Kiki Kaikai, Arcade

Kiki Kaikai (the literal translation being “Strange and Mysterious World“) is a shoot ’em up developed and distributed into Japanese arcades by Taito in 1986. Set in Feudal Japan, the player assumes the role of a Shinto shrine maiden, called Sayo-chan, who must use her ‘O-Fuda’ scrolls and ‘Gohei’ wand to defeat renegade spirits and monsters from Japanese mythology. Sayo’s ultimate aim is to free The Gods of Fortune who have been imprisoned by evil spirits.

The wand can be used to sweep torches and other structures to reveal hidden items. Defeated enemies drop paper slips that, when collected, either increase the power or the range of Sayo-chan’s attacks.

Contact with an enemy (or projectiles) results in the loss of a life. At first there are only a few enemies to contend with, but as you progress you’ll notice an increase in the frequency and voracity of attackers. By level four you’ll be pulling your hair out with what you have to contend with (especially when the super annoying Rumurus grab Sayo and slow her down – to get rid of them walk under the red archways).

At the end of each ‘scene’ you’ll enter an empty room, only for the door to slam shut behind you, the light to turn blue, and a boss battle to begin. Each boss has a different attack style to learn, although they’re not particularly difficult (at least initially). Beat the boss and you’ll free a trapped God, who’ll then fly a victory lap around you in glee before zooming away. Then the door re-opens and you can continue.

There are eight stages (the game calls them ‘scenes’) in total. After the seventh scene the seven Gods of Fortune assemble and inform you that the game isn’t over, and that they need a boat to return home (the boat is seen in the game’s intro sequence). The eighth stage will continue forever until a specific condition is met, that being: to find and collect three scrolls that are hidden among the many statues in the level. To find the scrolls you must wave the wand over the statues to reveal them.

One interesting feature of Kiki Kaikai is: when you lose all your lives there’s a chance to continue with a ‘number match’ game. A random three-digit number is generated, and if the last three digits of the player’s total score is matched you get a free life and can continue. The chances of this happening are pretty slim, though.

Kiki Kaikai is playable, well-designed and challenging, but the graphics are quite plain – especially when compared to its sequels. It does have a celebrated soundtrack, composed by Hisayoshi Ogura, that mixes traditional Japanese folk music with an electronic beat. The all-important gameplay is good, though. It’s missing the two-player cooperative mode of the sequels (players take it in turns instead), but the eight-way shooting action is fairly satisfying.

The original Kiki Kaikai arcade game was only ever released in Japan, but a bootleg called “Knight Boy” was distributed outside of Japan (by nefarious individuals) not long after Kiki Kaikai‘s initial release. The Knight Boy bootleg has a different title screen but is otherwise identical to Kiki Kaikai.

Home ports of Kiki Kaikai were released in Japan for the MSX2, Famicom Disk System, and PC Engine. The game was followed by a sequel for the Super Nintendo in 1992 and is known as “Pocky & Rocky” in The West. The series has continued since then and includes several games, including: Pocky & Rocky, Pocky & Rocky 2, Pocky & Rocky with Becky, and Pocky & Rocky Reshrined.