RETRO REBOOT | Jet Li: Rise To Honor (PlayStation 2)

The previous RETRO REBOOT editorial covered Jackie Chan Stuntmaster for the PS1 (which I'll make a mild retraction. I misspoke when I labeled Stuntmaster as Jackie's debut on home consoles) I had forgotten about Spartan X and Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu, both for the NES). As I had stated in that review, Chan was a legend by this point, but his impact at the box office was waning to a degree, as North American audiences felt they've seen the ceiling of his offerings. Around the late 90's there was another rising star in Jet Li.

Now Jet Li likely needs no introduction. Getting his Hollywood debut in 1998's Lethal weapon 4, Li Lianjie's lighting fast wushu mesmerized audiences. Fluid, quick, and his blows seemingly landing with unbridled impact, his martial arts looked perfect for a video game. Sony Interactive Entertainment thought the same thing, and in 2004 developed and published Jet Li: Rise to Honor.

Rise to Honor was pretty inventive for its time in the action department. While games like Jackie Chan Stuntmaster felt like playing through a movie, Jet Li's game seamlessly blends the presentation and feels more like an interactive movie. There were no loading screens between action set pieces and cut scenes, and when loading your save, it was as if you scanned through a DVD menu to find the spot you left off. It's all in-game visuals with dynamic camera angles, which was becoming the style at the time. Visually, it was impressive.

Along with Li, motion capture choreography was handled by the late Corey Yeun, who spent more than four decades in the film industry. He was tied with Li in his run in North America in movies like Romeo Must Die, Cradle 2 the Grave, Kiss of the Dragon, and The One. When playing Rise to Honor, this can be felt, and the bullet time feels very similar to Max Payne. None of the face buttons are used for attacking. The right analog stick is exclusively used for launching Kit Yun's offense. With combinations of holding R1 to grab, a lot of attacks can be linked to battle the thugs that regularly gather in a circle around you. When Michelle joins the action, she helps with collab moves.

There is a lot of flare and style to the action, and it is quite intuitive. It's probably not very fair to make a comparison to Stuntmaster again, but the big difference is the set pieces in Rise to Honor are more fleeting, and the game is built the action. This was even produced at a time where quick-time events didn't completely annoy me in video games. In between the brawling, some shoot'em up action bits will come out of nowhere and suddenly guns are blazing. It can be a little bit monotonous from a gameplay perspective, but Li's motion capture looks really cool, and it can be satisfying when you land a flurry of offense with no mistakes.

Going back to the graphics again, they look pretty good. There's no slowdown, and even the cinematic finishes to combos after defeating an enemy embodies action movies around this time. Granted, I didn't watch The Matrix movies at the time, so the influence those films had on practically every form of entertainment did annoy me. Thankfully, Rise to Honor came out right before I was getting really sick of bullet time, and other outlets parodying it.

For my tastes, Rise to Honor does get a little bit old. While the smooth transition from scene to scene does feel very movie-like, and is impressive, I recall finding it jarring. I would have occasional lapses of remembering if my game saved properly. Other aspects of the presentation, like the sound, is done well. Raymond Wong (Kung-fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer) composed the score, and it does accommodate the action well. The English voices are all done good, or you can switch the audio to Cantonese.

All in all, the work put into Jet Li: Rise to Honor is something that can be highly applauded. The choreography and the presentation put it in its own league, in a lot of regards. Directional attacking was in its infancy, but would become something dev teams would experiment with over the decades. The Tekken spin-off Death By Degrees would give it a shot, with slightly less favorable results.

Rise to Honor is a pretty good game, and I enjoy it as a medley of what Jet Li brought to the action genre. The inspiration can be seen even today in characters like Leroy Smith in the Tekken series. His style translates quite respectably as a 3D brawler beat'em up. While it may lack in replay value (once you've figured out how a lot of the scenarios work, it gets incredibly easy), it's a good thrill ride to knock out a few hours