[Review] Kamen Rider Super Climax Heroes

Bandai Namco
3D Fighting
29 November 2012
Also Available on Nintendo Wii & Playstation Portable
Kamen Rider Super Climax Heroes is latest installment from Kamen Rider Climax Heroes series that released on 29 November 2012. In this latest installment, the game didn't used the name of guest Rider as the title (in this case is Kamen Rider Wizard) instead put the 'Super or Chou' word on it. It's indeed worth the name of 'Super' because there's a lot of gameplay improvement and updating new rooster characters.

Remarkable Features
Speaking of Climax Heroes, the most main feature that fans waiting for is the completeness between the old Riders until the new Riders, it's almost complete in Heisei era side but there's no additional new characters on Showa side. The new characters that make debut in this game are Kamen Rider Gills, Kamen Rider Delta, Kamen Rider Chalice, Kamen Rider Leangle, Kamen Rider Zanki, Kamen Rider Todoroki, Kamen Rider The Bee, Kamen Rider Drake, Kamen Rider Sasword, Kamen Rider Saga, Kamen Rider Joker, Kamen Rider Eternal, Kamen Rider Skull, Kamen Rider Meteor & Kamen Rider Wizard.

Not only the completeness of characters, Kamen Rider Super Climax Heroes game also make the original actor reprises their respective role  by doing voice dubbing. The original voice actors that make his comeback are Toshiki Kashu (Agito), Takamasa Suga (Ryuuki & Ryuuga), Takayuki Tsubaki (Blade), Kousei Amano (Garren), Ryoji Morimoto (Chalice), Takahiro Hojo (Leangle), Yuuki Sato (Gattack), Hidenori Tokuyama (1st The Bee & Kick Hopper), Masato Uchiyama (3rd The bee & Punch Hopper), Renn Kiriyama (W & Joker), Sota Fukushi (Fourze), Ryo Yoshizawa (Meteor) & Shunya Shiraishi (Wizard).

Sometimes any Riders also make a short conversation (taken from the story in the series) before starting a battle with the enemy, For example when Kick Hopper meet The Bee (Kageyama version) , The Bee (Kageyama) asking where Kick Hopper 'kanzen chowa' gone and Kick Hopper said that he don't need that anymore. Much resembling the scene in the series with original voice actors that make it look original.

Not only new characters & original voice dubbing that we got in this game, there's also Rider Arts and Free Run System that make a debut in this new installment. Rider arts act as simple finishing move that consume 1 block from your Rider Gauge and Free Run System is new movement feature in this game, you can run freely using all directional button. Due to the two the new features, the control mapping also change into a little bit complicated in order to maximizing the less button in Playstation Portable handheld. Well it doesn't take a long time before you getting accustomed with this new control mapping.

      

Custom Background Music also got new improvement in Kamen Rider Super Climax Heroes. Now we can put background music for each forms for certain Rider, for example:Kamen Rider OOO, we can put Time to Judge All as Tajadol form background music and Got to Keep it Real as Gatakiriba form background music and when we change the Tajadol form into Gatakiriba form in the battle the background music also change from Time to Judge All into Got To Keep it Real, very cool isn't it ? This Custom Background Music is exclusive feature only for Playstation Portable user.

 The Rest Features

Kamen  Rider Super Climax Heroes  also offer the same modes of gameplay like previous game that you can choose such as:

• Super Heroes Mode : The same like Ragnarok Mode in previous game but with upgrading character feature and minus beat em up mission.
• Arcade Mode : Surviving against random enemies.
• Versus CPU Mode : Fighting against chosen or random enemy.
• Versus 2 Player Mode : Playing against your friend through Wireless connection or 2nd player joystick (for Wii ).
• Training Mode: The name already explain it.

Pros & Cons

+ New Kamen Rider Characters.
 
+ Artificial Intelligence for enemy got improvisation that can bee seen on some difficult mission in Super Heroes Mode.

+ Custom Background Music got an improvisation.

+ The new features such as free run system and rider arts are really good.This game also introduce Rider cancel which is make easier doing a long combo.

- Password Missions are less challenging

- There's no beat em up mission, which is make this Kamen Rider Super Climax Heroes gameplay only on fighting mode.

- There's no additional for Showa era Riders and some of them alongside the some Heisei Rider didn't get Rider Arts

Sephiawind Score:

STORY 1/5

The Story is not the main feature in this game, you can still enjoy playing this game without care about the story.
 

GAMEPLAY  5/5

Considering that you're a fans of Kamen Rider series, this game is a must play since it is provide a cool mechanism like combo maker, rider arts , some new playable characters or some available new form that now can be play on Super Climax Heroes games. The story isn't that great but you can make a dream match between your favorite character or test your might against your friend.

GRAPHIC 3/5

The graphic isn't that great compare with Wii version but it still have a good details. 

SOUND 5/5

Accurate sound effect, original voice actor and Custom Background Music, what else ?

REPLAY VALUE 5/5

Actually you can finish this game less than a day but as I said on Gameplay section above, you can still create your own dream match, playing some password mission or upgrading all your favorite Riders on Super Heroes Mode.
 

3,8/5


Conclusions

Climax Heroes series is a long range series from the original Climax Heroes that released on Playstation 2. As the long range series, the mechanism of gameplay and availability of characters evolve from time to time. This latest installment of Climax Heroes probably worth the name of Super since it is provide a whole new mechanism such as Combo maker, Rider Arts, Free Run, Custom Background Music and the details of consuming Rider Gauge. The returning original voice actor also become a plus value for this game. To summarize this review, Kamen Rider Super Climax Heroes is still the best tokusatsu fighting games at least in Playstation Portable console.