Yeah, Kiki Kaikai is a pretty good game, I definitely like it. I have the PCE version, and while it may not quite match up to Pocky & Rocky's greatness, it's a really good non-autoscrolling shooter with some amusing cartoony traditional Japanese graphics and very good gameplay. This is a great series though, and all of the games are pretty good! (On that note, it's unfortunate that the SNES and GBA games are so expensive, they're great games.)
I have been on the fence about picking that up for years, is it any good? Better than that cloud master sequel I hope (the monkey king...)
I wonder if the ps2 version is better or worse than the wii.
It's DEFINITELY better than the two Cloud Master spiritual successors (Monkey King: D+, Saint: F-). I found Heavenly Guardian very uneven in terms of difficulty. Either a switch flipped and I suddenly went from scrub to pro, or the RNG woke up and started giving me a fair game. The dual sticks on PS2 probably change the game, but I haven't played to verify.
The PS2 version of Heavenly Guardian is unfortunately quite poor -- it's missing a level (and the cut one is probably the best level, too) and doesn't have dual stick support! That's right, the right stick only lets you aim your supers, it does not let you aim your shots. All you can do on the PS2 is lock your firing direction with a button, there is no twin-stick support.
As for the Wii version though, it's good. It has some issues, such as that you have to beat it in one sitting since you only unlock level select after beating the game, and beating the game means beating two loops in that one sitting since that's how it works, but it is a good game and I did beat it. I wrote up a review of the game a few years ago that you can read on my site here:
http://www.blackfalcongames.net/?p=132 It's mostly a Wii review, but I also have the PS2 version so I cover the downgrades that version has in a few paragraphs at the end. I gave the Wii version a B score and the PS2 one a C-.
As for Monkey King and Saint, while they are from Star Fish, the same studio as Heavenly Guardian (and also a few other remakes such as Devilish for the DS and also, I believe, Steel Empire for 3DS), yeah, those two games are pretty bad, unfortunately. Monkey King is terrible, incredibly easy, and very short. It's an awful game I would give a failing grade. As for Saint, it's definitely not good, but I do think it improves on Monkey King a bit, so I'd probably reverse those scores you gave them there. Why do you think Saint is the worse of the two? It's not quite as absurdly easy as Monkey King, and has more content and better gameplay too. That's not saying a lot here, but it's something.
I thought that the PC Engine version is a port of the arcade?
Yeah i've heard it was an arcade port! Damn I wonder if i could ever find the board for it.
Your guys's opinions seem spot on with everything i've read so far..
If you can't find the arcade board, the arcade version of Kiki Kaikai is also included in Taito Legends 2 for the PS2. It's a very good port of the game for the most part.
