2002-11-08
Gekido Advance is a GBA-exclusive single-player brawler that emphasizes adventure elements such as exploring mazes, dodging traps, talking to townsfolk, and solving quests. Its graphics features smooth animation with an anime style like a King of Fighters game. Its combat emphasizes alternating the two attack buttons to perform various combos as well as picking up a multitude of powerups.
Despite looking like an SNK game, this was actually developed by Italians. This is one of the only brawlers with "downgrade" items that temporarily make you weaker.
Despite its blatant flaws, I really enjoyed Gekido. Although its exploration and trap-centric gameplay is a nuisance, its core combat is excellent. The backgrounds are lame, but the characters feature huge sprites and fluid animation. It's really short yet super hard at the same time. If you can put up with its quirks, this is one of the better GBA brawlers.
