Ikki (NES)

Life of Peasant is tedious. Cleaning stable, building constructing without proper safety standard, bullied by young masters, underpaid, serve as lowest cannon fodder on war, have improper housing, etc. Thank God that none of us are born to be one on these days. What if, the peasants start fighting for betterment of their life. Sunsoft try to depict that with a video game: "Ikki" (1985).  

 As the All-knowing Wikipedia says, Ikki means riot or revolt. The USA version for this game is Farmers Rebellion. That sounds grand and such, but the only peasants that participate in said riot/rebellion: Gonbe (player #1) and Tago (player #2). 2 peasants can barely make minor skirmish, let alone a significant revolution. Or is it? We find out soon.

There's Gonbe, the chap with green shirt and black trouser and not the black ninja. The ninja is under order of Evil feudal lord, the one that Gonbe oppose for. So basically he's Gonbe's enemy. To clear the stage, Gonbe must collect all 8 koban coins within it. The coins are presumably treasures that belong to the oppressing landlord. Badly placed treasures, i have to say.

 

Not long after i start the game, one of the ninja successfully kills Gonbe with a shuriken. Look at him! He falls over in such funny pose complete with halo as if God is gracious enough to let Gonbe enters the heaven after he fails pitifully to make his life better. God bless him.

 

No, it's not the end of the petty fight riot yet. Gonbe back on his feet and continue his strife for his family's sake. Gonbe isn't just poor weakling, he can fight back these ninja by throwing sickle. Unlike other top-down shooter where the player can only shoot in front of his/her facing, Gonbe's sickle throw has certain degree of auto-tracking to nearest enemy. I must applaud Sunsoft for this magnificent feature. Thus Gonbe is pretty step-up from generic lone soldiers in many video games. Although he can die if he bumped into enemy like them. Give him a break, he's a peasant afterall! 

 

After Gonbe collect all the gold coins, he laugh widely. In fact, very wide that his head enlarge to twice the normal size. Unknown to him, that he haven't found ordeal in his struggle. The humble fool.

 

Everytime i cleared a stage, there's this secret letter. It's so secret that i don't know what its purpose. If you happen to know it, let me know in comment! Please.

 

Next stage has graveyard. By order of the landlord, his subordinate hide one of the coin inside it. Hoping its inhabitant will guard the golden coin from some poor rebel. But Gonbe can retrieve it with no worry as he's so stupid determined for his own justice. This kind of remind me when i play Fallout 2 where i got bit stuck on first town because i have to earn big money to redeem a guy (as part of main quest) and i have little clue how to do so. Thus i commit grave-robbery resulting in: quite decent loot. The dead don't longer need any valuable, allright?!

 

In this stage 2, i found a red scroll in the middle of this pool. Once i grab it, nothing is change. Actually it's 1-up item. Why it's in form of red scroll? I don't know. I wish Sunsoft puts HUD layout that can shows us how many lives that Gonbe has. Instead of showing score and obtained coins only.  

 

Another pickup that i encounter is this white radish [you may insert a joke about Soga no Tojiko here] that's presumably sunbathed by the owner of house over there. Without thinking twice, Gonbe snatch it and eat it. Making his slow walking-speed to be much faster, like someone who got caught red-handed steal a vegetable. You changes from poor peasant to lowly thief. Well done, Gonbe!

There's red variant of the ninjas which is very faster than his black brethren. Also there's a squad of riflemen that can only shoot Gonbe if he's directly in front of them. Maybe they're so obedient to landlord's order to shoot forward. Also they can't be harmed by flying sickle. Sunsoft treats them as hazardous decoration. Such great privilege for simpletons.

What a group of idiotic marksman.

 

Next stage takes place in a labyrinth at nightime and...Alas! A shaggy lady caresses Gonbe and makes him immobile. A black ninja saw that, makes him stand ludicrously in awe. Actually that's his funny death-pose. I like it. Not the shaggy lady though. He makes me feel very uneasy. Brrr!

 

That leaf at the upper-right corner is another pick-up. It allows Gonbe to have a clone and being invincible like what proper ninjas can do. These blokes are definitely drop-out ninjas. If they want to continue their ninjutsu, they must get rid of Gonbe or die trying. That sounds as bad as peasant's life, doesn't it?!     

 

Another pickup: bamboo spear, which allow Gonbe to auto-stab with it only in upward direction but can passes labyrinth's wall. Also he moves faster when he constantly poking bamboo spear. Sadly, you can't kill or at least makes The shaggy lady to go away despite the intense spear stabbing. He will goes away when he successfully hugs Gonbe. Euch!

 

There's this chap jaywalks in this stage. I approach him then the stage is over. This act is supposed to be "Gonbe kidnaps the evil landlord himself". The landlord is no smarter than Gonbe. He's pissed/panicked that his treasures are stolen and he begin to wander around the stage hoping to find it. But that resulting in: opportunity to kidnap him. This game is dumb.

 

Pop quiz: can you guess how many koban coin in this screenshot? 1?! Nope. The right answer is 2. Another one is on right side of Gonbe, subtlety hides on yellow sands. Cunning indeed.

 

Then Gonbe relaxes himself from the exhausting rebellion by taking a dip on this swimming pool. "What a luxury pool" he said. Little did he know that it isn't swimming pool. It's an empty fishpond.

He's behind that screen behind me, isn't?! Well, i'm damned.

 

After finishing stage 4 by kidnapping the landlord (again). The game loops back to stage 1. Next stages has different pickup location/variation and more enemies than ever. But, I am fairly obliged to show you more.

 

Here Gonbe is currently "ridden" by a ghost that has horns like Oni (Japanese ogre). At this current state, Gonbe can't throws sickle at all. To get rid of this horny ghost or other ghost, he must touches dog statue or ksitigarbha/small statue of Buddhist monk. Those statue aren't just decoration and i hope you can memorize their location on each stage.

 

On the left side of the well there's white smoke/vapor/wisp. So what's benefit that Gonbe can attain if he grabs it?

It makes Gonbe proceeds to this bonus stage where kind also arrogant hermit throws Onigiri/rice balls at him. You have to catch them in order to accumulate more score. If not you may ignore the rice balls or even better ignore his existence at all. If you want to help the miserable peasant, give him magic scroll so he can learn useful magic instead of throwing him your food (as part of hermit's diet to attain enlightenment), you quasi-wise sod.

 

Then Gonbe got killed by Mike Wazowski's ghost. Not because he's scary, but he makes Gonbe unable to retaliate those ninja's attacks. You're never be good scarer at Monster Inc. And Sulley never proud of you as his friend.

Arrrgh, Kuntilanak! That's it i'm done. 3X

 

But first, i want to tell you that Ikki has Arcade version which has better HUD layout (with mini-map that shows you gold's location), more enemy's variety, more stage (8 stages), treasure chest pickup (that boost your score but leaves Gonbe vulnerable as he's arrogantly laugh at this founding), Gonbe ability to duck near passable obstacle (which's supposed to make him covers behind obstacle but it's useless feature), and bigger sprite (including the shaggy lady which isn't good point). Why i choose the NES version? Because it defines my gaming childhood and Gonbe's aim is more accurate in NES version. Also the arcade version has terrible color contrast. I'm really done.

Ikki is regarded as Kusoge (see the meaning at Glossary section). And i understand why. Besides the well-functioning auto-aim, the game doesn't have anything as remarkably good. The ninjas come out from thin air (maybe this is the reason why the evil landlord dispatch them instead of low footsoldiers or samurais, beside making Gonbe smug that he can defeat bunch of ninjas), Ninja's shuriken that flies fast, the shaggy lady's menace is unavoidable also disgusting, bamboo spear isn't exactly better than sickle throwing, you only got 2 lives, and the ghosts are darting at Gonbe, passing through walls. Overall this game is really hard and tedious like how difficult a revolt that's conduct by 1 or 2 petty farmer to make their fate better. Also pointless/endless as the game is looping after 4 stages (or 8 stages in arcade version). But because this game is "Hi-score making" type, i quite tolerate this. Also the NES version feature gorgeous retro graphic and some its gameplay element makes the game fun, like how you exorcise a ghost that "rides" on Gonbe or the auto-aim shoot which is pretty neat. Overall, I think Ikki is Kusoge that's pretty good and playable. Let's be honest, there's ton of worse Kusoge than Ikki, such as platformer that features protagonist that attacks in really short distance. My suggestion is simple: you may play it for the sake of making hi-score or to experience good auto-aim shoot. Else don't bother at all.

Asura Blade (Arcade)

One of the things that i learn from video games: people tend to fight against each other whether using weapon or just totally bare-handed. Besides: food item will cure your wound, you can jump in mid-air, or vacuum cleaner cancleanse the world from every evildoer. One of the games with that kind of setting is Fuuki's "Asura Blade - Sword of Dynasty" (1998).  

The chap grabbed the fresh-from-foundry sword, explaining his painfully yelling expression at the title screen. That's what you get from being impatience fool. As this game isn't translated to English, you will have to guess the main plot. But it's easily predictable ones. It involves a powerful legendary sword, its evil owner, and everyone wants it for his/her own purpose. Not much different from Soul Edge/Blade, you see. If that's not the case, i'll be damned.

 

Instead with boring portrait-of-character selection, Asura Blade goes with character's sprite as character selection. Not many person (and robot) keen on fighting each other for the already-mentioned Asura Blade, but there's colorful casts. Especially The big robot which reminds me Darkstalkers's Huitzil. But my favorite: Goat, always and forever. The sole reason: i just like toughguy with broadsword/greatsword, such as Siegfried (Soul Edge/Blade) and Arngrim (Valkyrie Profile). So, obviously i will play as Goat through this review.

 

First opponent: Zam-B. His name definitely a pun from "zombie". While his appearance reminds me of Gen-An (Samurai Shodown), what's with hunchback-y posture and his weapon: gauntlet which is bit equivalent with claw. Anyway, the basic of Asura Blade is quite the same with Samurai Shodown albeit only use 3 attack buttons (light, medium, and heavy). So, i suppose you can adapt to Asura Blade pretty easy.

 

Another Asura Blade's feature: each player has 2 health bar, but that doesn't mean fighting's pace will go slow. In fact, it's fast. Maybe, it allow to show you more detailed damage inflict/received. Just like score rating of 10 points limit to 5 points limit. As you can guess: Goat's moves are suitable for aggressive-style and their input are simple. 1)Hadouken/fireball input to make Goat throws spiked ball 'n' chain at a fair distance toward him, 2)Shouryuken/dragon punch input for anti-air slash, and 3) reverse Hadouken/fireball input to make Goat do forward lunging slash which is good to surprise enemy and follow it up with same input twice for additional slashes. His moveset is fairly functional. As for Zam-B, i think he can puke at you (like Gen-an). I like to bring proof of that, but what he did are: jumping around, and using his gauntlet half-heartedly as he is my 1st opponent thus no wonder he's defeated easily and quickly.  

2nd opponent: Taros (or maybe Talos, as Japanese often mispronounce "L" with "R") the giant robot and his fighting stage is in scrapyard. How appropriate. You can guess that Asura Blade features super gauge bar and character's ability to execute super moves. In this screenshot you see that Goat swipes spiked ball across the screen but sadly blocked by Taros. I did that with Hadouken/fireball input but with 2 attack buttons pressed instead of just one and it costs 1 bar. So this is enhanced special move.    

 

Heavy_mvm_mighty_robot02.wav. Because it's early opponent, it goes down pretty easy. Although it has giant axe and able to emit giant laser. Taros is kind of awesome.

 

Every games needs sexy character, and that role falls to Rose Mary. I think, her name based on creepy folklore. So you're not just all about beauty, huh?!

Yep, and she wield no ordinary sword. It's demonic ones to be precise. She can launch imps like fireball and she can leap while sword whirling around her as anti-air maneuver. She reminds me Darkstalkers's Morrigan.

Surprisingly (for me), Rose Mary is much harder foe than the wild hunchback and the ancient robot. I lose several credits fighting her. She's really not just for eye-candy role, reader.

 

Engineer_revenge01.wav. In the end, demonic man who posses mean-looking sword is the victor against possessed-by-demon sword wielder.

Next opponent is Alice. It's kind of cruel for Fuuki to make fragile little lady as her to compete against any violent persons in contest for legendary sword. But she is more than "Alice in Wonderland" kind of girl. Though she doesn't have might/skill to wield any weapon, she has necromancy magic. She can conjure skeletons to attack her enemy also summon skull around her for protection. Wait! Little girl with tome/book and adept at magic. I suppose she's adaption of AliceMargatroid in Touhou Project: Mystic Square (PC-98). Though the difference between these Alice are quite apparent like: 1) Alice here has blue hair while Lolice (abbreviation of "Loli Alice", refers to Alice in Mystic Square version) is blonde 2) Alice controls skeletons and skulls while Lolice controls dolls. If Alice in Asura Blade can summon Giant Skeleton, i consider her 1000% cooler than other Alice. As Mystic Square and Asura Blade release in same year, i'm not certain who adapts who.

 

Can you see what i mean by Alice isn't fit into fighting game with hardcore violent? Goat is more than happy to chop anyone who dare against him even the tiny lady here. His 3-hit attacks cut down Alice's life bar by almost half of it. Actually everyone else will receive the same amount of damage from that move, it's confirmed that everyone has equal defense/damage-reception. That means Alice is high-durability little girl like Nanoha Takamichi or Fate Testarossa from Mahou Shojo Lyrical Nanoha. I mean: They got slammed so hard to the ground or flung through high building, but all they only get mild bruises and none of their bone is broken. Miraculously tough they are. Sorry, i get out of topic for awhile there.

Next opponent is: Lightning. Not Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, mind you. Not much i can say about pretty bloke here. He's quite swift, wields dual shortswords and you can guess what element he's adept at. Also unlike other character, he has 3 bar of super gauge instead of 2. So he tends to spam his enhanced special. That's all.     

 

Then i got overwhelmed by Footee, the fighter/bare-handed martial artist. Despite the fact that she is the only one without any weapon, she is tougher enemy than Bloody Mary, even. I read a review about her being overpowered and now i know why. Her enhanced anti-air special can juggle me in the air and once she back to the ground she will do it again while i'm still defenseless in air. Also she's fast plus her special moves are quick too. You know Makoto from Street Fighter 3? Her movement is slow but her special moves are suddenly fast, hoping to catch her opponent off guard. Makoto is balanced while Footee isn't, making her really imbalance.

 

There is air block as you can see from this screenshot although Footee isn't in blocking animation. Maybe that's makes her more imbalance. Or the most-likely possibility is me getting sucks at Fighting Game especially the fast ones like Asura Blade. From previous screenshots, you can see that i'm sucker to anti-air moves even though there is air block. I knew that playing too much Mobile Legends and Clash Royale will soon take big-time toll on me. And it's proven.

 

See! Once again, i have been beaten by anti-air move. I think Yashaoh here is the main character as he occupies the center of the roster even though he has Japanese delinquent's speech. Like Lightning, he has 3 bar of special gauge and adept at certain element. In Yashaoh case it's fire.

 

Whenever there is smoke, there is fire. Or maybe Yashaoh just farts really hard.    

Next Goat's opponent is his clone, dubbed as Doppelganger. As you know that a "mirror" match in Fighting game is atrocious. But credit to Fuuki for making the clone as challenging opponent yet giving it distinct flaw/different beside it being transparent (but whenever it get hit or blocks attack, you can see its color-swap-from-the original sprite for a moment). In Goat's case, his clone keen on anti-air slash and its enhanced version (kind of Ken's Shouryu Reppa) and kind of forget that Goat can do more than that. Whenever i blocked clone's anti-air slash leaving it vulnerable in the air, i chop it with heavy slash. Also the clone (and other A.I) won't perform throw on me even though we often get really close at each other. Goat's throw method is grab his/her opponent and toss him/her like garbage.

 

I forget to tell you about Goat's super move that cost entire super gauge: a series of slashes and if the last one get the opponent, he/she will be launched in the air then Goat slash him/her with heavy slash. But as you can see that the clone blocks the super move thus i can't grant you spectacular screenshot of it. Really disappointing.

 

Everyone know about "Bringing gun into swordfight". This guy, Curfue come here to practice it. It's unsurprisingly effective. Besides shooting with his gun, Curfue can throws grenade and slash with blade at the end of his gun.

Heavy_specialcompleted07.wav. Yeah, well done for your revolutionary combatfare. Your parent must be proud of you. -_-

 

After defeating the trigger-happy, Goat meet the final opponent: S. Geist (presumably the chap on title screen). Is that The Asura Blade? The sword looks no more grandeur than Goat's.

 

It's WHIP SWORD! Whip sword or Urumi (origin name) is basically sword that has blade that can be expanded like whip. Big gun seems more powerful weapon than whip sword. But in fact, fighting S. Geist is toughest ordeal. I know he is the boss and such...  

 

...but S. Geist is in "unfair" level of difficulty. What with his sword that reaches almost entire screen and can devastates your health quickly and easily. Footee has both fast movement and quick special moves but at least her attack range is reasonable for punch and kick. Curfue can spam laser and grenade from distance also has hit-scan close firing (akin to Vampire Saviour's Buletta/B.B Hood) but at least the lasers travels straight across the screen and his grenade is slow. S. Geist's can fill entire screen with his long whipblade while he's perfectly protected by it. Yes, he is honorary member of SNK's infamous bosses.

 

Look at that damage! And his sword isn't fully expanded yet. Means it's still longer and do more damage than at this moment. I become very certain that whip sword wielders are despicable as hell.

Yes, including these 2 lasses! Chaika Bogdan (left) or better known as Red(-attire) Chaika is ambitious yet no-good lady for the sake of revenging her "father". While Ivy Valentine (right) is...frankly i don't know as i never play Soul Calibur series in which she exists. I'm going to assume she is as contemptible as previous whip sword wielders. 

Credits to:www.minitokyo.net for these 2 pictures.

Here's free idea for Dark Souls's boss: make someone who wield whip sword then contemptibly weave it around him/her so he/she is safe from any attack while long reach of the whipblade allow him/her to damage player effortlessly. If somehow, he/she's defeated. Player can trade his/her soul with an ordinary longsword. You're freaking welcome, FromSoftware.

 

Eventually, i discover some way to hurt S. Geist efficiently. I can hit him by either enhanced spiked ball throw or the lunging slash at the right moment when he do the long-duration anti-air move.

 

Or i can hack him in air. His swing is bit slower than mine. So technically i can outmaneuver him by speed. Or by luck. Needless to say, i use savestate to save time.

In the end, S. Geist got moon-beamed like Nightwolf's (MK 3) Fatality and vanishes for good (means both forever and virtue). Then narration in Japanese followed by credit rolls. That's it, that's the end of Asura Blade. I assume there's no ending for specific character. By the way, i press the wrong button in character selection resulting: everyone isn't in original color. If that bothers you, I'm sorry. Did i mention that once you choose a character along with his/her color palette in single player, you can't change him/her when you use continue.

I kind of obliged to show you an example of Alice' attack. Awesome, right?! Pick her if you really like to command skeletons to decimate your foe.

 

Asura Blade is fighting game with blade (& Kung-Fu & necromancy & gun & spiked ironball) that can compete or even surpass Samurai Shodown. Wait! That's unfair judgment. For better assessment: compare Asura Blade with Guilty Gear instead. Both have lots of similarity such as: lighting swordsman, fire swordsman, Kung-Fu lass, fast-paced fighting. I have played 1 Guilty Gear in PSP and honestly, it didn't latch into my memory as great game while Asura Blade not. Aside of S. Geist's contemptibility that makes me want to delete this game from my collection, but recently i figure the way to beat him pretty well (for Goat that is). If i'm correct, Guilty Gear boasts itself by featuring ability to string normal moves and special moves for each character. But Asura Blade can do the same although at lower level than Guilty Gear. You can do such as: combining normal move to special move or enhanced special move, hunter-chain combo (which is strings of weak attack to strong attack). Then again, combo-ing isn't my style. I prefer outmaneuvering, seeking opportunities to attack as many as i can instead of maximizing on single opportunity. Asura Blade facilitates that by how big damage a single heavy from Goat can do: approximately 35% of life bar which is chunky enough. Asura Blade certainly has own style to create wonderful fighting game by featuring regenerating super gauge (yes, it grow by itself even if you do practically nothing), narrow stages, colorful characters in terms of technical and visual, pushing block (performed by successfully block hit then press forward). Though there's little achievement from completing the game, except to see S. Geist obliterated by moon beam and/or making Hi-score. So, i with whole of my soul recommended  Asura Blade especially playing it in two-player mode. I don't want you to be frustrated by fighting the vile bastard S. Geist. Unless you're annoying-fighting-game-boss beater, i can't stop you. As usual, i will analysis the character's stats, but only for Goat. So it's very short ones.

As i mention before i fancy tough-looking swordsman, like Goat here. Unlike Siegfried who 

has devotion toward his late father or Arngrim who is kind to his frail young brother, Goat doesn't have any emotional bond like them. So he's all about chopping (and throwing spiked ball at) anyone gleefully to achieve his personal glory without worry on any of his opponent's scrap. That's what makes him greater bad-blood than any of them. He can rapidly swing his sword not because his Agility instead his Strength allow him to weave his sword effortlessly, reminds me of my fam: Vengarl of Forossa (Dark Souls II). Thus His strength 4.5/5. His ready-stance has kind of finesse on it, so His Dexterity 3/5. Goat is strong in close range and he can deal with his opponent by closing it with the lunging move or whipping chain with spiked ball at him/her which are well functional. If he's cornered, he can execute spiked-ball smash to knock back his opponent with so-so damage by pressing all attack button + forward. He's aggressive close-range fighter that can deal great damage and always more than happy to defeat anyone who oppose him.