In Japan during the 80s there was an arcade game called Ikki by Sunsoft.  Ikki means ‘peasant revolution’ and that’s exactly what you did in the game.  You play as a poor farmer as you run around fields collecting money and throwing sickles at evil ninjas.  It never came to the US, probably because American kids didn’t want to play a game about a peasant revolution, and who wants to play a game called “Icky” anyway?  Ikki was also ported to the Japanese NES, or Famicom as well.  There it gained notoriety as a really bad game, but since it came out during the Famicom’s big heyday, it still sold well.  It was one of Sunsoft’s first Famicom games, and was probably a good stepping stone for them as they would eventually become one of Nintendo’s best developers for the 8-bit system.   And now, nearly 40 years later, you can play a new Ikki game with Ikki Unite.  It’s a multiplayer version of the game that adds elements from popular titles like Vampire Survivor.  It’s available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

You can play the game solo, or online multiplayer.  However, whenever I tried to create an online room or join one, I was the only person playing so my online experience was very limited.  You’ll then choose your character, and there are lots of them!  You can play as the peasant from the original game, all sorts of people from Japanese history, a female ninja, and more!  Some characters have long range attacks and others use short sword slashes.  You’ll automatically attack as you walk around the fields.

When you start, you’ll be given missions like defeat a certain number of enemies or fight a boss.  When you complete those conditions, more minutes will be added to the timer.  Enemies include locusts and other pests, as well as boars, bears, ninjas, and more.  As you play, you can visit shops.  You can open a shop by touching a statue, but sometimes the shop opened up even when I didn’t do that, so I don’t know why that happens.  Anyway, in the shops you can buy items to power up your player.  They include food to increase stats, better weapons, and more.  The best shops let you have another character to follow you around.  If you get one of these, you’ll usually last longer, especially if they can heal you.  When you run out of energy or time, the game is over.  But because of the random nature of the game, high difficulty, and my lackluster online experience, I really couldn’t get into this one.

Kid Factor:

Ikki Unite is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Blood.  You hit all sorts of pixelly characters with weapons, and sometimes they’ll have a death animation where blood squirts out.  Even the arcade game had that!  Reading skill is helpful and younger gamers may find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews