PepsimanVsJoe talks about random games.

As you all know I'm a quite the fan of Musou games. As you all don't know I'm also a big fan of Fist of the North Star. So when Omega Force decided to take on this property I figured I'd be in for a good time.

...Oops?

Ken's Rage is pretty typical of the Musou genre. You choose from a handful of characters and then face off with hundreds of nameless thugs and their leaders in various scenarios. Some follow the original storyline while others delve into what-ifs and the possibilities that come from them. Ken gets the most-focused and longest campaign of the group because (spoilers!) he's one of the very few that actually survives the entirety of the saga. Still, you'll get ample opportunities to play as Rei, Roah, Souther, and even Heart if you feel like spending that DLC cash.

Fist of the North Star should be the easiest videogame in the world to make. A martial arts master who knows hundreds of ways to kill a man with just one finger, must fight his way through untold numbers of foes. Throw in dozens of villains that would all make great boss battles, and what we have is a concept that's impossible to screw up. Surprisingly the number of good Hokuto-No Ken games could probably be counted on that same finger. Thankfully HnK was very influential to the beatemup genre which has produced a number of classics. Today with the budget and technology the average game has access to there's no reason at all why all games can't be good, especially one by a proven developer that has a great concept in their hands.

Again I say...Oops?

Ken's Rage lacks the most important aspect that makes a beatemup appealing. That sense of impact that can only come from a fist or foot connecting to flesh. One of the earliest and most timeless examples is Final Fight. When bodies are thrown to the ground there's the rich sound of heavy bass. Punches and kicks deliver satisfying THWACKS and PSSSHS. The best part is doing a piledriver into a crowd of hapless thugs. While there is reward enough in the maneuvering and planning that goes into mastering a beatemup, the feeling that comes from pounding a group of nobodies into hamburger is almost euphoric. It's on the level of dodging some insane bullet pattern in a 2D shooter.

Anyway this is what Ken's Rage lacks. There is no connection when Ken or any of the characters punches somebody, and even when I manage to gather an entire crowd into one of the devastating trademark moves I don't get that feeling. Sure it's cool that the bad guys explode and all but really it just becomes so empty after awhile. I wish that there where more unique ways of dealing with certain foes. Like if I saw somebody breathing flames I could use the technique that causes them to be killed by their own fire, or maybe create a large explosion that engulfs multiple nearby enemies. The TV series had a lot of throwaway villains that were obviously padding, but they usually had some creative death that made the episode worth watching. In this game the major villains aren't even entertaining to fight, since a number of them fall to basic strategies.

The pacing is also just terrible. The story scenarios take far too long, because they tend to involve wandering down streets, doing missions like rescuing people or defeating major enemies, and solving some mind-numbing puzzles. Since a number of characters have intersecting storylines that means numerous stages will be exactly the same for 2 or 3 characters, not good. The dream scenarios are patterned more after traditional Dynasty Warrior games but they too wear themselves thin. DW games usually have vehicles or some other means of boosting the main character's speed so they can reach objectives more quickly. What's the excuse for Ken's Rage? Roah could summon his horse, Mamiya has a motorcycle, Ken could just whistle for Bat's buggy, and so on.

These two major faults are what make Ken's Rage a failure to me. I'll admit that if either one or the other was improved upon I would think this was a pretty good game. If the pacing was closer to Dynasty Warriors 7 or Gundam 3, where levels can be completed in five minutes or less, I'd think more highly of it. If the mechanics and sense of "oomph" was improved and was closer to the likes of Godhand or Urban Reign, I'd be really impressed. Heck if my other complaints were to get addressed I'd be happy to call this game one of the best in the genre. As it stands however it's just not enough, which is a shame because Omega Force can do better.

You know what other game that fancies itself a brawler but doesn't grasp the basics that makes the genre work? Splatterhouse on the Xbox 360/PS3. I think next time around I'll get the urge to talk about it.