KickBeat - Special Edition is a rhythm fighting game that combines the frantic button presses of a rhythm game like Rock Band Blitz with the over the top fighting action of a Jackie Chan movie. If at this point in time you are asking yourself “Whaaaaaa?” then you are not alone. I had an idea as to what this might be, but I was not expecting what Zen Studios (Creators of gems like Pinball FX/FX2 and Castlestorm) has created here.
The Neverending Story
The story comes at in you in pieces during cutscenes. I really enjoyed the hand drawn, watercolor-esque minimalist animation in the cut scenes but the voice acting was…lacking. During these cutscenes you discover you are a young hormonal teenage male named “Lee” who spots a pretty young thing walking into a monastery. As these stories usually go, you get a job there as a janitor and, during a period of meditation by the resident monks, you are discovered to be the “chosen one”! (I totally didn’t see that coming…) As the chosen one, Lee is tasked with finding and retrieving all the world’s music after the Sphere was stolen right out from under the guardian monk’s noses. Enter your nemesis, Mr. Halisi, owner of Earth Entertainment and stand-in for all greedy music labels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBKiPUiozMk[width=650,height=366]
As the chosen one your quest is to retrieve the Sphere. You fight your way through 24 levels in 5 different locations around the world in an effort to locate and return this magical sphere to the monks. There is a mini boss at each location that you have to fight through until the final showdown with Mr. Halisi himself. Once Halisi is defeated and the story “complete” you can play through the exact…same…levels again as the PYT that you originally were chasing: Your Sensei’s granddaughter Mei. (Again…totally didn’t see that coming…) The levels are the same, the music the same, even the animations are exactly the same but the story branches off with Mei and her quest. The game and story know you have been to these levels before so all the bosses you fought as Lee look a little battle worn by the time you get to them as Mei.
American Ninja
The tutorial spells out all the major game play concepts. Hit the buttons or the D-Pad as the bad dudes stop in lit up circles for a split second waiting for you to pummel them with your fists or feet of fury. Miss your window and you get hit instead. Push that button way too early and you miss entirely. Points are scored for how close you come to perfectly timing your attacks. If you are a little off you are notified with a “Good” or “Great” and a + or – depending on if you were late or early. Hit it perfectly and you are rewarded with a “Perfect”.
Lee and Mei are equipped with 3 different attack styles. Single tap, double tap for the powerups, and hold down and release for the guys chained together. The Yin and Yang in the center of the screen are your health and chi meters. Health needs no explanation but the chi is used for releasing powerups you have gained over the course of the song.
The enemies encircle you on different circular platforms made from concentric circles, with a Yin and Yang symbol in the middle circle. As the bad guys close in on you from the outside, some are given multipliers, score increases, health, shields and other powerups floating above their heads. Some are chained together much like holding a note in Guitar Hero or Rock Band.
That’s it. That is all there is to it. You don’t move your character around, you don’t use the thumbsticks, you don’t have secret moves, Lee and Mei stand in the middle in martial arts poses waiting for you to hit the right button. When you hit that button at the right time they attack in a flourish! However, again KickBeat – Special Edition suffers from “sameness” as this mechanic is exactly the same for all 24 levels. The bad guys you fight may have different costumes but they act and react the same in each level. After the first couple levels I became relatively bored with the overall gameplay but was hoping the music would become more interesting.
Footloose
Let’s talk about the music. Four of the 24 of the tracks were by bands I knew. That was fine as I was exposed to some great bands through games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band that I may never had come across. I was looking forward to discovering something new here but sadly that was not the case. Zen Studio’s sells it as a high energy playlist but you had better like Nu Metal, EDM and/or Industrial electro rap as that is what every single track in the game is. Even the Taiwanese rap sounded much like every other track (check blog.zenstudios.com for the artist and track list). After completing the first 23 levels in just under two hours I had had enough. I tried the final level with Mr. Halisi and after getting my ass handed to me and my ears assaulted with substandard Dub Step, I quit. Enough was enough. There was not enough diversity here in the gameplay or the music to make me want to even finish. On top of that, during the final battle my Xbox crashed within the last 30 seconds of the fight 3 times. In no other game has it ever crashed like that.
“You quit?!” Yes I quit. For four days I did other things like play Destiny and Defense Grid 2 until guilt got the best of me. I went back at it again for a few hours. I had the same crashes this time around in Lee’s story but I kept at it until I passed crash free. That was when Mei’s story became unlocked. I was hoping I may have unlocked some other tracks or different levels but as you have already read the game is exactly the same playing as her.
I wanted to like Kickbeat – Special Edition. I love Pinball FX2 and I came into this thinking this would be fun. I like music and music games. I like fighting games like Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive, etc. Admittedly the Hard setting in both those genres kick my ass but I still enjoy playing them. However I found there was not enough interesting new music, nor any interesting mechanics in KickBeat – Special Edition to hold my interest. Around the halfway point in Lee’s story I realized I would hard pressed to get through. When Mei’s story opened up, I sighed and pressed on. That being said, after beating Mei’s story I did try the Freeplay mode and a couple of the harder levels just to see if anything different appeared. However, same music, same levels…too much the same to make me want to continue.
Street Fighter - the Movie
You are probably expecting a “Skip” rating given my review. KickBeat - Special Edition is $10 as a digital download and think the amount of game you get is almost worth that price. That being said I can’t get past how bored I was, overall, with this game, but if it dropped to under $5 or ends up being free at some point in time it is worth picking up and playing.
