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| .............CONTENT
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The player assumes the role of the latest action star in a series of 21 new movies, all directed by an overly enthusiastic director, and whose sets range from the likes of Drunken Master, Jurassic Park, When Worlds Collide, Titanic, and even a horror-inspired flick. Each feature-length film comes with a short movie that's the equivalent of a mini-game; these will have players tossing life preservers to drowning actors, complete with seals getting in the way and tossing them back; running under falling stuntmen with a trampoline while dodging falling cattle; standing on a pole and tossing a princess between four actors -- don't worry if she falls, there's plenty of mattresses underneath; a bumper car-styled event with four actors running around on a floating piece of ice and bumping into each other with life preservers and trying not to fall off the edge in the process; and my favorite, jumping over a crane or hitting it back to make it increase in speed, which is a great multiplayer event. The levels can be played through a multitude of options, including a Ninja battle that lets the players go solo, a campaign that allows for four others to join in - either real people or bots - along with rehearsal, freestyle, and so on. Each has a variety of options that can be set, but those, along with additional characters and levels, are unlocked by getting four or five stars within all the movies in Ninja battle. While all but Ninja mode allow for multiple characters, they aren't all enjoyable in multiplayer. Due to the fact that the camera tends to get a good distance out so that everything can be seen and that nothing goes transparent, the player ends up getting lost behind people and/or objects. Since the camera isn't manually controlled, these situations end up being crapshoots, which is a shame, since some levels teach combos and reversals, each of which can be difficult to use since there's no idea of who is attacking who and whose attack is about to connect. The camera goes up close in single player at times, so that remedies some of the problems, but playing with friends isn't recommended. Setting people into teams helps, since colored ovals under the actors indicate who's on which team, but this doesn't solve the nagging camera issues. Because of this, the short films are recommended to play with friends, and those are a blast. I've spent countless hours on a few short films, so if everyone can adjust and doesn't mind not being able to see all the time in single player, then you're left with the icing on the cake. The characters that can be chosen are a surly bunch. All are boisterous, but each has their own personality. The ninja sounds overly heroic, there's the bubbly girl on roller-skates, there's the samurai, standard monkey-with-a-stick, and even a nod to blaxploitation films with a sassy young lady who packs a double-barrel shotgun; the rest are just as varied. While they all have different attacks, there are standard moves that work across the board, so it's easy to hop to another character and not invest a lot of time to see if they're suitable, although, this also limits some of the replay value as the time not needing to invest in the game is just that: less time. Each character also has a suitable voice, and uses it to taunt their opponents once they successfully flip or perform a combo on them, and to verbally bash them as they lay on the ground. Once this is done three times, impressive super-moves are unleashed. To stop opponents from getting the necessary amount of insults to allow this, doing the same to them will steal their stars. This can be troublesome, though, as insults add to time spent on the ground, and this is followed by being tossed off high places and dying; factor this in with the camera issue, and the fact that controlling the character seems sporadic when action heats up, there'll be several times that multiple lives will be eaten up by simply being stuck in a routine of being swarmed, beaten up, insulted, and tossed. Thankfully, tapping on buttons helps you to get up faster, though it's only used to best effect when there are less than four players, or a level not on top of a platform. Sure,
Kung Fu Chaos isn't perfect, but it's still an adrenaline-pumping experience
as the movies become more and more frantic. It can be extremely frustrating at
times, but its charms are undeniable, and watching the replays all decked out
with a grainy overlay to emulate 70's cinema with selectable and equally funky
soundtracks, will bring a smile to nearly anyone's face. While not the party game
I was hoping for, it's still a strong showing and very enjoyable; it's just not
for everyone.
Graphics: 8/10 The
levels themselves looked fantastic, with sets going from a city being invaded
by UFOs, to a Universal-like Jurassic Park ride. Each constantly changes
as the player progresses through them and their frantic scripted sequences are
pulled off without a hitch. Of particular interest are the replays, which get
the 70s-cinematic treatment with the appearance of film breaking, lines, dirt,
and highly polished representations of the players and levels, going through the
previously played mission with various camera angles and commentary - all in true
Hollywood form. Sound:
7.5/10 Control:
6.5/10 Overall:
7.5/10 [ top ] | |||
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