Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble

I’ve been meaning to play this since the quick look Giant Bomb did back in 2011. 4 years later I finally got around to it. Kenka Bancho has a setup only made possible by the fact this came from Japan. Takahashi and his schoolmates are on a school trip to learn more about Kyoto. But Taka isn’t the type to care about school work and is more interested in picking fights with people. So it is a good thing that every Bancho in Japan has decided to hang out in Kyoto this year to prove who is the best. In gameplay terms this is a brawler that has a lot in common with River City Ransom. Although it is more of a open world that the player must explore to find all the banchos and a few collectibles.

The main focus of the game is wandering around environments laser beaming other tough dudes to see if they feel like fighting That's right you laser beam other dudes to see if they are willing to fight. That is the true Bancho way. If they are up for it some smacktalk occurs and the player must choose the right phrases via a QTE. Getting this right will let Taka get the first hit on a enemy. Once the fight starts it turns into a somewhat slow brawler. A 3 hit combo that is customizeable is your main offensive attack. Along with a few grapple moves that can be performed standing or on the ground. Most of the ultimate attacks seem rather pointless other than if they are a grapple since if your opponent is blocking they won’t take damage. Since it takes forever for almost every special move to come out most enemies will block it. To make sure you win every fight it is also possible to buy health items at convenience stores to better prepare for a tough situation.

After proving that Taka is the best Bancho around it also has a few other side activities. Including a very simple dating sim. I’m not sure if I would even call it that since at most you just need to be in the right place at the right time. A few chose the obvious correct answer situations come up but that is about as deep as it gets. That is a great place to segway into the lack of stuff to do department. Other than wiping the floor with every banco and a few minor cutscenes you won’t have anything else to do.. Sure you can wander around collecting pointless flags and getting hit by speeding cars but that isn’t interesting. With the fighting being a tad bit too simple I’m not sure if it is even worth another playthrough. Which seems to be going against what the developers obviously planned for between not having enough time to take down all the bauncho’s and the final boss having a attack that most likely 1 hit KO’s you in your first attempt. If the combat was just a little bit faster I would have enjoyed this game more.

In the end the customizable combo system just can’t make up for the absurdly slow pace of each fight. The mediocre nature of the storyline doesn’t help either even if I enjoy the absurd nature of what is going on. Thus I can’t say that this is a game worth playing. Which is to bad since I do like silly games like this that could only come from Japan.