May
4, 2003
Thank
goodness the Gameboy Advance has no territorial lockout; thanks
to import shops and the Internet, we can all enjoy those great games
from oversees that somehow avoid our shores. Right now, I'm thinking
of the excellent European scene and feeling jealous. There are a
number of great titles that easily deserve to be seen in America:
Konami's International Superstar Soccer Advance,
the best soccer game on the handheld; Go Go Beckham, a
charming little platformer in the Mario mold (we get stuck
with, sigh, Soccer Kid); Comix Zone, ported straight
from the Genesis; TOCA World Touring Cars, an impressive
3D polygon racer; Drop Zone and International Karate
Championship; Archer Maclean's computer game classics from
the Commodore 64 era. Added to this impressive mix is Gekido
Advance.
Until
now, what the Advance has really needed was a good beat-em-up. There
was Final Fight One, which promised to be a perfect rendition
of the classic arcade; to my horror, it turned out to be nothing
more than a tepid port of the lousy Super NES version with a two-player
mode tacked on. This little handheld certainly deserves better than
shovelware, and those who paid hard money for an Advance deserve
better. Thankfully, Gekido delivers the goods. I grew tired
of these beat-em-ups during the 16-bit era, when it seemed everybody
and their uncle had to offer their own Double Dragon clone;
now, like the 2D platformer, absence makes this simple videogame
genre enjoyable again.
Gekido
Advance tells the story of a ninja who must investigate mysterious
happenings in a small town. Now here is a novel approach. There
is actually a point beyond bashing heads, and this isn't a minor
point. The traditional problem with beat-em-ups is that they are
basically a twenty-second game dragged out across an hour or two.
Move a character left to right, pummeling on an assortment of comic-book
villains, then walk five steps, and repeat, repeat, repeat. That's
a recipe for sheer boredom.
Gekido
plays out more like the classic River City Ransom, with
its interconnecting buildings, rooms, streets, and pathways. When
the game begins, Tetsuo, the young hero, visits a village, speaking
to various people and gathering clues. It's only after making your
way towards the temple that you are ambushed by thugs. The fighting
is contained in violent moments, bursts of action between moments
of quiet. The developers are no doubt aware of how tiring endless
punching and kicking can become, and wisely chose to break up the
momentum. This doesn't mean the game is anything but fast-paced;
I worked my reflexes as quickly as I ever had in the Streets
of Rage series. And, yes, there is an undeniable thrill in
bashing through a long wave of fighters.
NAPS
Team is the development studio responsible for Gekido Advance,
and this is the third title in the series; previous installments
appeared on the original Gameboy and the Playstation. On the Playstation,
they tried to bring the beat-em-up into the 3D realm, which worked
fairly well for many people, but they wisely chose to keep Gekido
Advance purely in the 2D realm. Their artistic skills should
put most other developers to shame. With rich hues, environments
drawn in lush reds, greens, and blues, these are among the finest
graphics to date on Nintendo's handheld.
More
impressive are the characters, large and wonderfully animated. The
visual style is more than a little similar to SNK's fighting games,
and playing, I wonder why the handheld versions of King of Fighters
and Street Fighter Alpha 3 weren't drawn like this. There
certainly isn't any excuse for a game with missing frames of animation
or tiny sprites now. Add in many animated cut-scenes in the best
Ninja Gaiden
tradition, and, well, I usually don't gush about graphics all that
much, but this is a notable exception. This game looks terrific.
The
audio and music also deserve mention. The first wave of Advance
titles included audio that was tinny, small - the studios were thinking
with that tiny speaker in mind - but now the quality has improved
so much that you have to wonder what was going on at the beginning.
There are only a few songs in Gekido, but the quality is
outstanding; I was reminded of the terrific music on the Sega CD
version of Final Fight (the definitive version), with the
guitar tones and catchy hooks. While searching around, the music
is laid back, mellow; when enemies appear, the main theme kicks
in. I'm trying to think of titles currently on the Advance with
better-sounding music, but right now I honestly can't. It will definitely
be difficult to return to the old, scratchy tunes again.
Why
hasn't this title been earmarked for an American release? Clearly,
this is just the sort of thing Gameboy owners would love, especially
with the dearth of shovelware swimming around. Of course, ten or
twenty beat-em-ups would be too much; even with the cool innovations
of Gekido; this is still a child of Double Dragon.
As much as I enjoy the attack combos you can string together, when
will someone bother to let the enemy fighters play like that? The
villains in these games would be so much more potent if they had
as many moves as you; it would certainly make for a more interesting
fight. This videogame genre never needed to go away; it just needs
some fresh blood. |
