italy-based NAPS team. It's essentially a sideways scrolling beat 'em up, like Streets of Rage, like Double Dragon, like Final Fight, reconsidered, refined and crossed with anime stylings. It begins with an anime cut-scene (no speech, yet it doesn't matter) setting the story. You control Tetsuo, a discipline of the art of Shin-Ken, called by his sensei to investigate some strange things in a farming village outside the town, where there are reports of demons springing up from the earth. The adventure narrative helps raise Gekido above the punch-kick repeat ad infinitum template of the aforementioned classics. The gameplay requires you to do more than just kick ass to the finish line. Part of this is because you don't just scroll one way in a level, but in all of them via rooms, ladders and doors. Most of the adventure element seems to be searching for keys and using them to progress. It's a pity that this takes up most of the structure of the game, although as you have to fight for the keys it isn't boring, merely uninspired. Fighting is the core of the game and is the strongest attribute. After a purgatory learning period players will be able to use a mixture of punch and kick to perform killer two figure combos and special moves. Experienced players will be able to 'juggle' enemies in the air. You can also press A and B simultaneously to produce a 'wipeout' move which will hit every enemy near Tetsuo. A last move to remember is jump, which is done by pressing the R button. Obvious? Yes, but the instructions don't acknowledge it's existence and being unaware of it can cause a bit of aggro. Oddly, you don't die considerably when you fail to jump over a gap, your health is depleted and you are either thrown back a distance onto whatever (ground, enemies or annoyingly onto other traps) or dropped from the air, sometimes onto the same pixel where you fell down. As flaws go, they aren't considerable in the least. The collision detection is fine although I couldn't say it was pixel perfect. The other things wrong with Gekido are a slight inconsideration for the GBA in the difficulty you first have spying holes in the floor or dark blue bats in blackened rooms, so strong/back lighting is needed. You can't skip cut-scenes either, which unfortunately reduces the lastability of the title. It's crying out for a two-player mode as well, which Turok: GBA contains, still it's not the end of the world. The enemies evolve in terms of difficulty, and considering there are at least two in a wave, the progression made is pitch perfect. Although some are there just to feel your heel, others have specific routines that mean you have to plan and time your attack precisely, and you'll have to consider who you want to dispose of first when you're faced with three different demons. The difficulty level is pitched just above average, though there are power-ups some are unhelpful, like the ones that reverse your controls or stop you hitting anything. The sound tells you when an attack is going to begin, however, as it is the same tune every time it soon feels repetitive and although it isn't terrible it's the weakest part of an otherwise excellent game. I'm not a fan of passwords but I prefer them to be proper words, used here, than 16 digit codes. Kintaro's Revenge is a highly likable and fun game that adds something extra to the template of the forgotten genre, the sideways scrolling beat 'em up. It may not have the charm or the length (5 levels, though you'll play them more than once) to reimagine the genre, but it's good enough to be able to encourage the resurrection of it. A good deal of thought has gone into Kintaro's Revenge, and it deserves some of your thoughts as well. If you loved scrolling beat 'em ups and have a GBA then this is essential.