Publisher: Konami
Ages: ten and up.
Parental
Advisory:
Arcade violence
For entertaining fight action that's based on the well known K-1 tournament, Konami's K-1 World Grand Prix (K-1 WGP) delivers the goods. The game captures the excitement of the violent sport, offers a variety of entertaining modes, and comes with intriguing fight game innovations. It's not perfect, but quite good. And as fight games go, it doesn't sport blood the way gory games such as Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance do.
K-1, like its brethren UFC, is an international fighting sport that pits fighters that are versed in a variety of styles and arts that include Karate, Kickboxing, Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu and more. As it stands, Konami's K-1 WGP effectively captures the brutality of the competition and offers a compelling game experience that includes representations of more than 20 top K-1 fighters.
The game takes a different approach with its controls. Each of the controller's main buttons represent a different attack: right punch, left punch, right kick and left kick. And by varying the analog control, players can execute various moves. The interface is generally easy to understand and use and provides options for defense and combos. In our testing, however, we found combos to be rather unresponsive.
The game offers a three-tiered stamina system that lets players apply strategic tactics. Gamers can focus on hurting an opponent in a single area of the body and decide where to heal their own fighter between rounds.
Knockdowns are handled in a brilliant way. When their fighter is down, players are asked to perform a timing activity to bring the fighter back up on his feet before the count. As the count progresses and the fighter's head slowly clears, the activity becomes easier to perform. Unlike most fight games where players simply wear down an opponent's life or energy bar, K-1 WGP lets players deliver knock-out kicks and punches at almost any time. A complete knock-out is relatively rare, but it adds a fun, wild-card element to matches.
K-1 WGP offers seven game modes. Most fun is the grand prix mode where gamers battle their way through matches on their way to the top K-1 tournament. Other modes include: champion's revolution, where players train a fighter and compete; exhibition, single one-on-one fights; trial, players have to beat 12 opponents in as little time as possible; iron-man, players defeat as many opponents as they can before losing; and revival, recreations of real fights.
Graphics are good, but not exceptional. The characters look fairly lifelike and the game does a good job of representing the real life fighters
While K-1 WGP is a violent game, it's not a gory one. If your kids are demanding a fight game and you find yourself beginning to fold, K-1 WGP may be one to consider. And if you're a fight game fan, K-1 WGP is definitely worth some ring time.
7/21/03 www.daytrum.com Editorial Staff
