Reviewed by BkdTatrHrt
Developed by Taito
1991

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Plot
Nothing brilliantly original here. An evil demon named Belzed overruns a kingdom with his demons, killing the king and all the inhabitants, and taking the princess with him. Only two warriors survived the attack, you, as the Kickmaster, and your brother.

The Kickmaster and his brother begin a quest to rescue the queen and destroy Belzed. Along the way, your brother is killed, and with his final words he tells you that only you, with your awesome kicking skills, can rescue the princess and defeat Belzed.

Vowing revenge, you set out on your journey to rid the evils of Belzed with your patented kicking skills!

Sound
You know the sound is good when level music keeps popping in your head frequently throughout the day after you stop playing a game. Not the music though, but the sound effects. For some odd reason, I remember the little odd sound effects and jingles much more than any of the level music.

The game sports some nice digitized voice samples, and the little sound exclamations when you find a special item or magic are really catchy. But don't think that i'm saying that the level music is bad. It's just not that memorable.

Each level's music sets the tone for the level, and sometimes I found myself humming along with it. A few levels have really nicely done tunes, including the bottomless pits level. But none of this should be any suprise to you, because Taito always delivers in the sound category, if nothing else. Well, most of the time.

Graphics
It's obvious Taito put a lot into the overall graphics of Kickmaster. Even the title screen is pretty cool and memorable. The story scenes, while rare, are also nicely done.

But at one point it becomes apparant that they put a LITTLE too much into the game, as evidenced by the horrid graphics flicker of the power-ups and magic spells, making them almost impossible to spot sometimes. This may not sound like that big of a problem, but when you get further into the game without many of the magic spells and lacking experience, you'll be sorry that you couldn't spot those power-ups due to graphic flicker.

Also, the character graphics aren't really impressive, especially the Kickmaster himself. But on the positive spectrum of things, the background graphics are quite good, and the big boss graphics are nice as well. The terrain itself is nothing to write home about, but gets the job done well, and that's about all I can ask from a game company.

Gameplay
Kickmasters gameplay is a sort of mystery. It's as iff it can't decide what it wants to be: a complex, technical fighter, light side-scrolling fare, or an RPG-like adventure game. So what else is a confused game to do than merge the three genres?

Kickmaster was pulling off complex moves before fighting games made it cool. At the beginning of the game, you can view a demo of the different kicks you can execute throughout the game. Whenever you advance an experience level (by killing enemies and collecting experience power-ups), you can execute new and more powerful kicks by pressing button combinations.

I'm impressed Taito could squeeze out as many button combinations as it did with just an A and B button. Also, as your experience levels go up, you can collect more magic points, and you can gather spells up throughout the game, making you a master of magic as well.

The types of magic include lighting attacks, heal spells, flying spells, and a spell that makes a double of yourself, as well as many more. By adding these RPG and fighter aspects into a side-scrolling game, it makes a boring and stale genre fresh again.

If there's only one complaint I have with the game, it's that it's a little bit TOO hard. In fact, the game doesn't even refill your energy bar at the end of the level, which has been a platform staple all throughout the ages.

Also, collecting power-ups is a little odd as well. When you kill an enemy, three power-ups shoot up from the dead enemy. You have your pick of the three, but you've got to grab as many as you can fast before they fall off the screen. This makes it a little hard to grab the power-ups sometimes, but that can be dealed with.

All in all, Kickmaster's gameplay is like a side scroller with all the things you'd love to see stuck into the platform mold, making for a fun and challenging experience.

Fun
With all the innovations it has, Kickmaster is a great experience, at first. You'll probably have fun with it for the first few levels or two, but then it starts to get mind numbingly hard, and you'll probably lose interest quickly.

This is a fun game, but it's not quite fun enough to make you want to stick with it all the way. In fact, playing this game with a Game Genie actually adds to the fun sometimes, allowing you to experience the game in it's hold.

I recommend just using an infinite lives cheat, because that way you can play it on and on and not have to restart at the beginning of the level, and still have a challenging time with the enemies and bosses.

Spiffy Extras
Well little Jimmy, you've finally beaten Kickmaster! You're a great video gamer! It appears your quest is done, or is it?

WHOA JIMMY! There's a whole other quest for you to play through! This time the enemies will be harder, and the challenges tougher! If you beat the second quest, then you shall receive the award of the third quest!

Make your way through the insanely difficult third quest, and you'll receive an awesome message from Ken Lobb! Reach for your dreams Jimmy!

Underrated? Yes. Not even heard of by most? Yes. Hard to find? Yes. Worth it?

HELL YEAH!