Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash

 It's time to check another obscure 90's console off the list. Okay, it's not really THAT obscure, but it's definitely not one a lot of people, or anyone I know really, grew up with.

Arcade giants SNK are very well known in the gaming community, especially among fighting game fans. Samurai Showdown, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, you could go all day just listing out fighting games that they were responsible for. Of course, they also had plenty of other well known titles like Metal Slug and Ikari Warriors. SNK is actually still in business today, though it's technically not the same as the original company went bankrupt in the early 00's. Normally I try to include some basic background about how these companies end up where they do, but I am going to spare everyone thousands of words of legal jargon and just simply describe the company's history with an emphatic "it's complicated." Either way, most gamers knew about their titles from either arcades or from ports to more popular consoles like the NES, SNES and Genesis. Like Hudson did with the Turbografx-16, SNK did also try and break into the console market in the 90's, which led to the creation of what I always found to be one of history's most interesting gaming systems, the Neo Geo. 

Though it would eventually become a home console, the Neo Geo started its life as an arcade cabinet, with the Neo Geo Multi Video System launching in Japan in 1990. The Neo Geo MVS featured top end arcade hardware for its time and also allowed arcade owners to put up to six games in a single cabinet. As one might expect, this made the product very successful, as it quickly grew in popularity amongst gamers and arcade operators. All of this success, coupled with it's ability to switch cartridges relatively easily gave the powers that be at SNK an idea: "why don't we try releasing this thing as a home console?" So not long after the release of the MVS, the world was introduced to the Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System, or AES. Initially available only for rent in Japan, the console became available for purchase the next year in 1991. For the purposes of this review, any use of Neo Geo will refer to the AES unless otherwise specified, as I want to keep my focus on home consoles for now. The hardware may have been largely the same, but the trajectories of the two platforms was anything but. Because while the MVS thrived, the AES struggled in the increasingly competitive home console market.

So, what was wrong with the Neo Geo? I mean, a straight up arcade machine at home? Sign me up. This thing was an absolute beast mechanically, far more powerful than the popular consoles of its time. It also didn't fall into the patterns of a lot of failed consoles of its day. It wasn't filled with garbage games like the 32X. It wasn't impossible to program for like the Jaguar (which was also filled with garbage games). It didn't try and focus on edutainment shovelware like the CD-I, nor did it focus on atrocious FMV games like the 3DO or Sega CD. No, the Neo Geo failed because of one singular factor. Sure, you could argue the fact it had very few games, or that too many titles in its library were tournament fighters, but that really wasn't the issue. Tournament fighters were extremely popular at the time and more popular consoles like the SNES and Genesis still had somewhat limited libraries so early in their lifespan. No, the Neo Geo failed because it cost betwen $700 and $800 when it was released...in 1991. That would be the equivalent of just under $1,850 today. I guess I'll just keep feeding quarters into the arcade machine instead. It may have been pricy, but unlike it's contemporaries the Neo Geo was absolutely many steps above its competition in terms of power and performance. Its library may consist mostly of fighting games, but we are talking about some phenomenal titles here. I have been trying to get a look at this console for a long time, but since I already have some knowledge of its more popular IPs, I figured I would start with something a little more out there. 

Which brings us to Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash, the first non-Fatal Fury/Samurai Showdown/KOF/World Heroes fighting game that came to my attention. Something about the visual style drew me to it instantly, I found it very appealing even though I'm not typically a fan of the anime aesthetic. I had never heard of Far East of Eden, assuming it to be based on some sort of anime that never gained popularity here in the west. I was further intrigued when I learned it was actually based on a Japan-Only RPG series for the PC Engine (Turbografx-16 for us Americans) known in its home country as Tengai Makayo. That got me down a pretty substantial FEoE rabbit hole, because those games look absolutely outstanding. It took a while, but it does look like the first game had an English translation patch released last year, so now I have more stuff to add to my backlog. But that's a different story for a different day, one where I will most assuredly go into some long-winded introduction about how Kabuki Clash was my introduction to the series. At least I can say it will bring back some positive memories. Kabuki Klash may not be the best fighting game I've ever played, but it was a unique and outstanding take on the genre that showed off just how powerful the Neo Geo hardware was. 

FEoE: Kabuki Klash features a roster of eight fighters, a fairly standard number for the genre at the time. Obviously I didn't recognize any of them, but they were all pretty cool and they seem to be pretty well-regarded characters from the series. The sword wielding Manjimaru seems to be the kind of beginner friendly all-rounder while the portly Gokuraku fills the powerhouse role. Orochimaru uses his spear to strike from a distance while Tsunade tries to close distance and get in close with her giant axe. I focused most of my playtime on Kinu, who fights alongside her canine companion Shiro. I found her to be the most interesting and unique character, she has a strange combination of close range attacks she performs by herself and zoning moves involving Shiro. He truly is the goodest boy. I don't know very much about the source material, so I can't tell you how accurate these guys look and feel when compared to the main series. But they all look cool and are exceptionally animated. All of them have their strengths and weaknesses and they feel incredibly balanced, every one seemed to be some level of viable. It certainly helps that the controls are tight and responsive. You have two slashes and two kicks and pressing both light and heavy attack together will result in an even more powered attack. Special moves are performed with Mortal Kombat style button commands and are tied to a magic meter that can be replenished throughout the fight. Like fellow SNK fighting title Samurai Showdown, items will appear during battle, some of which provides benefits while others can cause debuffs. I kind of like that it incorporates some slight RPG elements into the fighting, as that's where the series comes from. There's absolutely nothing revolutionary here, but it is a great example of taking an existing formula, executing it almost flawlessly and providing a unique and memorable setting and aesthetic.

When I reviewed Flink on the Sega CD a few weeks ago, I talked about how the console's presentation was a step ahead of its contemporaries. Well, if the Sega CD was on a different level from the more popular consoles, the Neo Geo was on another planet. Remember, this was essentially an arcade cabinet that plugged into your TV, which meant it could do things the 4th and especially 3rd generation consoles could only dream of. That power was on full display in Kabuki Klash, which looks absolutely outstanding. The characters are incredibly well animated and the backgrounds are too. The attention to detail here is unreal and the amount of color on the screen is just staggering. The special attacks all look wonderful and feature effects that other home consoles of the time just weren't capable of. Even little things, like the confetti falling on the victory screen are carefully animated. The soundtrack is excellent too, not as far superior to its contemporaries in terms of quality, but still really good. The presentation as a whole is excellent, it perfectly fits the anime vibe the game is going for and the series is apparently known for. The world of Jipang, apparently based on feudal Japan, is interesting and its uniqueness really comes through, even in a fighting game. Just taking one look at Manto Ace, the giant monkey you fight at as the first sub boss, you can tell exactly what kind of character he is and what kind of vibe the FEoE titles are. The aesthetic of Kabuki Klash isn't typically one I'm a huge fan of, but it's so well done that it works here. 

Of course, the game is far from perfect. At the end of the day, the fighting isn't really all that different from your standard 90's 2D tournament fighter. There aren't any mechanics to differentiate Kabuki Klash from other titles, particularly other Neo Geo titles. It's probably closest to Samurai Showdown, with its weapon-based combat and items thrown into the arena. The button commands do kind of bring a little more of an MK vibe than most of these games and the moves are a little bit simpler than what you would see with them. Seriously, look up some of the joystick inputs for the Fatal Fury and World Heroes games for the Neo Geo. There are some hadouken motions here, but not too many. Really, that's the biggest issue here, it just doesn't do enough to differentitate itself from other games on the console. That issue is further compounded by the game coming out in 1995, long after many of the more well known fighting franchises had seen releases on the Neo Geo. There were some minor gameplay issues, it was sometimes frustrating to get hit with a bad items that spawned in front of you randomly and some of the special moves felt unfair. Even playing as Kinu, it felt like some of her keepaway strategies felt a little unfair. If it felt unfair playing as the character, I can't imagine how it feels playing against. The game is so well designed and it's still a ton of fun, but there really wasn't a whole lot to make it feel too different from some of the other options available, especially on a console known almost exclusively for fighting games.

It may not have been revolutionary, but Kabuki Klash accomplished what I believe is the ultimate goal of any video game: it was a lot of fun. This was a really good, well-done fighting game on a console that had some of the best 1v1 titles in the business. It's beautiful, well executed and frantic, with more than enough charm to go around. It really is a shame that the Neo Geo wasn't more popular. I totally understand why, the thought of spending what was essentially almost $2000 makes me physically ill. A lot of these lesser-known consoles were super expensive at launch, so that wasn't unique. But what was unique was the Neo Geo's ability to actually back up that price from a hardware standpoint. Remember, this was basically like buying an arcade machine for your house at a time when arcade machines were far more powerful than any home console of the day. Remember, this came out the same year as the SNES in North America. Compare the two graphically and its night and day. But at the same time, the SNES cost way less, had cheaper games (Neo Geo games were almost $200), had way more games with more variety and was a follow-up to one of the most successful consoles of all time, at least in North America. In a time when there were far fewer hardcore gamers than there are today, it was easy to see which console was going to more popular. But it's time to start giving the Neo Geo its due for being the hardware beast it was. If you're new to the console, FEoE: Kabuki Klash is a great place to start. 

 

8.5/10