It isn't all that shocking Hard Knock High doesn't offer much entertainment for that measly sum of £9.99
So let's clear things up shall we? Hard Knock High is a one-on-one fighter in vain of Virtua Fighter or Dead Or Alive. I say both of these games because technically speaking it is only a four button fighter with no special moves that involve fire-balls or dazzling on screen effects. Square is punch, triangle is kick, circle is grapple and cross is guard. There are actually only two modes to Hard Knock High, those of which being Fight Mode (the equivalent to vs mode when you have an unfortunate friend willing to play with you) and story mode which incorporates the fighting elements of Hard Knock High in an RPG style quest. Obviously, if you did wish to continue playing after a quick demonstration of fight mode, you'll find yourself putting most of your hours into story mode.
Story mode in Hard Knock High follows the original plot of a rising gang leader (who goes under whatever name you call him) wishing to conquer the supposedly violent blood city in which he lives in. But, typical of an RPG, he begins his adventure as a little pip-squeak of a fighter with no moves. Infact if you're careless, your character will have the bleeding lights knocked out of him by low level punks who work for the other gangs. So that's no good. The only way to improve is by training through four bizarre mini-games: sticks, can crushing, weather prediction and glare. In sticks, you have to rapidly move your analogue sticks in the opposite direction of each other to get so many spins in a short period of time. The faster you are, the higher the score and this improves your arms in fighting.
It has to be said out of all the minigames that this is most tedious as it is a very uncomfortable task and you're later expected to make 20-25 spins in 1:30 mins in order to pass, making the task ridiculously tough. Can crushing has you obtain strength on a provided bar below your character in which you promptly place the cursor on the crush area at the right time, this improves your grappling power. Can Crushing doesn't differ much with Weather prediction. You only you need to kick something at the right angle rather than time the right opportunity to break the oil drum like with can crushing.
Needless to say these tasks will be the ones that have the most grinding as they only release the same pre-set scores of XP. While neither minigame is difficult, they are easy to slip up on if you're not careful. Both kicking and grappling prove to be very important if you're to stand a chance against the gang leaders around the city.What is pointless though is glare training.
The point of this (allegedly) is to scare the living daylights out of the punks in the other gangs who may start a fight on you when you take on the bosses later on. It serves no purpose on your actual fighting skills in the game.
Finding the right area for training can be a somewhat annoying task during Hard Knock High. It never simply states that the area you're highlighting is specifically for training with sticks, weather forecast, etc, Which isn't surprising either as sometimes your training grounds can be invaded by a punk from another gang. If you fail to notice they're there, the punks can actually make you lose all the training you've been working hard on. You can lose the moves you've unlocked too. Believe me, losing moves in Hard Knock High is no issue to take lightly. Essentially, when you're a high enough level, you learn new moves to use, from the opponents you're fighting. But the problem is that obtaining new moves is a once in a blue moon occasion – it rarely happens, ever.
So anyway, once you've actually gained the strength you need and the moves unlocked to tackle a boss you visit their high school. Each boss has a different discipline of martial arts. You'll find yourself battling karate master Rippling Kyogo, boxing champ Machinegun Jake and my personal favourite rivethead sumo wrestler Lightning Goro. And ofcourse the intention is to pick up the best of each fighting type in the game. Yet that doesn't matter as the combat of Hard Knock High is atrocious. The controls react very slowly and the combos feel very un-natural to produce. As far as rewards go, Hard Knock High doesn't deliver much of an accomplished feeling after you've defeated each gang leader throughout play. There are no secrets, no random surprises and it goes from exciting to boring in a matter of seconds.
Cosmetically, Hard Knock High is average. While the characters look arguably solid in detail. The animation is dastardly stiff, an incredible problem considering smooth animation is a necessity to a fighting game. The stages lack in both design and flair with mainly static and poorly textured bitmaps. The sound is also largely forgettable with forgettable music and voice acting (which is only available in Japanese). Considering you get what you pay for, it isn't all that shocking Hard Knock High doesn't offer much entertainment for that measly sum of £9.99. But because it is that cheap, Hard Knock High can be forgiven for its simplistic one-on-one fighting, looks and generally poor production values. Yet for the same price it isn't difficult to find many impressive Playstation 2 releases these days. An extra £10 would even guarantee a genuine new release too if you look in the right places. Ignore this one regardless.