Kabuki Quantam Fighter or Jigoku Gokuraku Maru, as it is known in Japan, was a 2D action/platformer released in the early 90's for the NES. Unlike its contemporaries, the game had several things going for it that distinguished it from the rest of the pack. The thing that everyone probably remembers the most about the game is that you could whip your enemies to death with your hair. Some might actually consider that a gimmick, but there's a surprisingly solid game to play amidst all the coolness. Hair-whipping aside, the gameplay can be varied, the soundtrack's pretty good, the level design and most of the graphics are pretty unique, and the game actually tries to tell a story that goes beyond a cutscene or two. It may not be the best game ever, but it certainly is memorable.

The premise of the game is that in the future, "someone or something" has hacked into the mainframe computer and taken complete control over it. To make matters worse, this computer controls the nuculear weapons of the country, so this is a real crisis. Unfortunately, if the nuculear weapons cliche wasn't enough, things really start getting ridiculous. The solution to their woes is to transfer the mind of someone into the computer itself as binary data to regain control. This is where our hero Scott O'Connor is introduced to us and he is the first man to venture into this brave new world ala Neil Armstrong with the new technology. One of the questions the game poses is that because the technology has never been tested on humans, we don't know what will happen to Scott. Well, he becomes some kind of Kabuki warrior in the full getup with facepaint, wacky hair, and clothes. The explanation for this is that one of Scott's ancestors was a bonified Kabuki and that he finally had some influence on him. The whole thing is really quite hokey and bizarre. Now when you do finally get past the title screen, you're introduced to a screen of pseudo code, which if anyone is curious the code is partly inspired by the 6502 ASM instruction set the NES uses, with the Kabuki floating amidst. If for some reason, anyone should think something went wrong, everything is fine as the game is just weird. Thus the stage is set.

The gameplay for Kabuki is fairly standard like most games in the genre. The controls are simple: A jumps, B attacks, START pauses, and SELECT switches between weapons. Your weapons are basically projectiles that use "CHIPS" which are more or less technologically advanced shurikens. Each weapon has a unique function and cost and while you only start off with two weapons, after you beat the boss of each stage, you get a new weapon until you reach a final total of six weapons. As for the stages, there are five stages, six if you count the final boss, to explore and the goal is to get to end without dying or running out of time. There isn't anything truly unique in terms of gameplay mechanics aside from maybe combining elements of an action and platformer game into a pretty seamless experience. If there is one thing worth mentioning in regards to gameplay, it is the creativity in which the default attack was approached with. That is of course the hair whip, which functions as a short-range melee attack much like a sword or punch does. Credit must be given to the designers for putting their own twist on such a basic and common feature.

Where the game really shines is in the level design. Although the levels are fairly linear and filled with enemies to impede your progress, the inclusion of environmental factors really adds another dimension to the game that forces you to go beyond kill enemy, jump, get to end of stage. These environmental factors can be something like sand, water, ice, conveyor belts that retard your movements and make you miss important jumps and also spikes, firepits, and acid are usually nearby, so if you're not careful you could lose a nice chunk of your health. Furthermore, the presence of hanging platforms are yet another twist the game offers. Your normal routine can be easily interrupted and force you to change gears by swinging and jumping from platform to platform to proceed in the stage. If you do not take your time with these jumps, it is very easy to mess up and start all over again. If you're not careful, you could run out of time on these jumps. As for the actual stages themselves, they are all fairly unique except for maybe the first stage, which is more like a practice stage. One of the more unique things is that all the stages don't progress from left to right, but some make you climb and jump your way to the top. Since there's only five stages, there's not a whole lot of repetition going on, but it means the game isn't very long and can beaten in one sitting. This last fact might not be so good for replay value, but the game is fundamentally solid, has some nice variety, and it is challenging, but not impossible to beat.

One of the things that is kinda underwhelming about the game is the enemy and boss designs/sprites. Now the NES is one of the more limited systems in what it can display, but other games in the genre have done more with their limitations. The designs are detailed and varied, but they are just a little on the basic side and will definitely not blow you away in terms of coolness and epicness. That especially goes for the bosses and the first two look like dopplegangers of our hero. The end boss is a let down as well. Even though it has two forms, it is basically the same thing twice. But at least most of them are unique in their designs and in how they attack you. The level graphics on the other hand are pretty cool and might seem kind of weird as well. The stages range from ancient ruins, a castle and weird techno/futuristic/cyber punk stages and you will occasionally see weird organic stuff mixed in there as well. The game does manage to explain the weird organic stuff, but why are some of the stages ancient ruins and castles? This is not explained. Overall, it's a solid visual presentation.

The soundtrack, like the game, is underrated and was composed Masaki Hashimoto and Takahiro Wakuta. There's only about a dozen or so tracks to listen to, but the compositions for the stages are the best of the bunch. They're kinda techno-ish which is fitting for the game. One thing to note is that along with the composers, the rest of the devs didn't work on very many games after this one, if anymore at all. 

Jigoku Gokuraku Maru, the Japanese version, has a few differences from its US release. The most obvious one is the different names of the game and there is a specific reason. The name Jigoku Gokuraku Maru is the name of a protagonist from the 1990 Japanese movie Zipangu directed by Kaizo Hayashi. Kaizo Hayashi served as an Editorial Supervisor for this game and is listed in the end credits. Now the main character of the Japanese game is a 15 year-old boy named Bobby Yano instead of the older American counterpart. Bobby Yano is actually a descendant of Jigoku Gokuraku Maru. This reference is completely lost on any western society and it just made sense to change it.

Focusing on the title screen, you will see EXE, TBS, DAIO PAPER CORPORATION, KANEMATSU CORPORATION above Pack-in-Video. These Japanese companies actually invested in the development of this game and the movie Zipangu as well. It's not exactly clear what the nature of the relationship was, but perhaps the investors wanted a game to go along with the movie they bought. They are listed in the end credits and speaking of end credits, all these names were removed from the American release.

Now, both releases are more or less the same regarding gameplay, but they differ in terms of story. It was common during this time to alter and truncate a story and this game is no different. The story for the Japanese release differs from the American version in that it's about a futuristic city where everything is controlled by a computer. So without it's support, the city ceases to function. There is also no mention of a nuculear threat. One of the things the Japanese version does is manage to explain why you're fighting in ruins etc. Whatever's taken over has begun to revert everything back to a primitive state, including the futuristic city. The game also differs at the end a bit. In the American release, the source of the hacker was from the satelite Hyperion, but in the Japanese release, it was from a peanut-shaped object orbiting Saturn or some other planet. You use the Hyperion to ram the thing. Aside from being truncated a bit, the English release roughly follows the same path so it isn't a complete travesty.

There a few other differences to mention as well. After you beat the first stage, there's an extra screen of text that's not present in the Japanese release. The screen that shows the face of Bobby/Scott is different. Scott has the painted kabuki face while Bobby looks exactly like the main actor from the movie Zipangu. The robot boss in stage 5 is red instead of blue. Finally, at the the end of the game there is a sound test. In the American release, there is an animated kabuki bowing his head over and over. That is not present in the Japanese release. If anyone is interested in experiencing the differences for themselves, there is an English translation patch for the Japanese release of the game.

While the game has very little to do with the movie aside from a few references, you can see where certain parts of it were inspired by the movie. For those wondering how the creator's came up with a hair-swinging Kabuki, there is a scene early where Jigoku Gokuraku-Maru is in a Kabuki outfit with one of those white painted faces mask and wild white hair. He doesn't do any fighting with his hair, but he does swing it around a few times and that is probably where the hair attack came from. Also the back cover of the DVD says "Set in a kind of alternative Japan, where modern technology meets ancient legend..." This also helps explain the weird techno and ancient ruin stages. Finally the source of the invasion/virus/whatever comes from a yellow, peanut-shaped, planetoid object and while watching the movie you will a similar object in the form of a gold necklace. Those two objects happen to be magatama's and is a small detail that is easy to miss.

In closing, there is an interesting side note to share with you all. When you beat the game and get to the sound test there is a final message that hints at a sequel. For any fan of the game, this is heart-breaking because there was never a sequel, but the story does not end there. The director of the movie Zipangu went on to write the game 7 Blades for the PS2. The game is a sequel of sorts continuing the adventures of the two main characters from the movie. Unfortunately the game wasn't recieved very well, but at the very least it was another game that you could say took place in the same universe as Kabuki Quantum Fighter.