Forgot about Banjo. Banjo wins all.

I'm sorry, I promise not to do a big dump like this for every letter of the alphabet, but clearly some of you need to be educated...






"The Meikyokan dojo of the Narukagami Shinto school is really a secret society of assassins called 'Kage'. Everyone who knew that was sworn to secrecy, and not allowed to leave the compound. But one person broke the code of silence and escaped into the ruins of a deserted castle, in search of the only way out, through the castle tower…"



So begins if not the most enjoyable fighting game you'll ever play, certainly one of the most distinctive. When Bushido Blade arrived in 97/98, fighting games were dominated as they are today by time limits, health bars, and increasingly complex combo, super-combo, counter, counter-counter and super-counter-alpha-combo-plus systems. Bushido Blade took a different approach. Time limits, for a start, are thrown out. While character choice is not insignificant - the six characters spanning the typical speed/strength range we are familiar with - the differences are not as pronounced as in your typical fighting game.



Instead, weapon choice is what really matters, as these largely dictate the different strikes available to the chosen character in game. The eight weapons (broadsword, katana, long sword, naginata, nodachi, rapier, saber and sledgehammer) not only have their own strikes, but they have their own heft and balance, their own strengths and weaknesses. The naganita allows greater reach than most weapons, but defence when your opponent gets inside your fighting arc is near impossible. The sledgehammer is slow and cumbersome, but devastating in the hands of a stronger combatant. The rapier does not have the same ability to slash as the other swords, while the katana might be considered the easiest to master, it is not the most deadly.



Not only does each weapon have it's own high, mid and low strikes (mapped to face buttons) but these attacks vary, sometimes greatly, depending on whether your character is standing with a low, mid, or high centre of gravity (controlled by shoulder buttons).  This combines with what developer Lightweight called their 'Motion Shift' system, where the momentum of a strike dictates what kind of strike can follow it. Strikes can be linked together in combos, but the player must time them with the character, resulting in a rhythm more akin to Tekken than Street Fighter. Combos rarely creep over three strikes, whether attempted or successful. Striking an opponents weapon will often knock them back and leave them open, but the aggressor's recovery is not guaranteed to be fast enough to take advantage of such a situation. Where a clash of swords is brought about by both swordsmen striking simultaneously there is a wrestle for dominance, the loser being knocked off balance to a position of disadvantage.



Where Bushido Blade most obviously departed from the norm, however, is in the absence of health bars. Not just invisible health bars, but no health bar whatsoever. Rather, the game adopted a 'Body Damage System', where the result of a successful strike greatly depends on where it lands. A glancing blow to the body is not fatal, but slows the character down, slightly restricting movement. A successful hit on the legs cripples the opponent, bringing them to their knees. A strike to either arm both limits the strikes available, and completely prohibits holding the weapon with both hands, which renders heavier weapons near useless. A solid blow to the head or body is fatal. The conclusion most people reach is that this means that fights can end with one swift successful strike; they can and often do. What is less often remarked on is that this system can also mean prolonged fights culminating in two crippled combatants swinging wildly at each other like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed in the final round.



To top all of this off, players are encouraged to embrace the way of bushido, and fight honourably, according to the code. No striking a defenceless opponent on the ground, and not utilising the abilities to throw a concealed dagger, or sand from the ground into your adversary's face. Such dishonourable conduct will only allow the player to progress so far, but not to completion, so while such tactics will be attempted in early games as players give in to curiosity, there is little point in utilising them when trying to see the games various endings.



To encourage a more considered approach to the sword fights, the dialogue the book-ends each clash with dialogue which is typically melodramatic for a Japanese title, but also has a sombre tone. It depends on the character selected but, for the most part, the plot pits former friends and training partners against each other in battles to the death. There is no music during the fights, only the ambient noises of the desolate grounds of a ruined castle, the shuffling of the warriors' feet in snow-covered gravel, the clash of metal on metal, the clipped cry of a defeated swordsman. Bushido Blade has a decidedly melancholy atmosphere, which perfectly compliments its unusual gameplay.



The legacy it left is a disappointing one.  A direct sequel was released, but only in Japan and North America.  The relationship between Lightweight and publisher Squaresoft, who had partly owned the smaller company, ended apparently prematurely, and the third title hinted at in Bushido Blade 2 never appeared.  Genki then bought a significant share of the company, and in 2000 Kengo: Master of Bushido, a spiritual successor to Bushido Blade, was released for the PS2. It was not so well received, and neither were its two sequels. Lightweight and Genki parted company in 2006, six months prior to Genki's release of Kengo: Zero, the last game in the diminishing chain (Kengo Legend of the 9 outside Europe). Although its roots can be felt, Kengo: Zero is the leprous result of copying the copy of a copy.



Bushido Blade's graphics haven't aged well, but it's gameplay has. In the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, Simon Parkin wrote that, "it remains the tensest fight to be had in video games." Desperately missing from PSN's PSone classics range - unsurprising given the bizarre nature of that catalogue - it is worth a visit to an online auction site, or trawl through any back stock your local retailer might have. Ignore any thoughts you have of trying out its more readily available successors. Find a copy of Bushido Blade, and you've got yourself a true gem.

OK so someone likes Bushido Blade then.....

Not too many. It's screwing up my page loading. Plus Bomberman wins anyway.

Should we all move onto C?

I think we should try and get the whole alphabet done and lock the thread before MK checks back.

C - Colin Mcrae 2, Civilisation 4, Command and Conquer
D - Deus Ex
E - Elder Scrolls III Morrowind
F - Final Fantayz VII
G - Gears of War, Goldeneye
H - Half Life or something
I - Q No good games begin with these letters
R - Red Dead
S - Soul Caliber, Stalker, SSX
T - Twisted Metal, Timesplitters
U - W cant think of anything
X - X Com
Y - again, nothing
Z - no

Yossarian wrote:

Not too many. It's screwing up my page loading. Plus Bomberman wins anyway. Should we all move onto C?

Bayonetta won a long time ago.

Kow wrote:

Z- Zaxxon!

Zoop! Purely for the music in the SNES version...

You've spelt Zool wrong.

B is for Batman Returns - another amiga classic. One of the first games that I ever played to the end. It was ported a few times too. It had a good blend of platforming mechanics and seemed hard when I was 10. Thing was, like most games, if you don't play as fast as you can and are just massively patient you can get through it easily. 

The car level and the flying level were on par with other full car games of the time! 

B is for Batman Returns 

Are we not mentioning Zelda just to piss Elf off?

If so, oops, sorry.

mk64 wrote:

B is for Batman Returns - another amiga classic. One of the first games that I ever played to the end. It was ported a few times too. It had a good blend of platforming mechanics and seemed hard when I was 10. Thing was, like most games, if you don't play as fast as you can and are just massively patient you can get through it easily.  The car level and the flying level were on par with other full car games of the time!  B is for Batman Returns 

That's a pic of the Mega CD game though.  I would say 'I don't mean to be that guy', but I'm the one who typed it.

acemuzzy wrote:

Are we not mentioning Zelda just to piss Elf off?

If so, oops, sorry.

That'll be L for "Legend of Zelda, The".

Boogerman. Gtfo

Battlefield Bad Company 2
Blur
Binary Domain
Brink lol