Together Retro: Beat-'Em-Ups

[prfsnl_gmr]

Yeah! Took down TMNT and Double Dragon Advance tonight. I guess all my practice on Doubke Dragon Trilogy is paying off! I’ll write more about them tomorrow.

[Exhuminator]

Made some God Hand progress, I'm currently near the end of Stage 5 (of 9). This is a pretty long game for its genre. I didn't think it'd be this long. Not that I'm complaining, I'm having a fun time with this silliness. Dsh you're in for some good laughs.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I’m putting up the Sarge signal on this one...The last boss in Double Dragon II (Arcade) is tough. Really tough...and I have to 1CC the last level on the version I’m playing to beat the game. Any tips?

[Sarge]

Hmm... how many lives do you have when you get there? I usually just bait him from above or below, although you actually probably need to move towards him a bit more than be passive, because you want to get hits in before he does his disappear and pound you move. I'm guessing you might be able to use the cyclone kick to hang in the air a bit more and potentially not get whacked as well when he does that. So just repeatedly do that until he reappears.

[dunpeal2064]

I had some time free tonight, and decided to play though...

Night Slashers



Night Slashers was released in '93 by the wonderful Data East. Its a horror-themed Beat Em Up featuring your typical 3 character types, and a pretty typical layout overall. The characters here do have a bit of an extended moveset though (Ex: the character I played as has an air D+A that knocks enemies into the ground, Battletoads style). I played through the game once, alternating characters on each death, and then gave a real effort with the heavy character the 2nd time through, finishing the game in a whopping 13 credits.



Visuals and sound here are rad, and ooze that fun, upbeat vibe that Deco does so well. Lots of cool, big sprites, and I personally enjoy the cliche horror bosses like Frankenstien, followed by his monster (Yeah, they actually got this right), The Mummy, Dracula, The Grim Reaper, and several others. This game is also pretty gory for the time, and was censored outside of Japan, turning the blood green (I played the Japan release). This gore is limited to enemy deaths, though, so while the animations remind me of Spatterhouse, the game overall doesn't come off nearly as brutal.



(Look at that dudes face fly!)

Gameplay here is kinda odd. The stage layout is standard, 7 stages, stage 6 having a boss rush, and stage 7 belonging almost solely to the last bosses. In Night Slashers, though, there are two bosses at the end of (almost) each stage, back to back. The stages also seem to get much shorter as the game approaches its end. The most noticable, and irksome, thing this game does, though, is throw a ton of enemies on screen. Its impressive, as the game doesn't start to stutter until it hits around a dozen or so, but it makes crowd control almost impossible, as they tend to mix every type of enemy into these crowds from about stage 4 onwards. The bosses, on the contrary, are rather easy. The last boss can be taken down by just moving away from his wake-up, then just approaching and doing a full combo. The enemies themselves, and most of the bosses, are still pretty fun to fight though, so luckily the weird balance issues don't bog down too much.



Night Slashers has a few oddities, in that it not only features two Street Fighter-esk bonus stages (One where you basically bowl a zombie into more zombies), but also has two auto-running spurts, one being in the very final fight of the game. The bonus stages are a nice short break from the action, and are kinda fun, and the first auto scroller has you chasing a vampire in a carriage, which gives me mad Vampire Hunter D vibes, so things turned out alright here.



I've been meaning to play this for a while, since I love Data East, and this seemed like a good excuse. And, overall, I'm glad I did, as Night Slashers is a fun game. Its slight imbalance issues might keep me from ever aiming for a 1cc, but if I ever just want to romp on some zombies and hear some sweet, cheesy voice samples Data East style, I'd happily revisit this one.

[Xeogred]

Whoa, that looks awesome! I'll try and check it out this month if I keep the steam going.

Might try and hit up TMNT III finally again tonight!

[Xeogred]

An hour into this masterpiece, I remember it being a beefy beat em' up. I'll have to continue tomorrow! This is just straight up one of the best NES games ever made with another 10/10 Konami score. Don't skip out on this one.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Yes. Very, very solid game. I remember it fondly.

So...what should play next? Mighty Final Fight (NES) or Gekido: Kintaro’s Revenge (GBA)?

[noiseredux]

It is very good and slept on.

[Nemoide]

I only got a Wii earlier this year and haven't really played too much of it... so tonight I played through Burning Fight off the SNK Arcade Classics vol. 1.

It's... okay.
It follows in the mold of Double Dragon, Final Fight, and Streets of Rage. But it has its own SNK twist, ie some cheap difficulty. I had no REAL problem playing on normal and continuing a bunch, but it's a drag getting knocked down by enemies and in the time it takes for your character to get back on their feet, enemies are already mid-attack and you end up taking more damage, sometimes until you lose a life. The enemies are repetitive, the special attacks don't feel worthwhile because they drain your life, and while the graphics are good for early Neo-Geo, they're not as exciting as games that came out later in the system's life.
But it is competent. I liked the little bonus areas where you have to smash stuff quickly to get bonus items. Some of the weapon pickups are neat; I like the pole with a long range.

If I was someone in the early 90s buying this new for a Neo-Geo AES, I'd feel like I'd have not made the best choice. But for something on a compilation, it's fine. And my expectations weren't too high: I've heard the Sengoku games are better but I'm waiting for the Neo Geo Stick 2 for the Wii I got on eBay to arrive before diving into that... hopefully this weekend!