Struggling with a very mythical pirate

Creation of the Gods, also known as Fengshen Bang (封神榜) or Fengshen Yanyi, was the first Chinese story I really fell in love with, much to the dismay of everyone I have ever talked to about the topic.

I should have liked Dream of the Red Chamber, Journey to the West or Romance of the Three Kingdoms. While I do enjoy Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I was just never as crazy about it as I was, and still am, about Creation — which has all the continuity and imagination of a fever dream.

So whenever I stumble on a new video game based on the story, well, happy times abound. And so it was with this new Famicom dump of Fengshen Bang. Not to be confused with C&E’s same-titled RPG, this installment is a fighting game.

I know, I know. Famicom fighters all suck. That is true. Equally true is that all Chinese-made fighting games suck: even Super Fighter.

Sorry Death Adder, nothing will make me love that game …

However, sucking does nothing to stop it from being a charming little game.

Made in _____?

This cartridge, if the copyright screen is to be believed, was produced by Waixing Electronic Toy Co, which is still around and still sells some of its old Famicom games, as well as some interesting Famiclone consoles.

For anyone unfamiliar with the book, it is a Ming Dynasty classic which intertwines the collapse of the Shang Dynasty under King Zhouxin and the founding of the Zhou Dynasty by King Wu with countless Taoist deities and deified folk heroes. In Zhouxin’s later years, he got into drinking, women and orgies and wrote some nasty stuff about the goddess Nü Wa.

The goddess, horrified at what he wrote about her in her temple, sends three spirits, most notably Daji, to go put a swift end to him and his dynasty. The story chronicles his continued corruption as he slaughters all his most loyal officials and spawns an uprising with his cruel deeds.

King Wu of Zhou, together with other dukes and kings throughout the Shang lands, crushes the former dynasty with the help of Jiang Ziya, one of the most famous strategists in Chinese history next to Zhuge Liang.

A line-up of heroes

Fengshen Bang features eight playable characters, each with different special attacks. The characters are based one some of the more popular heroes from the book.

Jiang Ziya (姜子牙) - Military strategist who studied with an immortal until age 72. He catches the attention of King Wen of Zhou, Wu’s father, with his unique fishing method.
Leizhenzi (雷震子) - A celestial being created by a thunderstorm and adopted by Ji Chang. When his master sends him to help his father, he eats two fruits which give him wings and a face like a monster.
Yang Jian (杨戬) - Also known as Erlang Shen. He is the one who helps Jiang Ziya defeat the Devil Brothers by allowing himself to be eaten and then killing long life’s animal from inside its stomach. He is the nephew of the Jade Emperor.
Huang Tianhua (黄天化) - Son of Huang Feihu.
Huang Feihu (黄飞虎) - A top general of the Shang Dynasty who makes his first appearance when dispatched to bring back the escaping princes.
Wei Hu (韦护) - I honestly don’t remember anything about this guy other than he had a huge freaking club.
土行孙 - An extremely short fighter who was very influential in some of the battles Jiang Ziya commanded.
Nezha (哪咤) - Easily identified as flying on wheels of fire and having rings as weapons. In his human life he caused endless mischief and was forced to kill himself after brutally killing the third son of Ao Guang, the East Sea Dragon King. He is reborn from a lotus flower and seeks revenge on his dad, who burned his remains.

From six, to four, to two buttons

The controls are rather floaty, which reminds me of the Dragon Ball Z fighting games on Super Famicom. Each character has — usually — three moves. The way of actually doing the moves varies from character to character. Some use charging moves and some use half-circle-forward moves. If you have played any fighting game ever, you can figure it out. The base attacks include one punch, one kick and a poorly-executed throw command.

The artificial intelligence is not terribly … intelligent? Most fights can be ended with a jump in kick, double kick to crouching kick knock-down combo repeated in any corner. It’s a boring way to win. There are also period collision glitches which will cause both characters to quickly scroll across large sections of the screen while crouching, and are so disorienting that the player ends up in a very unfavorable position.

The eight characters have eight stages. After all eight characters are defeated, King Wu — or is he the Jade Emperor? — appears to give a thumbs up. Why does he give a thumbs up for Jiang Ziya beating the shit out of Nezha and Leizhenzi? You tell me. The programmer credits follow.

Summary judgement

All in all, it is not a bad original game. The music is typical fighting game fare, and the characters are depicted rather faithfully based on how they are described in the book and how they are traditionally drawn. The story is very briefly summarized in the short introduction screen. It would be fun to run through a couple times, and is not much worse than other Famicom fighting games like Joy Mech Fight.