Night Slashers is a Data East beat 'em up boasting the rare horror motif. Originally released in 1993 -- but unported during its era of relevance -- it was resurrected as part of the Johnny Turbo line of emulated arcade classics (and obscurities). The Johnny Turbo version arrived on November 8th, 2018 -- that's correct, about a week after Halloween. Nice timing, Johnny.
The most frightening part of the game is arguably the intro. A text opening reveals that hordes of monsters and zombies have wiped out scores of humanity, save for a few scattered survivors. An idyllic cabin is then invaded by a zombie, who approaches a huddling family. Thankfully, the zombie's head is soon sent flying across the room, courtesy of one of our heroes.
Anyone who's familiar with Fight Final or any of Capcom's classics should feel right at home with Night Slashers. This is a competently crafted beat 'em up, showcasing large sprites and a nice hefty attack "weight." There are three protagonists to choose from: Christopher the dashing European Belmont-esque vampire slayer, Jake the American street tough, and Hong-Hua the Asian female martial artist. All characters play similarly, with some slight variations in speed and power. The game allows for cooperative play, and the choice of protagonist(s) will subtly alter the ending sequence.
The basic controls are familiar and comfortable. The d-pad is used for movement and three face buttons are assigned to attack, jump, and a special attack. The standard "grounded" attack is punching, and a rapid series of punches will knock an enemy to the ground. Ghouls can be tossed into each other, and there are some occasional items (knives, briefcases, fireballs) to chuck at the bad guys as well, but these are oddly scarce. Attacking while sailing through the air will initiate a jump-kick, while a double-tap of left or right is used for dashing. The aforementioned "Y-button" special attack is of the "screen-clearing" variety; it's immensely powerful but comes at the expense of about one-third of the player's lifebar. Best to save this for those "panic moments" in the most crowded of areas, of when boss health gets critically low. Then again, as this version of Night Slashers doles out infinite continues, unscrupulous credit-feeders will be comfortable initiating this move whenever and wherever.
There are some more nuanced moves as well, a couple of which can be frustratingly tricky to activate properly. An immensely helpful long-range "charged attack" can be unleashed after holding down the attack button for some time and then releasing. A glowing circle around the protagonist indicates the progress of the building charge, and it is possible to move around and even jump while waiting for full power. But beware -- hold down that attack button for too long and dizziness ensues. Hitting A and B (attack and jump) simultaneously also summons a move that can be useful at clearing out encroaching fiends, but this maneuver shaves off some health and requires an absolutely synchronous press of the buttons -- failed attempts will result in a jump and kick. Finally, the most visually pleasing move, a downward aerial kick, allows the player to slam monsters into the ground, whereupon their helpless exposed heads can thus be pummeled into oblivion. Pulling this off requires one jump and then press the attack button + down while in the air. Sounds simple, but any lateral movement cancels it out, resulting in a standard jump-kick instead. To pull off this ground-pound successfully, one should first get dangerously close to an enemy (grapple territory, where the sprites begin to overlap) and then initiate.
Enemies themselves are your typical horror clichés: zombies (so many zombies....), massive ax-wielding executioners, muscled werewolves, vampire bats, and so forth. While their numbers are numerous, their HP is low (refreshingly so), to the point where their health bars aren't even displayed during combat. However, the developers tried to "balance" this element by increasing the sheer number of onscreen foes. It's oftentimes overwhelming, and can make "crowd control" (especially for a single player) close to impossible. The game's super gory, as defeated enemies explode into chunks of viscera and fluids coat the ground. It's pretty humorous, undeniably campy, and "fake" enough to give this one a mere "T" rating from the ESRB. Bosses are literally the "big names" from horror tales of old: Frankenstein's Monster, Count Dracula, a Golem, a cursed Pharaoh, Death himself, and, uh, a really weird and morbid take on Geppetto and Pinocchio. Each stage concludes with a boss, naturally, but there are also mid-point minibosses and a boss rush towards the game's end. There are some balancing issues in regards to these bosses. For instance, the Pharaoh boss simply cannot block charged attacks, which makes him shockingly easy to defeat via spamming. In contrast, the boss that precedes him possesses much smarter AI and will deftly block and dodge such assaults.
Graphics are rather pleasing, with the gorgeously-detailed sprites taking center stage. While the backgrounds are decent enough, they aren't quite as spooky as one would hope or expect. Sure, there's a trek through some haunted woods and an ascent into Dracula's castle, but the game begins in a typical "street" stage, and the final fifteen minutes or so see the protagonist(s) traverse a rather dull "robotic" expanse. Keeping with the dramatics and campiness, there are plenty of slick animated pieces -- when the game begins a van mows over a pack of zombies before the heroes hop out and toss their coats to the side (though if the van is so good at killing zombies, why didn't they just keep driving it??). The game's soundtrack is vibrant and upbeat, though no specific compositions are especially memorable. The sound effects are great, most notably the persistent bloody squishes. Voice acting is present, but absolute muffled garbage. It fits perfectly with the mangled translation.
There are a couple of "bonus areas" thrown into the game, which serve little purpose beyond point acquisition and player amusement. There's a game of zombie whack-a-mole where one must smack whatever rotting head pops out of a nearby hole. This is followed by zombie bowling, where rapid button-mashing increases the odds of a strike. Integrated into the main stages are also a couple of auto-scrolling segments. These run a bit too fast and ultimately feel rather sloppy, especially the one that shows up near the game's end.
Some small control and balancing issues aside, Night Slashers is rather entertaining and a solid addition to the Switch arcade library. As far as Data East brawlers go, it's superior to the likes of Bad Dudes, but not quite as grand as Gate of Doom or Wizard Fire. Certainly worth taking out for a spin every Halloween season.
