Gaming Target - Xbox: Kung Fu Chaos

Written by Gavin Wright on March 24, 2003

Full Review: Well at least it's better than that Bruce Lee game. God am I thankful for that.

The Xbox is certainly no stranger to party games. Or, perhaps even more appropriately speaking, the system is no stranger to bad party games. First-party stinkfests like Whacked! and Fuzion Frenzy have kept diehard fans of the genre (all two of them, anyways) patiently holding out for Microsoft's newest party-brawling contender, an over-the-top four-player fighter by the name of Kung Fu Chaos. Combining easy-to-learn controls, dynamic movie sets, and a selection of frantic mini-games, Kung Fu Chaos offers up a highly-enjoyable experience that's enough to keep you and an open-minded group of friends hooked to the TV for hours.

Kung Fu Chaos is an adoring parody of the stereotypical 70s Hong Kong martial arts flick. You take on the part of an actor that's been chosen to star in director Shao Ting's latest action movie, a low-budget kung fu film with a plot shallower than your average kiddie pool. As one of nine actors, you do battle with the evil Ninja Clan of Darkness across 27 unique movie sets. The scenes are fleshed out with poorly-dubbed taunts and cheap special effects, giving the game an authentically cheesy look and feel.

Kung Fu Chaos tries its darndest to be funny, yet more often than not it comes off as stale, even grade school-level humor. The non-stop rambling of the film's crazed director, who insistently pops in from time to time to shout instructions at the player, manages to be almost laughably unfunny with his grating voice and frequent talk about toilets (you think I'm kidding, don't you?). The game's sense of humor is just downright awful at times, which is disappointing seeing as how heavily it's relied upon throughout the game. KFC definitely has its moments, but they seem to come only at the expense of your friends in multiplayer.

However, the underlying premise of the game - that you're an actor shooting some sleazy 70s kung fu movie - has been conveyed quite cleverly through the game's presentation. For example, in one of the levels the actors are called upon to make a series of daring leaps from rooftop to rooftop. But if you look close enough when they do this, you'll actually be able to see the wires that suspend them up in the air. There's also a neat little effect that can be flipped on in the Options menu that alters the look and sound of the game to make it appear more like the actual kung fu movies of the time period. And at the end of a round, you're given the opportunity to view the final cut of the scene. This is basically a replay of your performance, only with kung fu-style camera tricks such as paneling, slowdowns, and zoom-ins thrown in for dramatic effect.

You start out with six playable characters, in addition to another three that must be unlocked by playing through the single-player game. Many of the characters are actually spoofs off famous martial arts icons, while others seem to have been thrown in merely to spice things up a bit. For instance, Ninja Fu Hiya and Master Sho-Yu (did I forget to mention that all their names employ puns?) are excellent portrayals of the typical stock characters seen so often in kung fu movies. On the other hand, characters like Captain Won Ton, an overweight Mexican wrestler, and Candi Roll, a rollerblading porn star in the vein of Rollergirl, have absolutely no place in the game. On top of this, all the characters play more or less the same. You might notice slight differences in speed or range from one fighter to the next, but each has nearly an identical set of combos and abilities. It takes a lot of the fun away from experimenting with each of different fighters, since there's no need to change strategies or learn new technique sets.

The most distinguishing feature of KFC, and the one that places it light-years ahead of other Xbox offerings in the genre, is its utilization of dynamic, interactive fighting environments. What this means is that as you're fighting you'll witness the levels literally fall apart around you, leaving room for plenty of potential mishaps for those who happen to get stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. Walls collapse, floors give out and break; even the occasional flying saucer or T-Rex shows up to crash the party. Expert players will recall how and in what manner the sets break apart, so that they can make use of the many hazards it presents to help sway the game in their favor. There are also objects found scattered throughout the movie sets that can be kicked around or thrown at enemies. Certain levels even contain switches that activate enemy traps such as spike strips or trap doors. The levels are vibrant and sprawling with action, and although they don't play any different from one game to the next, their fun factor holds up even after multiple play-throughs.

As is the case with any halfway-decent brawler, the controls are straightforward and instantly accessible to players of all skill levels. The four face buttons are used to execute basic offensive moves such as attacks, counters, and grabs. Specific sequences of these four buttons are used to pull off vicious combos that, if left uncountered, are capable of taking out multiple enemies at once. The system is both clear-cut and logical, but it turns out to be far too simplistic for its own good. There are only about a dozen or so combos in the game, and many of them are merely variations of other ones. With such a minuscule combo repertoire, the game boils down to an exceedingly simple affair of beating your opponents to the punch by performing said combos before they do. Combo attacks will typically knock the enemy to the ground, and from there they can be taunted (more on this a bit later) or simply picked up and thrown off the edge of the arena. Wash, rinse, repeatЕ

Another facet of KFC's combat system is the Сtaunt' mechanism. A taunt is a verbal insult that's flung at an opponent directly after knocking them to the ground. If executed correctly, not only will the opponent take longer to get up, but you'll also earn one of three orbs that go toward unleashing a deadly, room-clearing super attack. Once you've gotten all three of these orbs, simply pull both the left and right trigger to activate your character's super attack. Then your character will typically launch into some sort of gravity-defying act, rendering everything and everyone on the screen dead on the spot.

The primary single-player mode is known as the Ninja Challenge, wherein the game tests your fighting skills with a combination of mini-games, tutorials, and straight-up brawls. The main motivation for playing through the Ninja Challenge mode is to unlock the extra levels, game modes, characters, and other features that are blocked out when you first begin the game. And since the mode is home to a great deal of the game's presentation, you're missing out if you choose to skip right into multiplayer. Most of the stages in Ninja Challenge use a five-star scoring system to rate your performance at the end of the stage. Scoring three or more stars grants you access to the next level, but other unlockables require a minimum of four or five stars in order to obtain. Generally speaking, the three-star plateau is easy enough to reach, but arriving at the four or five-star point can take some serious practice. All things considered, the Ninja Challenge mode is surprisingly solid, as it provides an excellent single-player solution to what is essentially a multiplayer game.

Regardless of the potency of the single-player game, the real heart of KFC lies in its multiplayer offerings. Chaos features two central multiplayer modes Ц Battle Game and Championship. Battle Game allows up to four players to duke it out in the level of their choice. However, it's basically a stripped-down version of the Championship mode. Championship takes up to four players through all 27 levels of the game, while at the same time offering the added allure of level-to-level stat tracking and special mini-games awarded to the winner of each round. Loads of multiplayer options, including the ability to adjust the game rules so that you can play for kills, mojo, or even style, as well as the implementation of 2-on-2 team play, help to further reinforce what's already a highly-satisfying multiplayer experience.

But in spite of all the praise that I've placed upon the single-player and multiplayer elements of the game, ultimately they're both held back by a shortage of levels and a shallow, unfledged combat system. The controls can be mastered within just a couple days, and soon afterward the game simply loses its appeal as a fighter. Plus there are only six full-length levels, though they're padded with dozens of УfillerФ stages that make the game seem a lot longer than it really is. If ever there were a game that would benefit from the addition of downloadable content, Kung Fu Chaos would certainly be it. But as it stands, the game doesn't give you much reason to continue playing it.

While KFC can hardly be considered visually impressive, some excellent use of color and animation help to make the game very pleasant on the eyes. The levels are animated beautifully, and they're just as much fun to watch as they are to play. What the character models lack in detail they make up for in smooth, convincing attack animations and mildly-impressive effects accompanying each character's unique special attack. But, to be honest, KFC doesn't pack much of a graphical punch, particularly considering that as a first-party game it has an inherent responsibility to show off the capabilities of the system.