Developer: Fupac Publisher: Activision Released: February 1994 Genre: Action Platform: SNES
In the early 90s Activision made a strange push for games that featured techno soundtracks by popular bands. With the advent of the 16-bit systems it was possible to make pretty good approximations of live music and next to Rock n Roll Racing they were one of the first. In the case of Bio Metal it made an already solid game better. But in the case of X-Kalibur 2097 it doesn’t quite come together in the end. X-Kalibur 2097 is a game with a decent foundation that needed a little bit more polish.
In the future the economy is in shambles. Without funding governments around the world are effective useless. In this disparate world organized crime steps in to fill the void the government has left. A man named Raptor rules Neo New York with an iron fist but still fears one man, Slash. With the legendary sword X-Kalibur in hand Slash is the only one who can stop him and exact revenge for his missing girlfriend. X-Kalibur 2097 was originally known in Japan as Sword Maniac and underwent heavy changes in localization, some for good and some worse.
Your only weapon throughout the entire game is the X-Kalibur. This is an action platformer and Slash has a variety of attacks. The quick slash is efficient but the weakest attack. The piercing thrust is the most reliable, both fast and with decent power. The overhead slice at first seems awesome. Its attack is wide and it produces a long range wave. But it is incredibly slow with an absurdly long recovery time if it misses. Your best skill is the ability to block. You can block nearly everything, enemy fire, bombs, and even flames. This skill is crucial to passing the tough boss battles but more on that later.
X-Kalibur 2097 has the setup to be an action platformer along the lines of Gunstar Heroes, mixing both to create something greater than the sum of its parts. But as a whole both sides feel undercooked. The fodder enemies do not put up enough of a fight. Occasionally there is an extended segment where one particular attack is the most expedient. But these drag on longer than they should. The platforming is solid thanks to the responsive controls. But it is let down by frustrating enemy placement. For every good platforming sequence there is another full of cheap enemies that knock you around and cause you to retrace your steps. Late in the game it almost becomes insufferable. It is doubly frustrating because there are times when the game is enjoyable when its mechanics are executed well. It just lacks consistency.
The one area that X-Kalibur consistently excels is in its boss battles. The framing of each battle is that of a fighting game even though the mechanics are still the same. What makes them enjoyable is the AI. Each boss is aggressive and smart enough to block your attacks when necessary. You’ll have to trick them to expose their vulnerabilities. Your mistakes are quickly punished and you have to slowly chip away their health. I can see how some would find it frustrating if you want to button mash. But I like the implementation here. Even the mini boss battles are enjoyable although not as intense. The versus mode is fun for a bit but it does show the lack of depth in terms of options or mechanics. It’s a fun curiosity though.
Even though there are no extra power-ups I found X-Kalibur 2097 to be fairly easy for the most part. Life restoring burgers and soda are in ready supply and spaced out evenly. There are a lot of cheap hits in the game but they inflict little damage. There are a few spots where enemies attack in groups, more specifically toward the end that borders on infuriating but these are an exception and not commonplace. The only consistent challenge is the end level boss battles and these are few.
In Closing
I like X-Kalibur 2097 to an extent but it could have used some polish. The excellent soundtrack does not help X-Kalibur 2097 rise to the level of far superior action titles on the system, relegating it to second class status. There are better titles to spend your money on.
