Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble

Spalio 14, 2009

In Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble, an action game from Spike being brought to North America by Atlus, you play a "yankii" (or "yankee"); a gruff, authority-hating teen with powerful fists and a striking hairdo. Real-life yankii have been around for decades and in various forms throughout Japan -- once considered detrimental to society, today they're relatively harmless, if still somewhat intimidating and wildly-dressed, youth. Although they come from Japanese pop culture, the whole yankii concept is odd in any context, making it easier to make fun of -- both for the developers and for you, the player, who will doubtlessly be taken aback by the game's absurdity.

The main character, Sakamoto (you can change his first name) joins the rest of his fellow high school seniors on the annual field trip, and there are many places the students are going during their week-long itinerary. For the most part, though, Sakamoto is more interested in other schools' ne'er-do-wells, defeating their banchos (leaders), and becoming the number-one badass in the whole country. Since the other prefectures' schools are, conveniently, on their field trips too, Sakamoto doesn't have to go far to assert his dominance -- a few trips around the nearby towns are all that's needed, provided that he has a school's itinerary telling him where they'll be. That, or they'll simply be found semi-randomly as the days go on.

When you're not specifically looking for a bancho, you can mill around and beat up the thugs that are lower on the food chain. To preserve your honor and badass-ness, you must first stare them down to initiate a fight. If you know how the "dramatic staredown" scene goes in an anime, then you know how this works. Regardless, it's pretty ridiculous and funny the first time you freely shoot your staredown eye beams ("menchi beam"), connect with an enemy's menchi, then successfully put together a trash-talk phrase (e.g., "It'll rain your blood.") by selecting the proper words as they briefly pop up on the screen.

This is actually the third Kenka Bancho game -- the previous Japan-only ones were for PS2. They didn't look too good for being releases from 2005-2007, but on PSP, Kenka Bancho looks nice. And even disregarding the handheld's somewhat lesser power, there is a visible, relative improvement in the polish given to the game. As a beat-em-up, the action tends to get a little boring as you pummel similar-acting thugs over and over, but you're able to "level up" Sakamoto, boosting his abilities by distributing Bancho Soul points, and further customizing him with new clothes and other dressings (like the decidedly dictator-y Toothbrush mustache, or the ridiculous Banana Suit).

With high school hooligans, RPG-like qualities, and a pronounced sense of humor ("Savor my zesty asskicking!"), Kenka Bancho is like a new interpretation of the NES classic River City Ransom, though who knows if it will reach the same level of recognition years from now. But Atlus, as usual, has picked up a game that definitely stands out in a crowd... and then beats the shit out of it.