User Reviews

*no spoilers* Kitano's absurdism is far better suited to film and television than it is to interactive media, yet there is still no denying how infinitely charming his more farcical humour is, especially in this game. Infamous for being near impossible to complete, 'Takeshi's Challenge' wears its badge with pride, and even using multiple guides over 35 after its initial release, this took hours upon hours to finally complete. What I will say though is that the experience of playing this is a lot less exhausting than it sounds, indeed, whilst it inevitably was quite tiring by the end of it, never was it too taxing to continue playing. This is Kitano at his most unmannered, at his most juvenile, and this immaturity, whilst under most hands, would come across as grating, is pulled off with such grace that it is when the situations are at their most infantile where this work truly excels. The first part of the game (which is likely the part that you have heard the most about) is without a doubt the best, were, to progress in the overall narrative, you must lose all your money, drink yourself unconscious, you're your job and divorce your wife (and even beat her, yet the atmosphere clearly indicates that the intended reaction is bafflement at the fact that this is a genuine necessity in the gameplay instead of anything more sadistic); upon this, you can also kill your kids, and do some karaoke, the latter feature I am sure would have been delightful in its original, more functional, NES version. What is so interesting though is that, despite the fact that 'Challenge' is practically one joke stretched out to an inch of its being, it never wears itself thin, and it is almost impressive how many different variants of the same punchline can exist whilst still being constantly amusing. It suffers from the same problems of games of the era, it's lack of guidance was probably intentional, but I could not imagine for one second being able to pass a single obstacle without a guide. Saying that, this is not so much a game to be completed than it is one to simply relax in front of and let its boundless charm hypnotise you. Kitano created the worlds greatest hit-and-run post before hit-and-run posts even existed, and I am all here for it. Truly singular, and deserves to be experienced.