"Technos did good by not violating American Nintendos with this waste of plastic."

This game was never ported into the United States, not that I can blame Technos after I played this game. This has got to be the biggest example of mediocrity ever.

Graphics (7/10)
The only good thing about this game. The graphics are like River City Ransom, except that the characters wear single colored garbage bags for clothing.

Music (3/10)
This is pretty obnoxious music. The game takes place back in the days of Feudal Japan, yet the music in this game is stuff that would be heard in a Popeye cartoon from the 50s. Maybe I'm a retard, but there wasn't this type of music in that time.

Sound Effects (1/10)
I wish I could give a negative score here. The punches and kicks all sound like static from a radio. The splashing of your characters jumping into water also continue for a half minute after you jumped in.

Story (1/10)
I know that River City Ransom didn't have a blockbuster story but this is just lame. At the start, Kunio and Tsuu (the protagonists) are walking to their master's house because of some unnamed ''danger''. On the way, they were attacked and were suprised to find that their master was in trouble (Which is why they began that quest of idiocy in the first place). After your master is cured, you walk around fighting random people for no apparent reason. What motivation to fight the Feudal Yakuza!!! Each scene, you fight a different gang wearing pink or blue samurai garb and you keep fighting random gangs until you're attacked by the Twins (the boss of the game). Problem is, that since you can't raise your stats by eating like RCR, you'll probably never make it this far unless you cheat.

Gameplay (1/10)
You play as Kunio and the 2nd player or computer takes control of your ally. The gameplay is horrendous because Kunio starts out as the biggest wuss in the world and the CPU controlled ally just stands there and takes a can of kick butt graciously. To learn moves, you have to save thousands of Yen to buy the techniques (Although you only get from 10-100 yen per bad guy, preassuming that your partner doesn't hog the money). To improve your stats, you have to set up Kunio's percentage stat boost and fight hundreds of villains(?) to get points towards your selected stats. Your ally has a pre-set increment that can't be messed with unless you have a human for player 2. Oh yeah, you get more allies as you go through the game, the only difference is that some can take more punches before inevitably falling in battle. I forgot to mention that your ally controlled by the CPU doesn't shop for himself.

Challenge (10/10)
This is by far Technos's hardest game. Since Kunio is a wimp at first you have to rely on your buddy to fight your battles for you. Too bad that they die quickly. Every time you go to a different scene, you're attacked. I guess that Technos did this to add ''depth'' to this sad knock off of RCR. Problem is, that there is a boss after you fight every gang and he will beat the crap out of you (maybe to the benefit of all who play this game).

Replayability (Don't torture yourself people)
See above. Enough said

The only thing that saved this game from a 1 was the fact that this game was translated by fans, meaning that I might be missing something from the story or that there could be mistakes. Ignoring that, the gameplay is too bad to matter anyway. Just don't play this game. Technos fan or not, you'll be bored to tears with this game in minutes.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/02, Updated 04/17/02