Video Game / Kamen Rider Climax Heroes

The current game in the series.

Kamen Rider Climax Heroes is a series of 3D Fighting Games developed by Eighting based on Heisei era of the Kamen Rider franchise, where characters from Kuuga to, currently, Zi-O duke it out in one-on-one fights.

The series currently features seven games in Japan, which are actually more like updates of the previous one than sequels:

Games in the series

• Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes (Playstation 2), includes main Riders from Kuuga to Decade as well as a few hidden secondary riders that don't necessarily have complete movesets. Many Riders have the ability to change into various forms...but only for a limited amount of time.
• Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes W (Wii), pretty much the same deal but with Double added to the cast. A number of systematic changes were also implemented such as usage of "incomplete" characters outside of story mode. It's more of Updated Re-release, with Double being only one with complete movesets from the handful of new characters.
• Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes OOO (Wii and PSP), guess who got added in this update. The main Riders' final forms are finally fully playable instead of being seen only for Finishing Moves. Surprisingly, the "hidden" secondary Riders are not hidden under the main, finished characters; unlike the first two games. Also every Rider from Ryuki is there, copypasted from the Kamen Rider Dragon Knight game (see below). The Ryuki Riders have an important role in this game's story mode, known as Ragnarok Mode, based on the Mirror World from the Kamen Rider Dragon Knight game.
• Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes Fourze (Wii and PSP again). Guess who got added in this update. Showa Riders also got added, OOO got all his forms except for TaMaShii, you can now do tag battles where you can change between two Riders mid-fight or use your Super Gauge to summon your other character to sandwich the opponent, and all the unfinished characters finally got a Finishing Move as well as a pseudo Super Mode where their power increases and a few of their combos change.
• Super Kamen Rider Climax Heroes (Wii and PSP again). This time, Kamen Rider Wizard joins the fray as well as some more secondary/evil Riders from previous seasons, such as Zabee, Chalice, Gills and many more. Kamen Rider Fourze gets an update and is joined by Meteor. In fact, the entire game gets a significant update compared to the previous ones. The new mechanics now allow characters to move in three dimensions on the battlefield, and every character gets a form of dash or super-jump that can often be followed by uniques Rider Arts. The story mode is similar to the one from the previous game, but missions are distributed among areas instead of Riders, although a lot of them are to be executed with a pre-selected character anyway.
• Kamen Rider Climax Fighters (PlayStation 4). After a break of several years, the series returns! This time as an arena fighter like Dissidia Final Fantasy or the Gundam Vs Series. Thanks to the time gap this game features a lot of newcomers from the post-Wizard series up to Kamen Rider Build. The game also features a lot of reused assets from the Kamen Rider Battride War series of Hack and Slash games. This game is notably the first Japanese Kamen Rider game to have Chinese, Korean, and English subtitles for the Asian release.
• Kamen Rider Climax Scramble Zi-O (Nintendo Switch). The sequel to Climax Fighters. The game carries over gameplay mechanics and characters from Fighters and includes the new Riders Kamen Rider Zi-O, Geiz, and Cross-Z into the roster. Build gets a new update to his character, giving him his RabbitRabbit and TankTank forms for his Rider skill and Genius Form for his Super Mode. The game also has a new story mode, which has items that increase stats in battle, mooks from various Rider series, and characters can be upgraded by earning points from completing missions, similar to how mission mode was in Super Climax Heroes. Kamen Rider Core also returns after his appearance in Kamen Rider Movie War Core 8 years prior to again serve as the Big Bad. The game has removed the anime-esque character art for the more realistic character art in the versus screen. The game includes motion controls for those who prefer to use the controllers in joy-con mode.

There has also been one Climax Heroes game released in the U.S., though not released under that title: Kamen Rider Dragon Knight for the Wii, developed by the same company and based on the same engine, but with the characters modded into the cast of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, some altered mechanics, and an original story mode called Mirror World.

All Kamen Rider Generations, on the other hand, is another series of games that takes Riders from all over the years, but are beat'em ups instead of versus fighting games.

Tropes presented by Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes Series:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Ragnarok (Originally "R-1000") in Climax Heroes OOO was designed as a Deus est Machina, but went haywire. It's revealed that he went insane with loneliness after his "papa" (creator) disappeared on him during a test of the Dimensional Tunnel. Somewhat subverted in that he knows he's not right in the head and has called the Riders into his world hoping they'll be able to stop him.
• Beat 'em Up: Most missions in OOO's Ragnarok Mode play out like this (Something carried over from Dragon Knight Wii).
• Calling Your Attacks: Not everyone does this, but there are a few instances. Mostly for characters from Kamen Rider Kabuto, where this trope was commonplace. Double and Den-O Liner Form also do this for their Finishing Moves.
  • Some Riders, such as Blade and Garren, have their attacks called for them by their weapons.
  • With the adding of Showa characters and Fourze to the cast, there are even more attack calling.
• Counter-Attack: Kabuto's normal Rider Kick functions as one. In addition, Decade gains one if he has Final Form Ride: Kabuto Zecter selected as his summon in Form Change style.
• Dolled-Up Installment: The Kamen Rider Dragon Knight game for the Wii is Climax Heroes W with the serial numbers filed off and all of the Riders' standard movesets copied and pasted onto the characters from that series. For the curious, they are:
  • Dragon Knight and Onyx/Ryuga = Ryuki
  • Wing Knight/Knight and Siren/Femme = IXA Burst Mode
    • Activating Knight's Sword Vent makes him play like Zeronos, activating Femme's turns her into Dragon Form Kuuga
  • Incisor/Scissors, Axe/Tiger and Wrath/Odin = Agito
  • Torque/Zolda = Diend
    • Divergent Character Evolution: Diend was given a brand new moveset in OOO, so it's very difficult to tell that he and Zolda were ever the same character.
  • Sting/Raia and Camo/Verde = Mighty Form Kuuga
  • Thrust/Gai = Decade
  • Strike/Ouja = Faiz
  • Spear/Imperer = Kiva
  • Wing Knight Survive/Knight Survive = Blade
• Dream Match Game: You can pit any Rider for an awesome fight!
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first two games, Ryuki and Diend use new finishing moves. They regain the ones they used in their respective series in Climax Heroes OOO.
• Evil Twin: Dark Decade, the Final Boss in first two games. He's an alternate version of Decade, much like alternate riders in the series. He fights just like Decade, except being far stronger and doesn't have Final Form Ride cards.
• Face–Heel Turn: A number of Riders in Ragnarok Mode have been brainwashed by the eponymous computer into fighting for its amusement. Naturally, you'll have to "befriend" them.
• Final Boss: Dark Decade, a Palette Swap of Decade with increased offense and defense, served this purpose in the original Climax Heroes and W. OOO cut the character entirely and replaced him with Odin and Ryuga. In Fourze, the Heroes Mode doesn't seem to have a specific story since you can do missions with any Rider in any order. Odin is still there, but the Twin Hoppers tend to appear very often as the final match in arcade mode, and when it's not them, it's Fourze and OOO, unless you've fulfilled certain conditions, then its Purple Eyed TaToBa OOO.
• Flunky Boss: Occasionally, a mission in Ragnarok Mode will require the player to defeat an enemy Rider in a Beat 'em Up stage, where they will fight alongside Mooks. Notable among these is Diend, who always fights alongside Riotroopers (This particular Mook is never encountered unless you're up against Diend).
• Heel–Face Turn: Several antagonistic Riders such as Kaixa, the Hoppers, and most of Kamen Rider Ryuki's cast will join up with the player in Ragnarok Mode. Of course, you'll usually have to beat them first.
  • Of course, Imperer pulls a Face–Heel Turn later on, and Kaixa walks into a Heel–Face Revolving Door, though unlike Imperer he ends up on the player's side.
• Joke Character: AutoVajin, Faiz's Transforming Mecha/Coolbike. He's slow, doesn't have a finisher, and has almost no combos. Probably an in-joke as he was quite useless and stupid in the series itself.
• Limit Break: Based on each Riders' Finishing Move in respective titles. Here are all that are included in Fourze. And this is new ones from Super, including older ones with redubbed.
• Mooks: In the form of of Gelnewts, Raydragoons, Salisworms and Masquerade Dopants in OOO's Ragnarok Mode. Shocker mooks also appear in Fourze. So far in Climax Scramble, there is also Bugsters, Masquerade Dopants, Riotroopers, Kurokage Troopers, Kamen Rider Mages, and possibly many more to battle in story mode.
• Moveset Clone: The entire series has this on a large scale, since it's a 3D fighter with a giant cast. Just going through Super Climax Heroes' character roster, you're bound to see animations shared between multiple characters, especially between certain broad categories of characters like martial artists, swordsmen, gunslingers, etc. Wizard is the only character with a wholly unique moveset, presumably because he's an Extremity Extremist who doesn't throw punches at all.
• Retreaux: Showa Riders have a unique power-up effect that adds a film grain effect to the screen; if one uses a special attack while in this mode, everything pauses and a narrator pops in to describe the attack. Yes, including BLACK and BLACK RX!
• Super Mode: Different versions, depending on what gauge color is chosen, in Climax Heroes OOO and Fourze (in the original and Double, all Riders act as Red Gauge Riders, sans for the Kamen Rider Kabuto Riders and Faiz, and those who act as gray gauge characters):
  • Form Change: Green gauge characters, who can change between different forms at will (Kuuga, Den-O, Decade, Double and OOO can all use this gauge in Climax Heroes OOO, as can Fourze as of his installment. Super has Wizard use this gauge.)
  • Power Up: Red gauge characters, who can change into a more powerful form when their Rider Gauge is full, and use this to cancel their actions (All main Riders except for OOO + Zeronos and Accel can use this gauge in Climax Heroes OOO. In Climax Heroes Fourze, OOO and Black RX can use this gauge, as well. In Super Climax Heroes, Wizard, Fourze and Meteor can also use this gauge.)
  • Speed Up: Blue gauge characters, who can enter a state in which everything but them is slowed down for a limited time when their Rider Gauge is full (All Kamen Rider Kabuto Riders, as well as Faiz, can use this gauge)
  • Support Attack: Orange gauge characters, who can summon allies to help them for a fraction of their Rider Gauge (Kuuga, Agito, all Kamen Rider Ryuki Riders, Faiz and Kiva can use this gauge, as well as V3 as of Climax Heroes Fourze, as can Magnet States Fourze, Zanki and Saga from Super Climax Heroes)
  • Assault: Riders with a gray gauge get no Super Mode whatsoever (Everyone not mentioned in the previous list and Double can use this gauge, and many more in Fourze). In Fourze, characters with a Grey gauge can now power up and get a few new moves for a limited time.
  • Three characters have "special" versions of the gauges: Kamen Rider Kabuto Hyper Mode is a Red Gauge, yet can activate Clock Up as if he was a Blue Gauge. Kamen Rider Decade's Kamen Ride is a green gauge, yet it can cancel his actions as if it were a red gauge. As of Super, the first Kamen Rider TheBee is an Orange Gauge, but can also activate his Clock Up, much like Hyper Kabuto.
  • In Climax Fighters, there are two versions of Skill: the form change for Riders to access their Mid-Season Upgrade (for example, Ex-Aid changes into his Maximum Gamer), or an ability for Riders that don't have Mid-Season Upgrade (such as Build and Kabuto). Another is the Evolution Gauge, filling this enables your Rider to access their final form.
• Swiss-Army Hero:
  • In the first game, none of riders can switch form freely. This trope is used only by Ryuki, who can switch between three movesets: Unarmed, Drag Saber and Drag Claw.
  • Since OOO, few main Riders have this as their gimmick when you choose to use them in form change mode.
    • Kuuga: Mighty Form, Dragon Form, Pegasus Form, Titan Form.
    • Den-O: Sword Form, Rod Form, Axe Form, Gun Form.
    • Double can mix and match his Gaia Memories like in the show.
    • OOO works like Double, with 4 head medals, 3 arm medals and 3 leg medals that you can mix the way you want. But using strong attacks tends to choose either your arm or leg medals and turn the other parts of his body in the same type to make a full combo. Using weak attacks or specials will not force-change you, but it's kinda awkward to be reduced to that in order to stay in mix-and-match combos.
    • Fourze can either use his 4 basic switches plus 4 other you choose before battle, or use his 4 basic switches and change into Elek States or Fire States.
    • Wizard: Flame Style, Hurricane Style, Water Style, Land Style.
• Theme Song Powerup: A gameplay element in OOO. Each series has a theme song that will play whenever a Rider from said series executes his Finishing Move or enters into "Climax Time" (occurs if the Rider can wear his opponent down to 1/3 health first and gives the winning Rider a full super gauge). The best part? You can choose your own theme songs in the PSP version thanks to the Custom Soundtrack option.
• What If?: Although it's just text, some of Hero Mode storyline in Fourze is this. For examples - Scissor survives his canon death, but becomes a fugitive as his crimes went uncovered, and Shadow Moon retains Nobuhiko's personality.
• Wreathed in Flames: As in his original appearance, Kamen Rider Core is pretty much made of flames in his whole body, with some armor parts and a helmet floating within.

---