Gekido Preview

Interplay's adventure/fighting game Gekido is inspired by classic beat-em-ups like Streets of Rage and Double Dragon, and allows players to explore multiple paths throughout the game. Unlike the extremely linear adventure fighting titles of yesteryear, Gekido will give gamers the ability to explore their own routes.

As the story goes, it's the near future, 2011, and an entity known as the Pegasus Corporation created a "virus-hunting" program that's gone awry. So the United Government moves in to eradicate the problem. What makes a virus hunting program more dangerous than a virus itself is unclear. Hopefully the gameplay will explain this concept further. Players select one of four characters to battle on the streets in single and multiplayer - Travis, the "hotheaded hurricane" (as described by Interplay), Michelle the "young military operative," Takada, the "touku-shin master, or Ushi, the "aged-aggressor." The game will feature ten levels of progressive skills, allowing gamers to learn more deadly moves and combinations as they progress. It also sports fifteen levels to battle through.

The game also has a four-player arena battle mode, which allows you to pick from the initial four characters, as well as several of the game's bosses and about six other hidden characters. Each character will have his own set of combos, and some of the larger characters will be able to pick up cars and other large objects, a la Power Stone. You will battle from two to eight enemies at the same time in this mode.

Though many assumed that the side-scrolling fighter went out with recent bombs like Fighting Force and Batman Forever, Gekido is doing its part to revive the genre. It looks promising - let's hope it pays off when it ships at the beginning of 2000.