The day has aged rather
quickly. Night consumes the natural light source just as wrinkles consume the
skin of those who spend too much time in the sun. While streetlights aid your
tired eyes, cold air unforgivingly attacks your skin. As gorgeous as this
scenario may be, the person standing in front of you is anything but. A street
fighter cannot be affected by the weather though, especially when their life is
at stake. He or she must fully concentrate on the task at hand: defeat every
opponent who comes near.
That’s the basic premise
of Kakuto Chojin, a fighting game developed by Dream-Publishing exclusively for
the Xbox. Kakuto Chojin made its worldwide debut at the Tokyo Game Show in
2001, showing off its impressive graphic engine. As with most fighting games,
Kakuto Chojin has a very basic storyline. You remember the King of the Iron
Fist Tournament, right? Well, here we have the Fist of Fire Tournament. Each
character has a story and a reason why they’re entering the tournament — Reiji
wants to avenge his father’s death, Vittoria wants to track down her brother,
etc. Not exactly worthy of an Academy Award, but at least it gives gamers
something new to talk about online.
Once the first battle has
begun, players will be instantly reminded of two classic fighting games: Tekken
and Virtua Fighter. You could master all of one character’s moves in an hour or
less. There are more moves than listed in the booklet, but none of them extend
beyond a few extra button taps and directional variations. Virtua Fighter 4 got
around this by making the player perform an almost ridiculous amount of moves
with two measly buttons. Kakuto Chojin is more like the old Virtua Fighter
games in that respect, except that in this case there are three attack buttons:
high, medium and low, all of which vary between kicks and punches, depending on
the character you select.
Kakuto Chojin’s combo
system is closer to a simplified version of Street Fighter than Tekken or Virtua
Fighter. There is very little (if any) timing involved — just press each
button, one after the other without a drop in speed. This makes it extremely
easy to pick up the controller and begin performing moves without ever touching
the booklet. For fighting novices, this is probably the best place to start.
The first combo-heavy fighting game I ever played was the first combo-heavy
fighter ever created: Virtua Fighter. Within a month I had mastered the game
and was ready for more challenging fighters like Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat
3 and Tekken 2. Had I not played Virtua Fighter first, the other games would
have been a little too complex for me to conquer.
Despite having an easy
combo system, most of the attack moves look really complex. You can perform
Rena’s seven-hit combo just by pressing the Y button seven times! But the
result is a great-looking string of moves that’s comparable to any of the combos
in Virtua Fighter 4. Many of the moves were "borrowed" from other fighting
games (mainly Tekken), so don’t be surprised if you find yourself in a state of
deja vu.
Although more moves could
have been programmed, having only three attack buttons really limits the amount
of flexibility that the developers have. Just one additional button could have
done a world of good (as evidenced by Tekken and Mortal Kombat).
Kakuto Chojin has an
interesting visual style. Every character is rock-solid, complete with one of
the most realistic coats of paint (skin and clothe textures, real-time lighting,
etc.) that I have ever seen. The animation is fluid; no choppiness or framerate
problems during battle. It tends to lock up while the characters are showing
off their stances (just before battle), but that is probably due to a loading
mistake, and does not affect the gameplay in any way. Right now though, Kakuto
Chojin is forced to fight some fierce competition, including the year-old (but
still outrageously gorgeous) Dead or Alive 3. It goes without saying that
Kakuto Chojin is one of the best-looking fighting games out there (especially
when compared with what PS2 and GameCube have to offer), but I don’t think it’s
going to be able to stand out from the crowd when the crowd looks even better.
Kakuto Chojin isn’t as
complex as Tekken, and it doesn’t have as much depth as fighting fans want, but
that doesn’t make it a bad game. It’s not the kind of game you’d play for
several days in a row, but it is definitely something that you’ll look forward
to playing with your friends every week or so. As Dream-Publishing’s first Xbox
game, they’ve shown that they know how to utilize its capabilities, especially
the graphic end of things. The next step would be to refine their current
combat system, add a hundred complex moves/combos, include more characters
(there are only 13 playable characters in this game) and enhance the multiplayer
mode. Then they’d have a sequel that would make every fighting fan drool with
anticipation. The current Kakuto Chojin game is worth checking out, but I
recommend that you save your money for the bigger, badder and more innovative
fighting games in development.
Gameplay: 7
As far as simple
fighting games go, Kakuto Chojin is one of the best out there. Of course, I
would’ve preferred something a bit more complex. But if you accept Kakuto
Chojin for what it is, you’ll enjoy it a lot.
Graphics: 8
Kakuto Chojin is
a gorgeous game, but we all know that the Xbox can do better. Kudos to Kakuto
for having amazing lighting effects and even better skin/clothing textures. Of
course, Dead or Alive 3 did all this and a whole lot more 12 months ago.
Sound: 7
Much to my
surprise, Kakuto Chojin makes great use of techno music. The songs sound more
like real music (as opposed to a bunch of repetitive sounds, which is the case
with most techno music).
Difficulty: Easy
Looking back, I
can’t think of too many fighting games that were easier than Kakuto Chojin.
Concept: 5.5
Kakuto Chojin’s
character designs are a bit unusual (especially their outfits), but other than
that, there is very little that sets this game apart from other fighting games.
It plays better than most of the Virtua Fighter alternatives, but the concept is
exactly the same.
Multiplayer: 7.1
As with any
fighting game, Kakuto Chojin’s best feature is its multiplayer mode. Grab some
friends, plug in four controllers and get ready to button-mash your day away.
Overall: 7
Kakuto Chojin is
best suited to gamers who are very new to the fighting genre. If you’ve never
played Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, this is where
you’ll want to begin. It’s simple, yet still cool looking, and is one of the
very few fighting games to include a four-player mode. It’s not the best
feature in the world, but it’s something fun to do with your friends on the
weekend.
