Gekido Review

There wasn't a complex storyline, brain-melting puzzles or lack of save points *cough* Turok 2 *cough* that forced you to play for hours at a time. It was just you and a buddy against wave after wave of bad guys. As most people claim, and rightly so, it's a genre that requires mindless button-smashing. But that's the point! They're meant to only be fun for minutes at a time, not marathon gaming sessions.<br><br>Sadly, while it flourished in the 16-bit era, the genre is now an endangered species. Whereas games like Final Fight and Streets of Rage defined the era, dismal attempts such as Fighting Force and Jedi Power Battles have done little to endear the genre to a new generation of gamers. Thankfully, this looks all set to change with the release of Gekido. Combining Matrix-like effects with a solid fighting engine, the game brings back some of that old school flair that's been missing for so long.<br><br>A staple of any good fighting game is weapons, something that Gekido features in abundance. Tyres, guns, trashcans, cars(because hey, we all know how easy cars are to pick up) and a number of other weapons can all be used against the bad guys who are foolish enough to mess with you. As you progress through the game your character also learns new moves, some of which are quite devastating. As nice an addition as this is(it was also done in JPB) it's quite possible to finish the game using only a limited set of basic moves, but we only had a handful of moves in Streets of Rage and I didn't hear anyone complaining back then, so I refuse to hold this fact against the game. Rearranging someone's face is always best enjoyed with a friend and Gekido is no exception, providing an enjoyable two-player co-operative mode in addition to the four-player free-for-all.<br><br>Graphically, Gekido provides as good a graphics engine as possible whithout affecting the framerates too adversely. Explosions, crazy special-effects and some good-looking textures are the highlights, but clipping and a number of other graphical oddities are all too common. That said though, the backgrounds and environments are nicely detailed and up to par with a number of games currently out on the market.<br><br>Grunts, screams, punches and everything else you'd find in a B-movie action flick are all clearly represented in the game and well, aside from making a punch sound like a punch there isn't a whole lot that can be done with the sound in a game like this. The soundtrack is pretty good and churns out a number of recognisable beats that'll have you humming while you work or put the beat-down on the enemies in this case.<br><br>Whether or not you're an old-school nut and have played most beat-'em-ups since Double Dragon or your first experience with the genre was Zombie Revenge, I can heartily recommend Gekido as the premier beat-'em-up on the Playstation and a title well worth your time, even if it is only a few minutes a day