Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Bringing the dead back to life

Beat’em up is a genre that was once very successful, especially in the arcades of the 90s, but that over time lost its relevance and today is cited more as a reference or for nostalgia. Gekido: Kintaro’s Revenge is the remaster of the game of the same name originally released for Game Boy Advance in 2002, and brings a genre classic back to life.

Narrative: 6

Gekido follows Tetsuo, apprentice and adopted son of martial arts master Ushi, on his journey to uncover and stop mysterious appearances of monsters and undead in a village. The story is linear and shallow, appropriate for a title of the genre, but presented with illustrated cutscenes – a rarity for games like this.

Often the scenes happen suddenly, without context or explanation, and end up leaving the narrative disconnected and hard to follow… The kind of thing you’d expect from an early-90s title, but that isn’t exactly well regarded these days.

Mechanics: 6

Let’s start by quickly covering Gekido‘s controls: there is one button for punches and one for kicks, the right trigger is for jumping and the left for running. Holding the directional toward a nearby enemy automatically grabs and throws, and there are also special moves performed in the air or during a run. Finally, you can press the punch and kick buttons simultaneously to damage all enemies on the screen and stun them for a few moments – this power can only be used when the energy bar is full, and it is completely consumed after a single use, recharging automatically over time.

The combat system is rudimentary and gets a bit repetitive, but the variety of enemies helps make the game more interesting: you will need to develop specific strategies to approach each type of opponent – and different combinations will demand quick thinking to react and adapt appropriately.

Kintaro’s Revenge tries something different from most other games in the beat’em up genre. Instead of being a completely linear progression, always moving right after defeating a group of enemies, the game opens up and reveals itself to be more expansive. You’ll be encouraged (and often forced) to explore the area, build a mental map and note locked doors to come back to later. The idea is fabulous and would work very well if it weren’t for the problems in its execution. There are countless traps in the scenery, many of which give little or no warning and end up feeling somewhat unfair. In addition there are countless platforming sections (some of them in low light), which demand a degree of precision incompatible with the quality and responsiveness of the controls. The result is an experience of constant frustration, and one that will probably leave you with a thought similar to mine: the idea is good, but the way it is, I’d rather just keep moving right.

The game also offers some alternative modes, worth mentioning:

• Survival: A traditional beat’em up mode, moving right after defeating a group of enemies. The goal here is to go as far as possible, but there is no story progression or bosses.
• Relic Hunting: A roguelike mode, in which a randomly generated map must be explored. There are countless traps, keys and locks scattered around the maze, and your goal is to find a talisman hidden in the ruins.

Each mode focuses on one of the game’s fundamental aspects and they turn out to be even better than the original experience, but still lose much of their shine quickly due to repetitiveness.

Audiovisual: 7

Kintaro’s Revenge does a good job in its presentation. The game has detailed sprites, polished animations, beautiful scenery and enemies with quite interesting designs. The title also offers several graphic filter options to more faithfully emulate the experience of an old-school arcade or video game – a feature worth trying, especially if you lived a bit of that in the 90s!

In terms of sound, the work is quite… neutral. The songs are pleasant enough, but lack variety and tire quickly. Sound effects suffer from the same problem, being quite generic and repetitive.

Final Considerations

Gekido: Kintaro’s Revenge revives an impressive Game Boy Advance game, a bold experiment that innovated the experience of playing a beat’em up. This remaster manages to bring back the genre’s nostalgia and further expands the limits of the original title’s innovation, but it also brings serious execution problems due to its unfair level design and at times imprecise controls. It’s a must for any fan of the genre, but should probably be avoided by the rest of the gamer community.

Score

Narrative = 6

Mechanics = 6

Audiovisual = 7

Worth the 15 dollars? It depends a lot on your tastes and what you’re looking for. If you miss and want to relive the glory of the 90s arcade beat’em ups and are interested in seeing a renewed experience different from the norm, it’s worth buying. If you have an equally nostalgic friend to share this adventure with, then the game becomes a must!

Overall: 6.3

Played on the Nintendo Switch version