HAKAIOU: KING OF CRUSHER
Original Release: FAB Communication, 1998, PlayStation
A bizarre "giant monster destroys cities" variant in which you're a recently insane salaryman who builds his rage meter through small acts of destruction, eventually working up to turning into an actual monster
Hakaiou: King of Crusher (PS1, FAB, 1998)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
King of Crusher is basically reverse Katamari Damacy: the goal is to smash up as much as possible instead of rolling it into a wonderful wad. This project of destruction gets underway when some demonic mosquito bites a remarkably fit salaryman somewhere in Tokyo in the late '90s, granting him the powers of a Hulk rage monster. The mosquito also remains as a voice in his head, exhorting him to smash everything in his path to "finally be free."
This dark and odd tale plays out in a series of shitty Tekken ending CG cutscenes between levels in which you simply smash your way from point A to point B. The game's selling point is that these levels gradually expand in scope as the salaryman mutates into a Godzilla-esque monster, eventually ending with you crossing the ocean to bring a monstrous reckoning to America.
Actually a pretty fun concept on paper, but this seems to be in the tradition of kusoge (intentionally shitty for the luls) games in Japan. As such the gameplay and environments are about as unpolished as possible, looking like the work of a late 90s game design student cobbling together their first real project. It has the listing "drunken sailor" movement of Syphon Filter complete with inability to move the camera perspective around.
The goal of every level is to smash away at whatever can be smashed, basically. You have three moves at your disposal (initially a kick, punch and headbutt) and the only challenge is in that some objects seem to illogically only respond to one type of move. You have a "rage meter" that very slowly ticks down and is replenished by smashing stuff; a red bar above it indicates how much more smashing the current level requires, when it fills up you can proceed to some set point (usually opposite of wherever you started) and move on complete with triumphant slowed-down beast roars from your avatar.
At the end of each level you get a score based on time taken and how many smashables you smashed. You do see the occasional human occupying a level, but they can't be interacted with. Cops will unload their clips at you, but it seems to do no real damage (you might take some damage later when you turn into the generic store brand of Godzilla and the army wheels out tanks and such against you).
This one seems to be part technology not being ready for the idea yet, and part upstart nobody publisher with presumably no budget taking on a good idea that was just beyond their scope. It's a weird little oddity but absolutely no fun to actually play.
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