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The Lowdown
Pros: Stays true to the series, nice looking graphics
Cons: Lack of a fighting system, repetitive animations, listening to the
theme song over and over
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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Remember the whole Power Rangers craze in America? Remember the show named
the "Masked Rider" that had a bug eyed martial arts expert crime
fighter? He was dressed all in green, he had cool laser weapons, and a
giant bike that turned in to a robot, ring any bells yet? Well even if
you're one on the many who doesn't remember the adventures of Masked
Rider, better known as Kamen Rider in Japan, he did debut in the states.
However, his popularity is greater, much greater in Asia, where
the Kamen Rider series continues in its latest incarnation Kamen Rider
555.
For what its worth Kamen Rider 555 stays true to its series. One
thing that amazed me from the start were the in game graphics. If you
look briefly at the characters on screen they look just like the TV
show. For a little while I was trying to figure out if they used stop
motion to capture images from the show or if they made some awesome 3D
models. It seems that Bandai pulled all the stops on the visuals and
made some models that represent the characters in their entirety. The
fight sequences feel right out of the show, too. Every character has
jagged movement, which is unlike most fighting games, but perfect for
this game. If you've ever watched an episode of the show or even an
episode of Power Rangers you know that they don't do the most fluid
movements. Instead the characters have slow and overly emphasized
movements. When you're attacking the movements are over emphasized and
the your fighter may even "pose" for a few seconds after unleashing an
attack. While this is a little annoying, its how a fight in the TV show
would be. All of the characters even do those ridiculous movements when
they get hit where they flail their arms around and jump backwards.
While a fan of the series would enjoy the style and presentation of
the game, that's pretty much all there is to enjoy. The fighting system
is rather sparse. You can unleash a limited amount of basic kicks and
punches by hitting the "x" and "circle" buttons. If you press buttons in
some order you can create a small combo. The selection of moves is very
limited you have a few kicks, a sweep and a couple of punches. Attacking
an enemy or being hit charges your special weapon meter. The special
meter has three levels, however not all characters have an ability for
each of their levels. Normally, the first or second level allows you to
use your weapon. When you press "triangle" the game will pause and the
camera will turn to your character showing him or her drawn a weapon.
When you have a weapon you'll get to use one or two new basic attacks
and do a little more damage. If you wait a bit longer for your bar to
completely charge up you can use your super attack. The super attacks
are cinematic moves captured directly from the show. Some of the super
attacks include the Red Rider's thrust kick and the Yellow Rider's
dashing sword attack. When you do a super move the opponent has a chance
to counter your attack. On the screen will be an icon of one of the
controller buttons (circle, x, triangle or square) that both players
need to mash. If the attacking player hits the button more times than
the defending player the attack goes through, if not the other player
dodges the attack. The super attacks are where most of the damage
occurs, you can easily wipe out a character by using your super move.
Besides your super move you are granted a one time in a round use
desperation move, that can be used whenever your life is half full. The
desperation move is where the real action is. This is where you can call
out your bike to shoot a hail of missiles or summon a giant robot to
battle your foes. The desperation move can also be countered the same
way a super move is by mashing the appropriate button. That's pretty
much it for the entire fighting system. There isn't really anything to
learn, there is barely anything there to master. Which makes this game
already dull for even the most die hard fighting fans.
To make matters worse you start the game with a measly four
characters (two riders and two monsters) unlocked. This means if you
want to play versus mode with a friend you start out having only four
characters. To unlock characters you need to complete story mode, where
you'll get points for beating. These points can be used in the game's
slot machine, which is responsible for all of the game's unlockables. To
successfully unlock a character you need to collect pieces of a picture
representing him or her. These pieces are obtained by random in the slot
machine. So if you want to unlock even a single extra character you're
forced to spend some time with the slot machine "mini game". Thankfully,
the slot machine gives rewards rather quickly, but you have no control
of what character you unlock. Which means you'll be playing the machine
a lot and playing the game a lot to get enough points to unlock
characters. The whole ordeal is frustrating and asinine. Bandai could
have opted for a shop system or another unlocking method for extra
characters. If they really waned to use the slot system, at least give
us more than four characters to play with when we unwrap the game.
However, the biggest nuisance in the game is the music. For the most
part the music is pretty darn good. Most of the battling music feels
like its from an episode of the show. The music is fast paced, which is
great for a fighting game. Even the sound effects are nice and clear
when smacking an opponent. Sadly, there aren't to many sound effects
present. There are about five different hit sounds, which you'll be
hearing over and over again. The game would have benefit greatly from
just a little more effect variety. The effects aren't the main problem
with the sound, the main problem is one of the songs that plays when
fill your super meter. In a dramatic twist, when your super meter gets
filled a vocal theme of the series gets played. While the song is well
done and cool to hear the first few times you hear it way too much. Just
when you're getting into the groove of the general fighting music your
super meter charges up and the tune switches to the vocal theme. It
becomes so annoying that you try to avoid charging your super meter so
you don't have to hear it. Sadly, it inevitable even when you don't try
to charge your theme the song pops up and annoys once again.
Kamen Rider 555 is for the most die hard fans of the series, even
some of them may get sick of the game. It's easy to beat, has little to
master and enough annoying quirks to put it on the black list of gaming.
If it wasn't for its slick presentation and stylish graphics it would be
on it.
Import Friendly?
All of the menus and text are in Japanese, but the game is simple
enough to figure out without understanding any.
US Bound?
Doesn't look like this one will reach North America due to
licensing issues and the fact that the series isn't released in America.
Overall
Unless you grew up with Masked Rider or have been following the latest
series there really is no reason to pick this up. The lack of gameplay
and repetitiveness of the game will make even the biggest fans question
this game.
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