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By | mollipen |
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| Filed Under | Action, Japan, Japanese Culture, PlayStation Portable, Review, Video Games | ||
| Tags | atlus, yankii |
Yankii (or, depending on how you romanize it, “yankee”): A slang term sometimes used for Americans outside of the States, and people from the Northern U.S. by, well, us Yankees. It has also, however, come to be a nickname for delinquent youth in Japan, specifically those that skip school, get in fights, don’t care about social norms, and do such unspeakable things as dying their hair to a color other than black.
What is it about this lifestyle that is so interesting, and at times almost romanticized, as we might do here in the West with the “greaser” subculture from the 1950’s? Whatever it is, there’s no denying it: the life of a yankii is a whirlwind of adventure and excitement.
At least, that’s if Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble is to be believed; and, really, would video games lie to us? As you head off on a week long class trip to the beautiful Kyoto area of Japan, you find out about a secret tournament going on, where some of the toughest banchos (gang leaders, if you will) are set to do battle, with whomever can prove himself (or herself) the toughest being crowned the most powerful bancho of Japan.
Being that, first and foremost, Kenka Bancho is a game about getting into fights with anybody and everybody who rubs you the wrong way, I wish said fighting had been more refined. It’s not that I would in any way call it bad; it just feels, I suppose one might say, a bit “primitive”, seeming to take a cue more from the older days of beat-em-ups like Double Dragon and whatnot versus being that more fluid and developed product we’ve come to expect from more modern brawlers. Attempts were made to give the game some flair, such as the ability for players to customize their character’s moves roster as more options open up from defeating foes and leveling up. This, as a gameplay element, helps freshen your involvement in combat, but it is a little refinement of that combat itself that could have gone a long way. It’s that line that separates gameplay that gets the job done from what really sucks you into the action, if you will; as Kenka Bancho nears its end, the pendulum can unfortunately have a tendency to swing towards the “gets the job done” side of things more often than I would have liked.
If Kenka Bancho were strictly built upon the back of its fighting engine, it would have ended up relegated to the status of being an average action title. Why it doesn’t suffer that fate is thanks to everything the game wraps around those combat elements. In order to hunt down and defeat the various banchos, you’re going to have to scour all the various parts of Kyoto in search of itineraries which, when dropped by defeated thugs, reveal when and where gang leaders are going to be hanging out during the week. Having actually been to some of the areas of Japan present in the game, a nice amount of work has gone into crafting stages that both feel representative of their real-life counterparts while also being unique and varied enough from one another to keep exploration an interesting and enjoyable activity. Downed rivals not only drop itineraries, but also valuable items and money, which can be spent stocking up on healing and stat-boosting goods, or saved to splurge on personalizing your character with new clothing or hairstyles. Defeat a bancho, and he (or she) will hand over their cell phone number, allowing you to call them up for a little bit of back-up should things get too hairy. If you’re lucky, you may even find a moment or two where love can bloom. Just don’t forget the cardinal yankii rule: ass-kicking before smooching!
All of Kenka Bancho‘s pieces, both major and minor, help to create a fun and diverse experience; one that, to me, at times almost came off as a 3D River City Ransom, with its combination of fighting gangs, running around the streets of Japan, and encountering goofy charm around every corner (thanks in part to a hilarious Atlus English translation). Had its fighting engine been better, and had it not fallen pray to an over-abundant need for load times (which might have me suggest you consider the game’s digital release, Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble could have been one hell of a game. Even with its flaws, however, I still had a blast, and am glad to see the series get a chance on our shores.
Rating: A
great
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Action, Japan, Japanese Culture, PlayStation Portable, Review, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
