Kabuki: Quantum Fighter

About Kabuki: Quantum Fighter

Kabuki: Quantum Fighter (1990) is Human Entertainment's NES platformer in which a colonel digitises his brain to fight a virus inside Earth's defence computer, appearing as a kabuki actor who attacks with his hair.

Kabuki: Quantum Fighter in Depth

In 2056 a virus of unknown origin appears in the main defence computer of planet Earth. Colonel Scott O'Connor, 25, uses experimental technology to transfer his brain into raw binary code and fight the rogue program, and on entering the system his body takes the form of his great-great-grandfather, a kabuki actor. Inside, the virus behaves like a real one, leaving debris, mutant creatures and parasitic biological environments. In the final level it is revealed to be alien, picked up by the lost Hyperion probe sent to a neighbouring planet, and O'Connor stops it before it can order the Hyperion to fire its lasers on humanity.

The levels mostly scroll sideways and end in a single room with a boss. O'Connor attacks with his long hair and with chip-based weapons: the Energy Gun, Fusion Gun, Quantum Bombs and a remote-controlled Bolo. The Famicom original, Jigoku Gokurakumaru, was a tie-in to Kaizo Hayashi's 1990 film Zipang, in which a fifteen-year-old named Bobby Yano becomes his samurai ancestor and enters a space station's supercomputer to clear it of viruses; references to the film were removed abroad.

Making Kabuki: Quantum Fighter

Human Entertainment developed it and HAL Laboratory published it for the NES, releasing it in Japan on 21 December 1990 and in North America in January 1991. Computer and Video Games' Paul Glancey and Paul Rand praised its detailed graphics but criticised its sound, and despite initial scepticism found it enjoyable once they were used to its difficulty and peculiar story.