To my delight, two of the latest posts in Magweasel’s “I ♥ the PC Engine” series highlight games that I love, but which seem to be almost universally reviled: Kato-chan Ken-chan (localized as J.J. and Jeff) and The Kung Fu (China Warrior). I admit I totally understand why people hate China Warrior, but I still enjoy it, and now I don’t have to feel so ashamed, because another person with a website said he likes it. Another person with what is rapidly becoming my favorite website.

Magweasel’s Kevin Gifford on Kato-chan Ken-chan:

Unlike Hudson’s Adventure Island (which came out on the Famicom less than a year before this), Kato-chan Ken-chan has a wealth of complexity to its stage design. You can jump on, kick, or fart/spray-can enemies, and stages can take place across multiple fields and even connect back and forth with each other. There are official Mario-style warp zones, tons of secret doors and such, keys to find, and so on and so forth. This takes a game that’s built to be hard from the start and makes it positively fiendish at the end.

China Warrior:

I don’t care how finicky the controls are, or how boring the game is, or anything. As long as I know I’m The Dragon, it doesn’t matter. People need to stop thinking about the game and start feeling it instead. Even if most of the minions you fight don’t actually attack you at all, even if the bosses are half palette-switched “twins,” even if The Dragon is completely unable to execute a low kick for some reason, even if simply grabbing a box of oolong tea is enough to replenish his energy, even if I can’t stop thinking about that bastard who’s always just offscreen throwing all these plates and nunchucks and crap at me! It doesn’t matter anymore! All right, maybe a little! But being The Dragon lets you enjoy it all the same! Don’t think, feel!!!

It’s basically impossible even to defend China Warrior without mentioning how bad it is. It is, however, possible to totally enjoy the music even if you don’t like the game. Both posts feature fantastic music samples.

See also: “Retro Game50 #50-#47” by Hyadain

tags / pc engine / china warrior / jj & jeff