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Lackluster title, but good old-school spirit

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you liked fighting games back in their heyday, such as "Street Fighter" or the subsequent "Street Fighter II" or any of the "Samurai Sho*Down" games, this might just be something you'd want to look into.

...IF you are a "Ranma 1/2" fan, that is.

I don't believe that it's entirely accessible to people who don't follow the series (but could possibly have the effect of getting someone who hasn't read the manga interested in it!). Someone commented on liking the choice between fighting as male or female Ranma, but personally, I would have really gotten more of a kick out of the game if you only had the option of playing Ranma and you had the option of knocking him into ponds or throwing him against barrels or buckets full of water and having him change right in front of you. And I also have no idea why on earth they found it prudent to include Gosunkugi and the Gambling King as possible opponents instead of either of the Kunos. Wouldn't the Kuno kids be a bit more authentic? Gosunkugi certainly can't fight worth a damn in the series, and the Gambling King isn't exactly known for that type of thing either; he's good at cheating little kids out of their money, not hand-to-hand combat.

Though it's still a pretty fun game. It's definitely challenging; each character has their own specific opponent who gives them more of a run for their money than the rest. They seem to be based off of real character relationships, as well: for example, I found that playing as Akane would produce the result of Shampoo being the hardest opponent to deal with. When playing as Ryouga, Ranma seemed the greatest challenge. When playing as male Ranma, I found (heh heh) that Akane was the most difficult to defeat. I could be imagining these subtle individual character skill levels, of course, but ... nah.

It's worth a look, anyway. It would have been much more fun had it been longer, but I'm willing to overlook that just to be able to have a bonafide "Ranma 1/2" game amongst my collection. Quite a charming title!

A must have for Ranma 1/2 fans

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: June 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

In this game Ranma, Genma, Ryouga, Shampoo, Mouse, Akane, Ukyo, Gosunkugi and the gambling king are all conned by principle Kuno into fighting each other. Each fighter has his/her own reason. (Ranma is told he'll be given free credit for each of his classes if he beats everyone, Genma wants respect from everyone eles, Akane wants the principal to get all those pesky boys to leave her alone, ect.) Those who watch or read Ranma 1/2 will get a kick out each charecters back story and the dialoge that is exchanged after each victory. One thing that might bug veterans of fighting games is that in the single player game you can't have one charecter fight him or herself, but you can in two player mode. There is an option menue at the beggining that lets you adjust how hard single player mode is, and lets you play with or without a time limit, and lets you adjust how long each round lasts. There is also a tournament mode where you and a friend each picks five charecters and then fight in five seperate fights, and the winner is the one with the most victories. My favorite aspect of the game was the ability to play as ether Ranma's male or female halves. Even if you're not a fan of Ranma 1/2, the game's quirky humor might win you over.

Great Game...but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: May 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is a fun and entertaining game, i dont own the U.S version, i have the Jap. one. This is a tipical figting game, fighting wise think of it as a OLD SCHOOL DEAD OR ALIVE... no not becouse of the girls becouse there are alot of combos and THROWING invalved in this game. But if your looking for a 5 star Ranma 1/2 game look for IMPORT VERSION of: Ranma 1/2: The Red Cat Gang, its a really fun RPG, that uses a some what updated Final Fantasy engine (for gameplay) but graphicly looks like Chrono Trigger or Zelda" Link to Past!

This was my INTRODUCTION to the world of Rumiko Takahashi!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I remember renting this game from our local video rental store when I was 13. I had never seen a single episode of the Ranma anime or read any of the manga, and this was also in 1993, still a couple of years before the success of Pokemon brought on the current wave of anime fandom. But I did enjoy Japanese animation, even though my only real exposure to it had been the kiddie shows on Nickelodeon in the early '90s, and so when I heard that a fighting game based on a Japanese animated series would be coming to the United States INTACT (unlike the first Ranma game for the SNES, which was bowdlerized into the unfortunate Street Combat), I knew I had to try it. Hence, my first exposure to the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi.

Looking back now, it seems really surprising that this game would be released in America at all being that anime was not really yet a mass-media phenomenon here and that most Americans who weren't anime (or "Japanimation" as it was more commonly called then) otaku had probably never heard of Ranma. I'm not sure who they thought was going to buy it outside of the anime otaku community. But I enjoyed every minute of this game.

The game play was fun, and although the graphics might seem primitive today, they were probably more than decent in 1992-93. The colors are bright and vibrant (a huge improvement over the debacle that was Street Combat), and most of the special moves are fairly easy to execute. But what I liked most about Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle was the sheer wackiness of it all. Without even knowing any of the characters' backstories, I found the character designs and especially the dialogue between and after the fights absolutely hilarious. While it definitely does help to have at least a passing familiarity with Ranma 1/2, its characters and storyline in order to get the most out of the game, you won't be completely lost if you don't, and this game actually made me want to find out more.

How could the game have been better? I like one other reviewer's suggestion to add some kind of water element in regard to character transformations... that would give the game a certain level of unpredictability and add to the wackiness of it all, though it might also prove frustrating for beginners. Also, now that I am more familiar with the Ranma anime and manga, I can see how this game doesn't really capture the total essence of Ranma 1/2 - martial arts is only part of the mix, and I would have preferred an RPG, but sadly none of the Ranma RPGs are available commercially in the States. Still, this a fun game to let a little loose with and a great alternative to other fighting games which take themselves so deadly seriously. And we Ranma fans are also very fortunate that this game made it to America at all!

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