Violent Storm is... odd. It clearly apes
Final Fight rather heavily. In fact, the combat feels a
lot like that game, and not like Konami's other brawlers. You get a few extra moves, though: there's a sliding down-attack as well as a dash that you can pull by pressing diagonally down and the jump button. Neither of these need health, which is awfully nice. Of course, you've also got your usual life-draining hit-all attack.
Visually, the game just does all sorts of zaniness. The actual graphics are just okay, but there's so many weird things going on here that the game almost feels like a giant parody of the beat-'em-up genre, and specifically the aforementioned
Final Fight and
Streets of Rage. I mean, there's an area that is suspiciously like the factory level in
SoR, with the presses that flatten enemies into little pancakes this time. There's a goon that looks like he's got Ripley's power loader, with a jet pack to boot. There's a muscleman statue in the background that comes to life and you have to beat him up (he acts a lot like Super Macho Man from
Punch-Out!!. And the last boss has a voice that sounds like a young child until he powers up to a massive, hulking dude, but when you beat him, he yells out for his mama. It's just so blasted goofy! All the while, you've got this sort of '50s/'60s rock soundtrack going in the background, almost Johnny B. Goode stuff, so it's pretty clear nothing here is meant to be taken seriously.
Also, there's this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV2nNg2 ... 89&index=6
So '90s.
All in all, I think it's a fun game. I probably had about as much fun with it as I did with
Final Fight, so I guess if you like that, check it out! 7/10.
