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?