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.
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