Kabuki Warriors

Kabuki Warriors is a 2001 fighting game developed by Genki and Lightweight for the Xbox. It was published by Crave Entertainment in North America and Genki in Japan. One of the Xbox's earliest exclusive titles, the game received negative reviews.

Gameplay

The game features a kabuki theater theme, where players control kabuki actors battling on stage. It features a single attack button and a "performance meter" that tracks how well players are engaging the crowd.
The core gameplay is Tour Mode, where players travel across Japan with their troupe, battling in 3v3 matches to earn money. Winners can trade warriors to strengthen their team.

Reception

The game received "unfavorable" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. It is considered one of the list of [video games notable for negative reception|worst video games of all time]. Complaints were directed towards a lack of variety between characters and environments, dreadful graphics, a very limited move set, and only utilizing one button for attacks. GameSpot gave it the distinction of being named "Worst Game of 2001".
Edge, giving the game its first one-out-of-ten rating in the publication's history, said that the game is not kabuki, but a Yie [Ar Kung-Fu] with blusher. Andy McNamara of Game Informer heavily panned the gameplay, difficulty, graphics, and AI, noting that the opponents were easy to beat, a sentiment in which Next [Generation (magazine)|NextGen] also agreed. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 20 out of 40.