Game Info
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Developer: Kaneko
Publisher: Taito
Year of Release: 1988

Game Review & Impressions
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One of the coin-ops published by Taito, rather than being the actual creator, Kaneko was responsible for creating this weird and rather gory side-scrolling hack 'em up.

You control a warrior armed with sword, who must engage with all manner of strange enemies. Many of these feel like supernatural horrors blended with animé influences, and while my understanding is this is based on an original IP, it feels like it could possibly have been linked to some bigger franchise.

In terms of controls, your warrior can attack and defend in high and low positions. Much of the combat, especially the boss fights, focus in countering blows, which leaves the enemy open to a counter attack. Most bosses are only vulnerable to specific moves, so much of the game involves deducing exactly what their weakness is and exploiting it.

If I'm honest, Kabuki Z isn't a great game. The character animations, patchy backgrounds and number of glitches make this feel unfinished. Most levels feature only a few waves of regular enemies, none of whom feel particularly threatening or exciting to fight. The way the player character transitions from samurai guy to muscular all-but-naked barbarian doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.

As a curio Kabuki Z is probably worth a quick look. As an actual game, I don't suspect many players will be coming back to it.

Information & Trivia
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Video Notes
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- Game requires 4:3 aspect correction; the elongated sprites and artwork indicate one such game where the aspect ratio was taken into consideration when creating the artwork

Related Longplays & Videos
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Chapters
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