Remember the golden era of Hong Kong Kung Fu movies? Personally I don’t, probably something to do with when I was born. Regardless, if you’ve seen a Bruce Lee movie or any flick where they take the “hiiya!” noises to the next level, you’ll know what the general aesthetic feel of RDKF is going for. By virtue of the punches and kicks, you could call it a fighting game, but it’s more in line with the versus brawling action of Smash Brothers or Small Arms, with the four player craziness and the chop-socky faces and sounds reminiscent of Kung Fu Chaos.

First impressions of RDKF will probably vary – you can punch, jump and kick in all the ways you’d expect, and there are physics at play, but what’s not immediately apparent is the large number moves available and the intricacies of each. Even the most basic punch and kick attacks can have their direction fine tuned beyond the basic left right you’d normally assume were the options, and then the various moves involving the six axis functionality actually make watching the motions of someone play more amusing than the game they’re playing. Lightning based chi attacks are typically initiated by a quick shake, while somersaults requiring tilting, and meditation (converting chi into health) requires the controller to be upside down! The Firefly is something of a lightning powered lunging attack which can be used to launch yourself in any direction, and a potentially life saving ability. You can even free-pose, Sackboy style, and in the game mode of King of The Hill this necessary to rack up the points while in the zone.

Objects and weapons can be thrown (though the latter can be used to deadly effect when wielded correctly.) It’s pretty much four player fighting madness at its finest. A lot of how this game feels rides on the motion controls, and if that doesn’t sit well with you, the game is pretty much a wash. It’s worth giving it a shot though, even if you decide it’s only a game you’ll play with friends. Which is probably going to be the conclusion anyway, since there’s not a large amount of single player potential.

True to the name, the characters move around a little like ragdolls being helped by invisible hands, and the joints are visible (characters are actually made up of interchangeable parts.) The physics are probably more advanced than they need to be in a game of this nature, making things difficult to predict, like the vector of a launch or how things might ricochet, but this seems more in line with the slightly casual nature and a little chaos is practically expected of a party game.

Summary:
Rag Doll Kung Fu has enough depth to it to warrant some genuine interest in the myriad of moves, but it’s still essentially a four player party game at heart, with all the inherent problems of the party genre, to do with the unpredictability of too many uncontrollable variables being present. If you love that about party games, this one is top of its class – it’s fun and looks great.

Tags: Sony

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 10:44 pm and is filed under Games, Playstation 3, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.