Game:

Kensei: Sacred Fist (1998)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 7:16

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Slam Dragon is... uh... how should I put this without sounding too rude... hmm. Well, let's put it this way; it's not kuso or "shit", but it certainly looks that way at a glance and it's pretty close generally speaking. Coming from Jaleco, I would've much rather had a Rushing Beat fighting game, but a strange Killer Instinct kinda fighter with bland characters works I guess. It's hard to pick out the good from the bad in Slam Dragon, because it does not make its redeeming qualities obvious.

Let's talk about the thing that will jump out at you first, the graphics. The graphics... are not pretty at all. Even for 1996, the graphics are incredibly bland and, as a Japanese website put it, "so disgusting". The game is esentially 2D with polygon/prerendered graphics for characters and a most basic attempt at 3D with its 3D backdrops that have no life to them and are barely noticeable for this trait due to the fixed camera views, which shifts ever so slightly depending on how the battle plays out. Even given their relatively small scale, characters are unattractive, many of their animations are stiff or strangely unnatural-looking, and the game just seems awfully generic.

The soundtrack is also not much to write about. The music is okay, but the sound effects and CVs actually hinder the experience. I'm not used to hearing questionable spoken dialogue in a Japanese game, but Slam Dragon does have some irritating character voices and character screams that last much longer than they should (from when a character gets hit till after they get up is pretty long). It is tolerable overall, but there's little in here I'd be compelled to rip from the disc and play on my MP3 player.

Then there's the gameplay... where to begin...

Slam Dragon's play mechanics are, in a word, flawed. The game allows you to string together attacks as you see fit as well as hit characters with ground attacks, allowing you to form respectable character combos. This is pretty neat and helpful for button-mashing beginners, except moves are relatively difficult to perform due to the response system and that characters have a variety of moves that don't connect properly even at close range, leaving openings for opponents to counterattack. There are also absurd juggles that can be performed if you know what you're doing which can generally lead to infinites, which you would not at all expect looking at a game like this. Damage is also another factor to the game that will rub people the wrong way; it's not balanced in any fashion and will at times even make matches seem to have rubberband physics as you'll slam the opponent with combo after combo and then they do a single, seemingly negligible hit that takes almost half your life. Unfair? Hell yeah.

If that didn't hurt, characters can build up their special gauges by getting struck or taunting. Once full, they can unleash seemingly unblockable special attacks that take an insane amount of damage (though some can be interrupted inbetween). Characters are also difficult to turn around once they get around an opponent, though certain manuevers help. One "advantage" to all this is the "Blow Defense" system where attacks can be negated with the right timing and moves, as well as the semi-realistic blocking system where characters have certain simple pre-designed manuevers for dodging or blocking attacks, which predates the inclusion of it in games like Konami's "Bugi" or "Kensei: Sacred Fist". Slam Dragon is a game with a few good concepts, but just couldn't apply them properly and is honestly hard to recommend.

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