Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle

"Sub-par & overly basic gameplay really mars an otherwise highly entertaining & underrated game."

Ah yes ''Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle'' one really suprising thing about this game is this. It actually had a US domestic release, yeah thats right you don't have to try to find it in some import shop here. This is my first Ranma 1/2 VG experience however this awfully underrated game isn't exactly all that highly praised. (Then again the others who reviewed this probably compared it to the other games which were mostly a lot more praised. I have no malevolence towards them even though I liked it more than they did I do look forward to buy more Ranma 1/2 games in the future and this just simply makes me look forward to them even more.)

Not mind you I haven't even actually SEEN the show yet (but I would absolutely LOVE to on many levels) however I have well heard of it but the hilarious sense of humor in this game gives me a VERY good taste of the humor and characters in the game. So if anything else it can at least give those who are utter newbies to Ranma like myself a good taste of the show's absolutely wacky humor. So yeah the humor is hilarious and has a good amount of moments of originality. I mean how many fighting games let you fight a Minotaur by the name of Pantyhose? (And you thought Geese Howard was a strange name.) My favorite line is when the narrotor was shouting at the awfully easily-deceived Mousse which was...

''OH WAKE UP MOUSSE! THIS GUY IS ABOUT AS CONVINCING AS A FISH IN A DRESS!''

The plot of these games make it look like a SNES-version of ''Rival Schools'' of sorts but they appear to be handled quite well. They are all generally involved the rather morally questionable hawaiian Principal in any certain way but doesn't make it look utterly repetitive. One nice little thing about this game is that the VA's in this game are Japanese who try to speak English yet they ACTUALLY speak English pretty good here unlike the Japanese VA work in most of the Capcom/SNK games that sound utterly laughable this had decent pseudo english VA work. And also unlike most other fighting games there was PLENTY of dialougue in this game and even though its a SNES game it is REALLY unfortunate that there isn't a lot more voice acting. (Especially good english voice acting, I'm a BIG fan of Ocean Group whose the VA studio for the English dub of the anime and I would've LOVED to hear them here.)

Its graphics are also quite complimentary to its source material's artwork & animation as the game looks just as good. Despite the lack of voice acting is there much of any substantial flaws? Sadly there is a very substantial flaw here THE GAMEPLAY!. Its WAY too basic & underdeveloped as how the L/R buttons are blocking (but fortunately its not the only way to block) you can change the gampley to be somewhat different, but it doesn't help all that much. However while those gameplay elements you can barely change the fact that only half of the attack buttons can actually be used. Yes as sad as it sounds this game only makes half of the A, B, Y, X buttons remotely useful. (I mean 2-button attack gameplay can of course work on a game for a system such as the NES, but obviously NOT the SNES.) If they made all 4 of the buttons here more useful (and maybe the L/R buttons as well) THEN this game would be a lot better. However the awfully faulty 2-button system is the only TRUE flaw in the gameplay. Its not hard (well at least IMO) to get use to it but still it would've been nice if more buttons were actually more useful here.

Its easier to find than the other Ranma games so this could at LEAST be a good initial start for those who are just into the Ranma games. Its not exactly for those of higher standards by just about any means but its suprisingly good fun. I may have a lower opinion of this in the future but at least this thing has what got me into the Ranma 1/2 games and I would GLADLY try to play the other ones in the future. It may not be a great fighting game by any means but its a highly entertaining one nevertheless.

+ A GREAT sense of humor
+ Very good anime-styled graphics
+ Very well-done story mode.
+ Despite the rather sub-par gameplay its not enough to make it truly bad once you get use to it.
+ Pseudo-English Japanese voice acting thats actually NOT utterly laughable
- The gameplay is WAY too simplistic & undeveloped
- It certainly could've used more voice acting (preferablly good english voice acting)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/22/03, Updated 02/16/04