Was SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble Worth It?

Transform and fight waves army of insect themed baddies. Was SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble Worth It?

Background

Bandai has been trying to keep some of their legacy franchises like Kamen Rider and Gundam relevant. To this end, they’ve rebooted the franchise with the 2023 movie Shin Kamen Rider.

SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble is the movie tie-in game, a super deformed roguelite sidescrolling beat-em-up in the same spirit as say, Streets of Rage. It doesn’t follow the movie 100%, so expect some surprises if you actually watch the flick.

This game is a standard brawler: you’ll face the obligatory mooks, mooks with weapons, then ones with super armor, etc. You’ll go through stages defeating waves of enemies and then a boss. When you complete a run or die, you can upgrade your Rider or your motorcycle, Cyclone, with spoils from the stages. Upgrading Cyclone can grant huge bonuses for the entirety of your run, even if you choose to start at the first stage.

What does SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble do well?

I’m only tangentially familiar with Kamen Rider as a whole, but this title did a good job of conveying a lot of the tropes inherent to the format. Despite the chibi characterization, they did a good job of nailing the aesthetic, and this feels very much like it’s invoking the spirit of the 70s.

What could SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble do better?

This is clearly a budget title. It’s quite short (a whopping five stages). There’s very little enemy variety, and to top it off, the game is extremely easy. It runs fine for the most part, but I did notice some dropped frames when juggling a lot of enemies.

The upgrade system is incredibly shallow, with very poor rewards, such as “jump height up 3%” or “perfect dodges effective 3% longer.” The pin badges aren’t much better. I didn’t unlock all of them, but the ones I did get varied wildly between useful and trash.

Was SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble fun?

It’s fine but extremely basic. You’ll beat the game and shelve it long before you get burnt out.

Is SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble good value?

This is an import-only title, so the typical metrics don’t really apply; I assume you’re considering this title because you’re a Kamen Rider fan. You can grab a digital copy on sale on a foreign eShop, or you can import the physical for about $30 from Play-Asia. We might see this title on the Western digital storefronts when the movie releases over here, but I doubt it.

The game itself is pretty short. You can do a complete run in about 20-30 minutes. It will take you longer to completely max out characters or to obtain and max all the pin badges, but that’s by no means necessary. There’s a speedrun mode that is unlocked after clearing the main story with online rankings. Some of the top times are below ten minutes.

Is the DLC worth it?

Bandai is leaning into this new Shin Japan Heroes Universe concept, and has a few DLC characters: Godzilla, Ultraman, and Eva Unit-01. At the time of writing, Godzilla isn’t out yet. The game states that the rewards for the DLC stages are great, but I found that the stages for Ultraman and Unit-01 are extremely short and underwhelming. You’re also on a timer with each of these characters. Exceed the operational time of Ultraman or the Eva and it’s game over.

Who is this game for?

This is a surface-level beat-em-up with a Kamen Rider skin.

There are a couple reasons to get this game:

• You need to get over the $99 line to get free shipping at Play-Asia.
• You’re a huge Kamen Rider fan
• You’re absolutely feening for another brawler and you’re burnt out on Streets of Rage 4.

If you don’t comfortably fit into any of those categories then I would pass on this game. It’s not bad, but it’s very short with limited replayability.

Was SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble Worth It?

There’s not a lot of game here, and SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble’s strange preoccupation with completing it quickly makes me think they didn’t want you to play it for very long. Even at 3520 Yen (about $25 USD), SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble has a hard time justifying its price point considering how quickly you can breeze through the game.

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