Kabuki Quantum Fighter (NES) Playthrough
278A playthrough of HAL's 1991 action-platformer for the NES, Kabuki Quantum Fighter.
The earth's computer defense network has been taken over by a virus. Humanity's only hope of fighting back rests on an untested prototype, a device that can theoretically convert a person's essence into raw computer data. Colonel Scott O'Conner volunteers for the job, and his digitized avatar - a Japanese kabuki dancing superhero, the Quantum Fighter - begins the search for the virus.
In December of 1990, Pack-in-Video released a pair of games - Zipang for the PC Engine, and Jigoku Gokurakumaru (地獄極楽丸) for the Famicom - that were based on Zipang, a Japanese tokusatsu film that premiered eleven months earlier.
With all of the movie-related elements stripped out, HAL brought the Famicom game to North America in January of 1991 under the name Kabuki Quantum Fighter.
Kabuki Quantum Fighter, developed by Human, is clearly patterned off of Ninja Gaiden ( • Ninja Gaiden (NES) Playthrough ) and Batman ( • Batman (NES) Playthrough - NintendoCo... ). It's a challenging run-and-whack action game that emphasizes precision jumping, wall clinging, and limited-use subweapons, but it stands out for a few reasons.
It carries a heavy horror sci-fi vibe. Some of the backgrounds can get pretty icky with all the writhing and the mouths and the eyeballs, and the bizarre enemy designs and the game's outlandish concept channel some major • Monster Party (NES) Playthrough energy.
It's also very good. It has a ton of personality (and it's weird as hell, which I love), the setting is imaginative and nicely realized, the controls are satisfyingly snappy, and it puts up a good, fair challenge. It's not quite as smooth, polished, or difficult as Batman or Ninja Gaiden, but it's not far behind.
Kabuki Quantum Fighter sits comfortably in the upper echelon of NES action-platformers, and it's one of the best games that Human ever made. Two thumbs up!
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