T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger

"Yes...You Really Do Play As A Kung Fu Tiger"

INTRO: Tai Fu is one of the games at first when you hear of it dismiss it on premise and complete lack of any acknowledgment by critics. But when you see it for $5 used.. you just can't help yourself. And for $5 Tai Fu is certainly worth it's money, and surprisly more. But it's overall lack of refinement and bad controls bring this game down enough to justify it's lack of attention.

GRAPHICS: Tai Fu looks pretty good as a 3D brawler for the most part. Although it certainly is not one that stands out as anything that great. One of the best part of the game though is the cut scenes. Not that many gives this many cinematics on the PSX. Again their nothing like MGS or FFVII but they look good enough and give a quirky fun feel to the game.

SOUND: With the amount of cut scenes in the game it also serves the game well that there is real voice acting and lot of it. The music is unique and fitting to the game too. With this much effort going into the production values of the game it is a real shame that the game has so many rough edges.

CONTROLS: The single greatest downfall of the game is the camera. It does not all swing around Tai Fu in a efficient way. Although this is not that detrimental to the combat, it makes the platforming unnecessarily difficult and in my opinion ruins the game. This pretty sad to considering the combat system is fairly intuitive with plenty of depth.

STORY: Uh... it has one? Pretty much Tai Fu follows every kung fu cliche only with cute little animals. This probably was another reason for the game's lack of success. It screams kiddie very loudly despite it's teen rating. But for what is it serves it's purpose well enough. Which the very basic plot line is a Dragon clan is tormenting you and your clan so you must set out on an adventure to defeat them! And of course along the way you will meet drunken monkeys.

REPLAY: Even though the combat system is fun and the alter parts of the game can be considered a little challenging, the faulty camera makes the platforming parts a heavy handed chore. So once you finish the game, although you might say you enjoyed it, Tai Fu with kiddish atmosphere will not be inviting for any second or third tries. Plus it doesn't help that the game offers no unlockables for you to pursue.

GAMEPLAY: Tai Fu is a 3D brawler with featuring basic jumping puzzles. However like I have mentioned early the platforming sections fail greatly to the bad camera. But the action parts of the game are pretty good. You will blow the first half of the game with basic attacks to dispatch basic enemies. But as you progress the 24 levels more and more attacks and magic power are revealed to you. And just when your power seems to becoming overwhelming the enemies get much harder. This makes the combat have a lot depth and be really fun as well. The slow start though is probably just to give the younger audience the game is marketed toward a long learning curve.

BOTTOM LINE: If you can find this game for $5 dollars like I did then I certainly recommend that this game is worth that much. Especially if you like brawlers or quirky characters and settings.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/08/06