Developer: Marionette Publisher: FCI Release: 04/90 Genre: Action
Phantom Fighter is a game that I was mildly interested in renting but never brave enough to take the plunge. The box art looks extremely cool; who can say no to a Kung-Fu master kicking the shit out of….I don’t know, really sick monks. But the lack of any reviews made me wary. The only one I saw at the time was from Nintendo Power and their weird ass scoring system was at odds with their write up of the game. Having played it I can say Phantom Fighter is far more interesting than Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu. But for all of its cool ideas it stumbles in the execution.
You are Kenchi, a wandering Phantom Fighter tasked with riding China of the Kyonshi, Chinese hopping vampires. Together with your faithful assistant you must tour the countryside using hints from villagers to complete your task. In Japan Phantom Fighter is a licensed title based on the film Mr. Vampire. The game has some of the movie’s comedic tone in the interplay between Kenchi and his assistant but otherwise you would never know it is a licensed game.
In each of the game’s eight towns the goal is to collect the three sacred orbs necessary to break the seal protecting the head Kyonshi of the area. Each town has numerous points of interest and you get a basic idea what is inside each building from your assistant. Temples replenish health once you have cleared all enemies inside. Training halls will teach you fighting moves to expand your repertoire. There are of course villagers who provide information and shops as well. If Kyonshi lurk inside a building you can defeat them for ancient scrolls (currency) or items. Most importantly if he tells you danger is inside there is an orb nearby.
Once you decide to engage the Kyonshi Phantom Fighter becomes a side scrolling beat em up. All fights are one on one and while Kyonshi are your only enemy they come in different shapes and sizes. While they are dumber than a sack of bricks they are no less dangerous. Even though they hop rather than walk some can cover a great distance in a single bound. Some swipe with their claws and others are short and hard to hit. Learning each Kyonshi’s pattern and behavior is key as the only way to recover health is in a temple or by collecting an orb.
The early stage of Phantom Fighter is rough. You only have a basic punch and kick and will have to tough it out for at least half an hour to train some new moves. It is not out of the realm of possibility that you will die a few times. These silly vampires pack a punch and every battle is a war of attrition early on since you are so weak. But it gets better.
The list of moves is pretty massive overall. Skills basically fall in to three categories: movement, punches, and kicks. Each town has a limited selection of these skills and the price increases in each town. But luckily the amount of scrolls you get keeps up allowing you to experiment if you desire. I phrase it that way because there are three particular skills so overpowered they break the game. The side kick can be learned in the second town and not only deals massive damage but also knocks the enemy down. Once you learn to crouch and walk you can easily slip under a Kyonshi and attack from behind. The mirage punch lets you punch while crouching. It sounds simple but this simple attack lets you duck under almost every Kyonshi’s attack and punch them in their nonexistent nuts until death. At this point the game is a cakewalk.
The lacking difficulty highlights the game’s biggest flaw, its repetition. The tactics I outlined above would not be so bad if there were better enemy variety. The only enemies you fight aside from vampires are a few ghosts. The dumb AI means once you crouch the enemy is too stupid to see you and will hop back and forth to find you. Once you have learned the attacks I mentioned previously there is no reason to kill random Kyonshi since you do not need any more training and the items they give are useless. Once you have completed one town the process is identical in the next seven. The only difference is it becomes tedious as you face more Kyonshi in each house. The game becomes so monotonous you will bee line each orb and finish each stage in a few minutes.
In Closing
Phantom Fighter could have been a contender. The framework is there for a cool adventure and it has its moments. But the repetitive enemies and long boring quest mean you will lose interest long before the finale. With a few tweaks this could have been solid. Instead Phantom Fighter is a missed opportunity for greatness.
