Jackie Chan Adventures

"Jackie Chan you did your thing."

Well what is Jackie Chan: Legend of the Dark Hand? Its a side-scroller game. One of those games that you grab move around and beat up some gangsters. Kind of like the Final Fight series. Well the plot is that you are Jackie Chan and the Dark Hand gang comes and steals a scroll from your uncle's antique shop. Now you Jackie must go around the world and recover eight scrolls that contain ancient Kung Fu powers.

Gameplay: 8.5/10
This is probably the strongest part of the game. You go around fight bad people. You can use many of the objects in your surroundings to beat your foes senselessly. An example is you can grab an umbrella and use that as a weapon just like the cartoon. The controls are pretty simple. You punch, jump,kick,grab and bock. But If you don't know what to press you may get ganged up and lose some energy. The scoring system is pretty good. You just get points for doing combos on your opponents or breaking anything with a hit. This game is not so difficult. Only the bosses will give you trouble. But ''Uncle'' will give you clues on how to beat a few bosses. Also as you progress in the game the scrolls will grant you powers,teach you combos and will help you advance.

Graphics/Sound: 8/10
The graphics are great. Almost anything you hit will have an animation. Such as punching a fire-hydrant will break it and make it pour water. Also it has graphics that won't bore you. When you hit an enemy it shows a hit spark. There aren't really much enemies but there are variations of enemies. Like a certain gang will have certain enemies. It has a live background. The sound isn't that great, it could have done better. For anytime you hit an opponent with anything you hear the same hit sound.

Play Time/Replay Ability: 4/10
This should take you a week or two to beat. A month if you are not good at side-scrollers. This game has very little replay ability. Once you get all eight scrolls and beat all the bad guy the only thing you can do is go to difficult mode which isn't that difficult.

Final Recommendation
Although I gave this game a pretty good review. DON'T BUY THIS GAME. Unless you are looking for a side-scroller which I think people are not looking for. I suggest to get a ROM for this game. But you didn't hear it from me :)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/03