Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle

"Which one is this? Oh yeah, my least favorite"

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Ranma. The show. The manga. Maybe even the 3rd fighting game. No, not this one though.

*Graphics: 6/10
Well, its an SNES game, but even so,there are better. It would've been alright, if I hadn't gotten this game 10 years late, and better looking games hadn't come out. Its not fair to compare it to its sequel though. But even compared to the first game, it looks a little goofy. The specials are pretty ugly. If you haven't seen the Hiryu Shoten Ha, or Ryouga's Shishi Hokoudan, then take a point off the score. To be fair the first one sucked more.

*Animation: 4/10
On a different note, the animation doesn't have the benefit of sitting there and getting points. Ranma moves like a nerd. Theres somewhere around 12 characters, but with like 3 moves a piece, you wouldn't expect such cheesiness.

*Story: 7/10
No clue. Sorry. I can't read much Japanese! How did I score it? On what happens before and after text. It's a fighting game, so plot doesn't matter because you're gonna end up fightin' anyway. At least this way, you could make your own plot or somethin'.

*Gameplay: 6/10
These games have some wacky controls. Specials are a little harder though. Also, many characters only have two moves. Street Fighters have more moves in their toes than all of them combined. Oh well, its Ranma!

*Sound: 4/10
Bland, generic, low quality the list goes on. I think they have the real seiyuus (voice actors), so it gets a 4 instead of 3. Ugh. Lets move on.

*pricing - if you'd pay more than $25 for the game, you're crazy. Not funny crazy, but paint eating crazy.
*Learning curve - with only about 20 moves total, 3 min.
*Difficulty - uhhhh... not much. 6/10
*Replay - However long you play until seeing the shishi hokoudan, and which point you turn the game off and cry. 5/10

Overall: 5/10
To sum it up, the first two Ranma games are garbage. This isn't so bad, and the other one is pretty old, so I don't really blame them. But this one kinda sucks. Average I guess. For its time it was a bit unique. So unique its probably rare now or completely vanquished by now (hopefully). These defunct SFC games cost a lot, so you might as well not get it. Even if its free, you won't really play it. It wouldn't have been very bad to me if it didn't stain Rumic Soft's credibility. Oh well, its *sigh* Ranma...

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/03, Updated 05/26/03