Kiki KaiKai: Dotou-hen

Kiki KaiKai: Dotou-hen
The worst Pocky & Rocky game ever made.
Genre(s): Shoot 'em up Platform(s): Famicom Disk System Release Date: August 28, 1987 Developer(s): Bits Laboratory Publisher(s): Taito Predecessor: Kiki KaiKai (1986) Successor: Pocky & Rocky

KiKi KaiKai: Dotou Hen (奇々怪界 怒涛編) is an action game developed by Bits Laboratory and released by Taito Corporation in 1987. It is based on the arcade game KiKi KaiKai, in which the series would later continue as Pocky & Rocky.

Why It Sucks

1. The graphics are very subpar and ugly, even for 1987 standards, which is not a surprise considering that it's was Bits Laboratory that made the game and they are behind the terrible Ghostbusters game on NES; even some of the graphics look similar to that game.
   • The game features an oversatured color palette and bland sprite, with maybe the exception of Sayo and Miki.
2. The game is non-linear, but in a very bad way.
   • The game is somewhat an open world, but there's a huge problem: there's no map or any indicator of where you have to go.
   • There's also a night and day cycle like in Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest, but here it's even worse since if you take too long, the game will abruptly end without warning, and you will be scared and think that the game has a huge glitch, but no, it's so bad that beating the game is a huge chore.
   • There's also a shop for saving, but it's extremely flawed since it's hard to know where they are.
3. There's only one music through all the levels, and it's a terrible remix of the arcade game; it's also looping constantly, and it's sounding very annoying and complex. It's so bad that it's on par with some Micronic games on the NES.
   • The boss theme is also ear-bleeding compared to the arcade original.
4. Terrible gameplay that is a lot worse than the arcade game with terrible hit detection and other problems; these problems will be explained below.
   • And to make matters worse, the ofuda card is limited now, and to put salt in the wound, if you run out of them in a boss battle, you will have a serious problem beating a boss, or even in the main gameplay, where you will have a horrible time getting them back.
   • Sayo and Miki are also very slow, unlike the Arcade original, where you are much faster than this game, and due to how slow the game is, it's made the game even more boring.
5. The hit detection is horrible and even worse than the arcade game.
6. The ending is extremely lame and bland at the same time.
7. The sound effects are very ear-bleeding, especially the gohei sound effects, as they're very ear-grating and horribly annoying. The Ofuda cards also sound pretty bad, but they're not as bad as the gohei sound effects.
8. Clunky controls compared to the Arcade original, especially that it's painfully slow and Sayo and Miki feel very stiff to controls.
9. You only have one life, and there aren't any extra lives, and that makes the difficulty a huge nightmare as you don't really know where to go. Even Doraemon on the Famicom was not as confusing as this game, despite being very confusing.
10. Miki is only a recolor of Sayo in this game, meaning that she not a big addition to this game, until Pocky and Rocky with Becky where she finally got a little different play style.
11. When you know where to go and what you have to do in the game, the game is very short, although this may not be a bad quality due to the night and day cycles.
12. This game was not even released on Famicom, which makes everything worse since it's hard to play Famicom Disk System nowadays.
13. The toys bundled with the game are extremely expensive nowadays.
14. The title is incredibly confusing whenever it's a port or a original game due to the title being very generic, and due to that, a lot of people think that it's a port of the Arcade game.

The Only Redemming Quality

1. While the game is atrocious, at least they tried to make something different compared to other games in the franchise.

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