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Kenseiden Developer: Sega? Based on: Castlevania takes a field trip to Ancient Japan. (Clearly, in an era long before the creation of chiropractice medicine.) |
Games like this make me so very glad I owned an NES instead of a Master System. The best way to describe Kenseiden is what Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi would have been like if the heroes had controlled like a Belmont. You know: slow, stiff, awkward. The problem is that the enemies aren't suited toward a Belmont -- they're fast, numerous and endlessly respawning. As a result, you have a hero who looks pretty much like a total schmuck in comparison: he's way slower than his foes, and honestly incapable of battling them.
In fact, poor dumb Hayato spends most of his time reeling backwards in pain as bad guys smack him in the gut, over and over again. Pathetic, really. Especially pathetic seeing as his response to damage -- taking a few steps backwards -- will often cause him to walk right into a pit. Sure, Simon Belmont went flying backwards when a little Medusa head hit his heel, and that was annoying, but at least he had a brief moment of invincibility once he regained his balance. Hayato spends his entire "invulnerable time" out of the player's control, so you're more or less boned if you ever become surrounded by bad guys. You'll just keep stumbling backwards into the bad guys, over and over again, until you die.
On the plus side, that can only happen to you three times, because once you're out of lives your game's totally over. Continues are for the weak!
Maybe the problem is that Hayato is a samurai rather than a ninja. Nimble, stealthy ninja warriors make great platform heroes -- they're quick and unencumbered by armor, seeing as their uniforms consist of silk pajamas. Samurai, on the other hand, have those heavy hakama and armor and stuff. They're good for fighting games, and adventure titles that don't require jumping. But the goofy dynamics of platforming just don't work for the noble, dignified samurai. Sorry, Hayato -- leave a ninja's work to a ninja.
And of course, then there's the dialogue:
Yeah. Dragon Warrior only wishes it was that awesome.