Ka-Ge-Ki: Fists of Steel
System: Genesis
Release Date: October 1991
Developer: Hot-B
Publisher: Sage’s Creation
Genre: Fighting
Save your brother from a gang of lowlifes in Ka-Ge-Ki: Fists of Steel! A championship boxer in the past, Kei had been targeted by the Boss of the gang to join up. Kei, being and honorable man, declined. His punishment was transferred to his younger brother, who took quite the beating from the gang. This made Kei very angry and he went to demolish the gang one member at a time. Can you climb all 9 floors of their hideout and defeat them all?
You are fighting gang members on each floor of the warehouse the gang calls their home. It’s kind of like a boxing ring, except the ropes are replaced with things. Low level enemies begin each round and you have two attacks. Button B unleashes a jab. This is a quick punch that does a small amount of damage. Button C is a straight punch. This one takes a moment to load, but does more damage. You can jump with Button A, but I never needed to. And you can duck by pressing Buttons B and C simultaneously. I also never needed to do that.
After beating up the fodder, the floor boss challenges you. These guys have more health and get knocked down after eight jabs or two straights. Then you have to wait a long time for them to get up and listen to a few annoying voice samples over and over again. Each fight is a repeat of this. Outside of the level 4 boss, the enemies would just walk into a straight right as I walked backward. This made the game overly simple.
Walking around can change you from fighting on a horizontal plane to a vertical plane. This creates some awkward stutters as you transition back and forth. I also trapped an opponent up against a wall and then beat on him for a minute until he broke free. I found it much easier to land punches on the horizontal plane than the vertical, so tried to keep the fight that way.
The Boss’s girl, Abigail, occasionally throws an item onto the stage. The boxing glove increases the speed and strength of the jab. The hamburger recovers some hit points, whereas canned food recovers even more. Draining the level boss of health causes a referee to run on the scene and count 8, 9, 10 to end the fight. To clean up the trash, a mystery man picks up the boss and throws him down the manhole. It’s an odd little game.
Graphics: 1.0
The big head and super pixeled aesthetic does not look good.
Sound: 1.0
The song is okay, but the repetitive voice samples are trash.
Gameplay: 1.0
I didn’t need to jump or duck once. It’s all punch until knockdown and stay out of range otherwise.
Difficulty: 1.0
Very little challenge is on display and there are no tactics.
Fun Factor: 0.5
After the first fight, you’ve done it all.
Overall Rating: 0.9
Ka-Ge-Ki: Fists of Steel earns a D. This is not a good game and I feel bad for anyone who purchased it new.