Game of the Day 3/22/2016: Kendo Rage

[celerystalker]

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Kendo Rage for the Super Nintendo is another little oddity by Seta. It's an action platformer that in a lot of ways feels like aspoof of the Valis series. You take an anime heroine who can transform, remove the magical blade and replace it with a kendo stick, then have her hammer her way through legions of cartoony bad guys and joke bosses before riding the freaking bus to the next stage... you take all of that, and what you end up with certainly seems like a shot at Telenet's flagship franchise. But, the question is, is it a good joke?

The gameplay is pretty standard. You run and jump while whacking away with your kendo stick. You can attack upwards and do a downthrust maneuver as well, and you have a Legendary Axe-like attack gauge. The more full, the better your strike... but in Kendo Rage, you occasionally grab orbs that change your elemental affinity. With a full gauge, these might unleash a blast of cold or a pillar of flame with your swing, immensely adding to your power and range, which can be invaluable against some bosses. Your movement can feel a little slow at times, though the game does try and mix things up with environmental changes, like underwater physics or snow you can sink down into.

Levels generally have a pretty generous time limit, although they are pretty large, with lots of optional exploration for health, powerups, and extra lives, but it's a pretty simple thing to take the path of least resistance and walk straight to the end. The boss fights open with bad jokes befor a large, usually super-deformed baddie starts going through easily deciphered attack patterns. They look pretty good, as do most of the sprites, and generally offer a nice end to each level.

Goofy humor aside, Kendo Rage is a competent action game that, while not as great as the games it lampoons, is still a good play-through, and in many ways feels like a taste of the Genesis on your SNES. Like most Seta games, it's somewhat uncommon, but is a fun, flawed experience. Also, it has a Japanese SFC sequel, Makeruna Makendou 2...

Played it?

[Tanooki]

Played it, owned it for awhile (twice before), never kept it for super long. It's just too coked out weird for its own good, plus it's just a little wooden around the edges as you can get clobbered due to questionable design. Bright, amusing, really weird and quirky but it is a fun enough game in short bursts but it does have a bit of a cheap boss run on the back end. It's cute how it counts time left before being late as your score which is unique too. I was more surprised SNES would have something like this at all non-butchered since anime seemed un-cool to Nintendo versus how much of it was plastered all over the Genesis in comparison.

[Aussie2B]

Fun little quirky game. I like how it keeps a running tally of the total time you've spent in all the stages, such that you can beat the game and still get a crummy ending if you were too slow. I mean, Metroid already had the same kind of concept, but it's a little unusual for a stage-based platformer. Usually timers in platformers only refer to the maximum amount of time you can spend in that particular stage, with the time totally disregarded come the next stage.

I'm just bummed that none of the sequels played similarly. Instead they went with a fighter and an RPG. Kendo Rage is rough around the edges, but I think they could've polished up the gameplay in subsequent games if they hadn't entirely changed genre.

[celerystalker]

Fun little quirky game. I like how it keeps a running tally of the total time you've spent in all the stages, such that you can beat the game and still get a crummy ending if you were too slow. I mean, Metroid already had the same kind of concept, but it's a little unusual for a stage-based platformer. Usually timers in platformers only refer to the maximum amount of time you can spend in that particular stage, with the time totally disregarded come the next stage.

I'm just bummed that none of the sequels played similarly. Instead they went with a fighter and an RPG. Kendo Rage is rough around the edges, but I think they could've polished up the gameplay in subsequent games if they hadn't entirely changed genre.

I'dve loved to have seen a souped up Saturn or PS1 sequel like that. Just a tad more crisp and it could have been incredible.

[Gameguy]

So many of these game of the day entries I've never played or sometimes never even heard of previously. I hope to come across them at some point to at least try them out.

[Aussie2B]

I'dve loved to have seen a souped up Saturn or PS1 sequel like that. Just a tad more crisp and it could have been incredible.

Or PC-FX even. Something that looked like Zenki and played like a polished up Kendo Rage would've been great. The system has so few action games that it's depressing that its Makeruna Makendou is yet another text-heavy game. I would've happily taken even a traditional fighter like Makeruna Makendou 2 on SFC and PS1. That's not to slight Makeruna Makendou Z, though. I've heard that it's a decent RPG, and I gotta give credit to the dedication of the developers if the rumors are true (that the company was going bankrupt during its development so the developers were working for free to finish it off). It's not the easiest or cheapest PC-FX game to find, though, so I've yet to get a chance to buy and play it.

[celerystalker]

Or PC-FX even. Something that looked like Zenki and played like a polished up Kendo Rage would've been great. The system has so few action games that it's depressing that its Makeruna Makendou is yet another text-heavy game. I would've happily taken even a traditional fighter like Makeruna Makendou 2 on SFC and PS1. That's not to slight Makeruna Makendou Z, though. I've heard that it's a decent RPG, and I gotta give credit to the dedication of the developers if the rumors are true (that the company was going bankrupt during its development so the developers were working for free to finish it off). It's not the easiest or cheapest PC-FX game to find, though, so I've yet to get a chance to buy and play it.

Makeruna Makendou Z is pretty decent as it is, but its language barrier is pretty rough. I haven't gotten far enough in it to feel good about writing it up in that import thread, whereas others like Last Imperial Prince and Blue Breaker I was able to get through without too much pain (though some of the romance stuff in Blue Breaker I just totally fumbled my way through). Another PC-FX action game would have been super cool, but I can only imagine how bad it would hurt on my wallet...

[Emperor Megas]

I'm a HUGE Valis fan, so when I first saw this game I picked it up because it seemed like it had the same formula that made Valis great (to me). With that said, I never got very far in it. It wasn't for lack of interest either. I think that I jut had a lot of things going on around the time I got the game and it sort of got lost in the shuffle. As much of a Valis fan as I am, I didn't complete Super Valis IV for the same reason.

Anyway, Kendo Rage has sort of a low budget presentation, but it's not a turn off. In fact, it's sort of part of the charm. I like the way that they mix things up a little with the environmental hazards and effects, like struggling through snow and whatnot, and I really love the tongue in cheek, camp factor, with zany boss dialog, and bus stops at to the bottom of lakes and shit.

I've had to replace my SNES collection at least twice in my life, and each time Kendo Rage is was one of the first reacquisitions, so there must be something special about it. Another is Firepower2000; that's some good cheap fun right there. I have a very small SNES collection, but I tend to gravitate to the smaller budget, less known titles than the (now high dollar) block buster hits, and Kendo Rage is one of my favorite B-list titles.

[Steven]

I've had to replace my SNES collection at least twice in my life, and each time Kendo Rage is was one of the first reacquisitions, so there must be something special about it. Another is Firepower2000; that's some good cheap fun right there. I have a very small SNES collection, but I tend to gravitate to the smaller budget, less known titles than the (now high dollar) block buster hits, and Kendo Rage is one of my favorite B-list titles.

I hear ya! I love the blockbusters but there's always been a charming factor to the SNES B-list (or even C-list) titles. For me the epitome of that might be the Combatribes. As for Kendo Rage, I bought it ten years ago and still haven't played it, but I definitely want to. Just hasn't yet hit the top of my queue, along with like 150 other SNES games lol. The library that keeps on giving!

[Dire 51]

It's quirky, it's fun, and it's a lot like Valis, which makes it one that both my girls and I really enjoy. Myself from way back when, and my girls from when I introduced it to them. They own the SNES version, I own the SFC version, so we get the best of both worlds.

Steve - you should fire it up when you get a chance.