Monday 22 November 2010

Kenka bancho: Badass rumble

gamespot score:7.0(good)

my score:7.5

(+)Pros:- fun trip filled with tons of humour and personality,- most banchos have funny behaviour and will crack you up,- lots of debatable options and choice making throughout the game,- high replayability,-menji glares are hilarious and fun as heck

(-)Cons:-boring brawling,- clunky graphics,-grinding for better stats is quite a pain

gameplay time:20-30 hours(average)





Sorry for long delays within each post, I have been extremely busy as fk these few days with loads and loads of assignments and shit. Anyway, kenka bancho: badass rumble is a brawler game for the PSP. In japan however this is the 3rd kenka bancho game to be released, out of the total 4 released so far, with a 5th one in developement. Noone expected this to come to be translated, until good ol' atlus picked it up, now we get the liberation to experience this fun yet humourous game. Prepare for an extremely funny and enjoyable kyoto trip.






The story of the game is pretty simple and typical but is humourous to the max. You play as a character which you name urself, and arre basically a badass bancho known in your school for violence and fighting. Back in your hometown, you are the best there is, so like every other bancho, going to kyoto means business. Why? Because all schools around japan from all the major towns and cities are coming for this trip as well. This means banchos from every are coming to kyoto. As a bancho, you obviously want to beat them all up to claim the title as strongest fighter in japan. Bearing your fists of fury, your trip to kyoto will be a memoriable one, where you emerge as strongest fighter japan.




Kyoto is a big big place, it has many towns and sections to walk and roam around....to pick fights with those punks who tink they are so damn badass. Time to put them down! In the streets of kyoto, you are given 7 days in your trip to roam around looking for banchos, your main objective being to find and beat as many banchos as you can in this span of 7 days. Since it is a school trip, many of the 7 days have time set aside for school activities. But, being the badass bancho you are, you can choose to ditch the activities. Cool huh? But going for these activites boost your relationship with your classmates, so choose your posion.



Combat plays a bug part in kenka bancho, though sadly its one of the game's less appealing feats. Anyway, the fights start off great. You cant go around beating everyone you see on the streets, most of them are normal people who are terrified of you and will run at the slightest stare. Any one who can stand up to your almighty menji glare however, will rise up to you and challenge you. After both you and your victim have locked eyes, you will each trash talk each other down. You are given short words and phrases to contruct a badass sentence, such as "I'll break your face" or "Prepare to meet my fists". If you successfully construct a badass sentence, you get to land a good clean and free hit on the enemy, giving you an advantage in battle. If you construct wrongly, you will get something like "I eat swiss chicken, or "Time for kaboom", lame sentences, and the opposite happens, you get hit by the enemy once. After the trash talk and glare, you finally fight, which consists of slow punching,kicking and special abilities. If you win a fight against a bancho( which mostly are scripted), you will gain thier hometown specialty skill, and some others, which you can add to your arsenal.

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The game fails in certain ways. Being a brawler, it has disappointing brawling features. The combat is slow, and even the new moves dont do much to spice up the battles. Luckily the menji glare and trash talking make battles have some looking foward to. Also, even though battles are somewhat boring, you will have to do it alot, since day after day, the roaming gangsters grow stronger and stronger. Fighting to level up later on is a pain, though earlier levels its still quite tolerable. Finally, the graphics are below average, it really should have been better though I dont expect something dissidia standard.
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Overall kenka bancho is a fun and humourous experience that can be enjoyed by a huge majority of players, but the fighting may not appeal to all, it might even go as far as to annoy many others. Still, if you can past the slow and un interesting combat, you've got a game full of personality ahead of you.






Happy gaming.