(Image Source: Moby Games)

Recently I published a video about Spectrobes: Origins, developed by Genki. While I briefly mentioned the developer's history with another Monster Collecting series, Jade Cocoon, they actually have quite a diverse portfolio. They also worked on fighting games alongside developer Bergsala Lightweight, best known for their Bushido Blade series. After Lightweight finished the franchise on PlayStation, they teamed up with Genki to continue working on a semi-spiritual successor called Kengo: Master of Bushido.

(Image Source: HaykInWonderland)

While Bushido Blade was praised for its more realistic combat, its characters, story and setting still had some fantastical elements to it. Kengo, on the other hand, leaned heavily into realistic sword fighting in feudal Japan. Gone are the colorful characters and in are the young to middle-aged black-haired men wearing traditional samurai gear. After releasing the first Kengo to middling reviews, they shifted their next title to a uniquely flamboyant-style of blade combat, based off of kabuki theater.

Let's get this bit out of the way: Kabuki Warriors is considered one of the worst Xbox fighting games of all time, but its reputation has also destroyed its value. You can easily find a complete copy for dirt cheap. However, its unique presentation and pacing make it well worth a quick curiosity play.

The cast is made up of a kabuki troop, with the majority of battles taking place on nearly identical flat theater stages that are occasionally paired with painted murals or modeled backgrounds. While simplistic, there's a handful of character entrances that has the combatants flying in from the sides of the stage or rising up from underneath it. I've never watched a kabuki play myself, though what is presented here is somewhat fascinating and at least attempts to be faithful.

While maybe not the best idea for variety in a video game, from what I can tell the title does a surprisingly good job of capturing the over the top costumes and gorgeous art design that comes with the style. That being said, even with fighting games largely taking place in flat arenas simply dressed up, something about Kabuki Warrior's stages feel dull and repetitive. They're intended to be prop-like, but they are also sterile and lack a sense of place. I did find the canvas art on the most basic stages to look particularly nice, though it's all blurs together once you engage in combat.

Despite characters often being covered in bulky glamorous armor, everyone is surprisingly mobile. The player can quickly dash across the stage and jump ridiculously high. When cornered, you can run up the side of the stage and do a back-flip off of the wall to catch a foe from behind. The actual attacks are stiff and sluggish, yet the pre-engagement dance of two combatants is a surprisingly hectic adrenaline rush. The constant heavy thumping of the fighters' feet emphasizes this.

In addition to killing foes, the audience must be entertained. This is based on performance as well as how many times the player taunts during battle. While the career mode has a money element reliant on this, it also powers the character's special techniques – including lightning strikes and gas bombs. Playing against a CPU, it's usually a matter of taunting as many times as possible while the AI stares and thinks about attacking.

I only played Kabuki Warriors for a couple hours, but that's all you really need. In the end, there's not much content. There's only two basic modes and, while the roster is filled with over a dozen characters, about a fourth of the casts are clones. I find the combat on a very basic level to be enjoyable. It's simple and mashy, yet the movement makes up for the stiff attacks. However, you won't find any Kabuki Warrior tournaments to prove your skills, even if you wanted to.

It's a neat curiosity. Just expect it to only fill a lunch break rather than an entire afternoon.

From the outside, it can be difficult to tell when a series has gone off the rails and into rehash territory. For years Call of Duty was criticized for being the same game released every 12 months, but almost everyone has a beloved franchise that only an active player can see the minute differences in. This is especially true when new ideas get buried in familiar elements.

The Zelda series largely sticks with a standard outfit of weaponry between bombs, bows, boomerangs, various rod, etc. Few entries both introduce new items and shift the game design in a way that makes full use of them.

The Game Boy Color release, Oracle of Ages, doesn't stray that much further than other 2D entries. It features plenty of traditional Zelda gear, but also has two items that initially seem fairly standard yet have a profound effect on the puzzle design.

Unique to Oracle of Ages is the Seed Shooter, which fires, you guessed it, seeds. The elemental effects associated with each seed aren't the topic here though. Instead, it's how the projectiles traverse the environment. The seeds can be ricocheted off walls multiple times.

The Zelda franchise is full of puzzles that asks the player to find a way to shoot an object, though it's almost always reliant on having a direct line of sight.

On a conceptional level, it's only a small change from just shooting an arrow. However, the player can aim in eight directions instead of the usual four. The ricochet and angled trajectory makes the actual implementation much more dynamic, because how the seed moves around changes with both the room's shape as well as what populates it.

Thankfully it seems like the developers knew what they had here and designed some extensive puzzle solving around trying to shoot something out of direct reach or even attempting to hit multiple targets with one shot. Adding in the Cane of Somaria, which can generate blocks, means players can also place their own surface for the seeds to reflect off of.

Another item that at first may not turn many heads is the Switch Hook, which just seems like a weird re-naming for the series' Hook Shot. This seemingly insignificant change plays into a new function. Grappling onto an object won't pull Link towards it. Instead, he switches places with whatever was grasped. This lets the player freely move objects over gaps.

I wouldn't say the Switch Hook's implementation feels as unique as the Seed Shooter's. Nevertheless, it does make the player question if they have all the pieces available to solve a puzzle. It's a mechanic that the original Hook Shot never presents, even though they perform a nearly identical core function.

This equipment doesn't morph Oracle of Ages into a completely unique Zelda game, but it takes existing mechanics and, through slight tweaks, changes their implementation in a way that greatly effects the puzzle design.

I'm kind of the mind that Zelda dungeons have gotten fairly stagnant throughout the years. I don't think any entry has particularly solved this problem. If anything, it's gotten worse between A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild due to the open-world structure. Still, Oracle of Ages shows that a little creativity can go a long way in spicing up even the more tried and true items of the Zelda series.

Note: Disney China was a previous client of my current employer as of posting.

It's easy to forget about Spectrobes as it had a fairly short run before puttering out. While sales whimpered with the final release, it did go out with a bang. Spectrobes: Origins is a surprisingly ambitious release for the Wii, featuring RPG and action adventure elements with a bit of monster collecting.

Video Sources:

00:09 Pokemon Sun and Moon Gameplay Source - The Official Pokemon YouTube Channel

00:18 Monster Rancher Gameplay Source - FirstThirtyMinutes

00:24 Digimon World Gameplay Source - World of Longplays

00:27 Digimon World Next Order Gameplay Source - Bandai Namco Entertainment America

00:31 Yoki Watch Gameplay Source - Nintendo

00:41 Spectrobes Webisode Clip - Disney Games

00:52 Mario Picross Gameplay Source - popiBROS1

00:56 The World Ends With You Gameplay Source - kayzaac

00:58 Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Gameplay Source - World of Longplays

01:30 Jade Cocoon Gameplay Source - Enrique Garcia

01:35 Spectrobes Wii Trailer - Disney Games

02:10 Boy and his Blog Gameplay Source - NintendoLife

02:13 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles The Crystal Bearers Gameplay - スクウェア・エニックス

02:18 , 02:40 and 3:04 Spectrobes Origins Intro Footage - ?WishingTikal?

02:31 and 10:55 Spectrobes Roll Call - Disney Gamesv