ハカイダー -ラストジャッジメント Mechanical Violator Hakaider: Last Judgement (Sega Saturn)

The reviews on this site are the text versions of the videos on my YouTube channel. The text based reviews use (if at all) very little pictures. Please follow the link to the corresponding video in order to see in game graphics.

Mechanical Violator Hakaider: Last Judgement ハカイダー -ラストジャッジメント was made in 1996 by Japan Media Programming for the Sega Saturn. This game is the sequel to the movie Hakaider which was released a year prior. The title character Hakaider originates from the seventies live action TV series Android Kikaider.

As the game is in Japanese I have severe problems following the story. As I understand it the scene of the game is called Jesus Town. Hakaider is fought and defeated by a violet robot, who works for the former dictator of the town. This dictator took back control. Hakaider repairs himself and goes back to Jesus Town in order to free it. In this process Hakaider fights a lot of robot bosses, some of whom help Hakaider after their defeat. Hakaider recognizes one of these robots as a former love interest. Apparently she was also taking a major role in the movie. After killing the dictator, who took the form of a blue Hakaider copy, Hakaider is able to take his love interest who now is in her human form, with him.

The game has a story mode and an unlockable ranking mode. In the ranking mode the light gun portions of the main line story can be replayed for points. These play segments are grouped to the respective act they were taking place in. In story mode the light gun levels are interrupted by cut scenes, dialogues and portions were the player is moving freely within a town. The player can speak and interact with villagers and enter buildings. Sadly I am unaware of the degree of possible interaction as I answered every dialogue question with “yes” and usually attempted to progress to the next game play section quickly. It seems that some of those light gun portions are optional and independent from the main story line. The walking mechanic works like in Dungeon Hunter for the MSX or Cyber Assault for the Amiga by shooting at arrows to move incrementally.

Four different weapons each with an infinite stock of ammunition are available. These weapons differ in capacity and cadency. Available are normal shots, a full automatic mode, magnum shots and a bazooka. The player changes the weapon by pressing the start button. After each play segment a score screen appears in which the accuracy and the percentage of destroyed enemies is displayed. The achieved score determines how much health is restored after completion of a segment. Apparently a heart necklace which occurs in the game sometimes is also able to restore health. If the player runs out of health continues let the player try again. The progress of the game can be saved and three save slots are available.

The main story missions almost consist of as many ordinary game play segments as boss fights. In the first Act Hakaider fights his way into Jesus Town. The second act takes the player to a warehouse where enemy soldiers are stored. A sewer is the location for the third act. In the fourth act Hakaider fights his way to a coliseum. In the next act Hakaider fights his love interest and the violet robot in the coliseum. The final act takes place in a church were a caterpillar man and the dictator are fought.

In the options screen the gun can be calibrated and the difficulty can be swapped between easy and hard. Furthermore in this screen the cut scenes of the game can be rewatched which I welcome very much.

Personally I like Mechanical Violator Hakaider a lot. The 2D graphics are well drawn and the animation is quite fluent. The music fits the dark mood of game perfectly. Both types of cut scenes, live action and computer generated are pleasant to look at. It's a pity that I wasn't able to get more of the story mode as for my lack of Japanese, but I had a great time playing this game anyways.

The cover shows Hakaider with his brain glowing through his helmet, which sadly is more difficult to see within the game. On the back Hakaider's motorcycle is depicted.