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Review: Kizuna Encounter |
It’s that time again. Summer, too damn hot to go outside, fuck chores, fuck work, fuck fuckity fuck fuck? Fuck you. Perfect time to chill out in an arcade or cool your heels in front of the TV, playing some great new Capcom ass-kicker, right? WRONG. This is also one of the deadest times of the year for new fighting games. The doldrums here seem to go on forever, and while games like KOF98 and SF3:3S endure, everyone would agree that we all want something new, something different.
So instead of waiting for those dumb terds to send us a new game, I’ve decided to review a game you’ve probably never played - probably never even heard of - and like they say; it’s new if you’ve never played it (and it doesn’t suck). Well, Kizuna Encounter is one of those games, a fighter that seems to have hidden (in the closet) waiting for one of these boring no-fighter seasons to come along before it could stand out and shine.
I first heard about this game when I was playing KOF 2000, wondering who the fuck King Lion (aka Kage Shishio) and Kim Su Il (aka Kim Yong Mok) were. As some of you may or may not know, they were extra strikers featured in 2K. Anyway, the game they originate from is Kizuna Encounter, which is in turn a sequel to Savage Reign (which I may end up reviewing as well). Kizuna Encounter, from what I was able to dig up, is said to be superior to Savage Reign in every way, and almost an entirely different game in system. My original quest to find out more with the game ended in a fruitless google search. Initially, I was interested in the connections between Su Il and Kap Hwan mostly for Nightmare Symbiosis … It turns out they’re either brothers, or Su Il is a grandson. Beyond that, there is basically no information on Kizuna Encounter. However, my interest was piqued.
I began to search for Kizuna Encounter itself, to see what it was all about. I was pretty excited, because you know, it’s cool to find out about something you never knew about…yeah. After raping several nuns, and burning down a Taco Bell, I went to sleep with a tooth under my pillow and woke up with Kizuna Encounter.
First and least important: if Kizuna Encounter has a storyline, I can’t find it, and neither have the other three people who’ve played it, one of whom is a monkey, and he’s not telling jack shit. I made up a story of my own: This donghonker cosplaying Wolfgang Krauser (King Lion) organizes a tournament where he specifically invites people who fight using blunt objects (clubs/sticks/crackpipes/IUDs) to commit suicide. Seeing as he wields a giant broadsword, you have to wonder about the wits of the contenders. NOTE: The generic female lead of this game might be carrying a sword, but to my male chauvinist eyes, it looks like a long sewing needle. Either way, not even the fact that he’s facing a bunch of jackoffs with rolled up newspapers can stop him from not being the last boss in this game. The true last boss of this game is McDonald’s Birdie after getting assfucked by a Shun Goku Satsu. Amongst the characters, we have the generic female lead, Rosa, who is somewhat cool. She gets extra points because in KOF style, she loses her shirt if you beat her ass hard enough.
Then you have Kim Su Il (Kim Yong Mok), a Kim Kap Hwan clone in a very cool white jumpsuit with a blue overcoat, who does a combination of Hwan-style Tae Kwon Do while fighting with a bo staff. Also notable is the old geezer character in this game. He’s Master Roshi. The rest of the characters range from the fat hairy guy who drives your neighborhood garbage truck, to White Wayne Newton (that flashy gray and silver outfit can’t fool us, you lounge-singing fuck!!) to two ninja characters, who are basically color swaps. Scorpion and Sub-Zero lololol shut up bitch.
One of the characters also appear to be a(n ass) clown. So the cast is mildly retarded and the story would probably wilt your brain. The game itself is very fun. Here’s why:
It drags you in fast and lets you down easy. If you’re a fan of SNK fighters or fighters in general, you’ll also see that the system itself is fairly simple and in practice is very engaging. Before the game begins you are given a typical SNK tutorial. A (Punch) B (Kick) C (Weapon) D (Tag). That’s right, tag. This game came out in ‘96, and is one of the first to feature tagging.
You pick two characters put them in order, and when you’re in your tag zone, you can hit the D button to jump out.
The fighting system is fast, fun and well animated. The comboing is easy and at times furious. I picked Kim on my first try and immediately pulled off a 9 hit combo, but jumping in with a quick kick/punch flurry, eventually falling into a crouching attack which allowed me to break out with a down/up C (Hien Zan I believe) followed by a down C in the air for the ninth hit. The screen flashed and said expert, Rosa’s shirt ripped open yet again, and I got a boner.
The fighting is just pure, brainless violence. By hitting A and B together, you do a sidestep. By hitting forward + AB, you get a KOF99 style drift-by. This makes it a little easier to get to your tagging point. Bear in mind that you can’t tag out in one-half of the screen; you only have one small box-area that you must be in for you to be able to tag. The fight adrenaline goes up several notches when you are fighting for your life at the far end of the screen, manage to desperately box some motherfucker’s nuts with a pogo stick and forward+AB into your box, allowing your fresh character to jump in and deal out his FISTS OF RAPE.
The art in this is good, too. The backgrounds are well animated and the ‘night’ and ’sunset’ alternates magically change the whole mood of a fight. Before each battle, you generally get a short preview of the stage. This one features a crow on a signpost while a city (Southtown?) slowly fades into the background. It does a tremendous job of creating a strong, eerie kind of pre-fight tension, which is remarkable if only because this is a fighting game.
The music is generally good. Nothing in it really caught me as spectacular, but it all seems to work with every stage as proper BGM should.
Another is a sweep of a dusty, sepia-toned alleyway where a flock of crows have gathered. They fly towards you before the battle begins.
My final verdict is that Kizuna Encounter is great fun, especially played in short bursts, just to get your U-U-Ultra Combo on in well-animated style. For you retro obsessive players and you SNK junkies, Kizuna Encounter is a must. Considering crap like Art of Fighting has achieved some amount of fame, I have to wonder why a good game like Kizuna Encounter is virtually unknown. If you want to get ahold of it, you’re going to need to have a lot of money, or dirty pictures of the tooth fairy with Santa Claus and a tooth to cover up the conspiracy.
