All 16-Bit

Review #12511 Sengoku Denshou One of the most ok NeoGeo ports MD CD 1993 American Sammy Action Action › Beat Em Up F 57 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Slow movement, but generous hit detection. There are a handful of enemy types. Limited moves in your normal form, but the gimmick of the game is a set of transformations which are randomly dropped by enemies. You can get a sword, turn into a dog with a screw attack, a samurai with a projectile, and a ninja who backflips instead of walking. And that's just in the first level. These powerups timeout after about 30 seconds. Enemies hit like a truck, so it's critical to keep them at bay. Unlike the SFC version there are no health pickups. 3 / 5 Level Design...

Review #12500 Anett Futatabi It's Anett! And I don't mean Funicello MD CD 1994 Wolf Team Action Action › Beat Em Up H 39 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay As is true of most WolfTeam games, this feels more like a rough draft than a final product. At first I was impressed by the controls. You've got a fast attack, decent jump attack, grab and throw, plus the ability to run which can be combined with each attack. Life is good with the moveset. You can even change direction while running - something you don't see much in these games. However, the enemy AI quickly put a damper on my excitement. Enemies do the dumbest things, making the decent controls seem inconsequential while playing. Enemies aimlessly mosey around the screen and in man...

Review #12130 Ultraverse Prime Discount Superman Sega CD 1994 Sony Imagesoft Action Action › Beat Em Up F 53 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Punch, kick and jump. Fast movement but no run. You can grab and throw but it happens inconsistently. It's actually terrible when it does because throws don't hit other enemies so holding an enemy leaves you vulnerable to all others. Small sprites. Good hit detection. 20% draw distance Worthless jump kick. 2 / 5 Level Design Typical fare. Nothing worth mentioning. Almost no environmental elements and small waves of enemies over and over again. 3 / 5 Theme 90s comic book with steroid fueled heroes and enemies. ...

Review #12044 Final Fight CD The definitive 16-bit version Sega CD 1993 Sega Action Action › Beat Em Up D 70 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Two button controls - jump and attack. For the most part you just mash on attack, but there are other mechanics, like a jump kick, flying knee kick, a spinning attack and grabbing, throwing, and pile driving enemies. Adds a bit of variety to otherwise monotonous gameplay. Enemies sort of take turns attacking instead of swarming and all attacking at once. Lots of environmental hazards - some which just get in your way like staircases but there are also fires and other things that actually hurt you. 4 / 5 Level Design Nice design of the stages. They're simple but each have a dist...

Review #12020 Cliffhanger Aren't cliffhangers supposed to encourage people to come back? Sega CD 1993 Sony Imagesoft Action Action › Beat Em Up H 33 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Seems like bad guys are on a slightly different plane than you. You have to be perfectly lined up to attack but they can be slightly above or below you. Punch and kick buttons, but you can only jump+kick. No jump+punch. Also can run by double tap+punch but no run+kick. Enemies have two attacks worth of i-frames after getting knocked down so run away after hitting them. Enemies surround and gang up like crazy. 1 / 5 Level Design Absolutely nothing in the first level. Completely devoid of any details or obstacles or anything but the sa...

Review #11119 Tenchi wo Kurau PCE CD 1994 NEC Action Action › Beat Em Up E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Has a Mega Man X style charge shot and a 3x combo attack. The strat is to consistently move up and down to avoid enemy attacks. Once I figured this out the game became super easy. The 1 and 2 buttons attack left or right like Double Dragon 2. 4 / 5 Level Design Enemy waves have just enough variety to keep your interest. But the set.poeces are what gives the game personally and a degree of fun. Every now and then there's an autoscroller section with barriers that will kill you. 4 / 5 Theme Medieval Chinese warfare. I love the novelty of the setting along with the g...

Review #11065 Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force Almost top tier mech action PCE CD 1994 NEC Action Action › Beat Em Up E 67 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Plays like Ninja Warriors, on a single plane. Attacks include a strong and weak sword swings, a useless uppercut, a jump attack, and a dash attack combo which is by far the best option available. You can also perform SF2 style fireball and Shoryuken attacks, but the inputs don't always work. Movement is fast but a little squirrely due to your huge hitbox and long animations. There's no way to block so you can't play strategically. Just attack as ferociously as possible and hope for the best. It's a much better Genocide for the SFC. 3 / 5 Level ...

Review #11047 Golden Axe I have an axe to grind PCE CD 1990 Telenet Japan Action Action › Beat Em Up H 35 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Slow movement. Even slower than the Genesis version. And far worse hit detection to boot. Attacks have a short reach. The jump attack has really poor hit detection so I found it to be very unreliable. Three playable characters but they play identically. Occasionally climb on a dragon but good luck hitting enemies when on it. Enemies are super annoying. They do the Double Dragon thing and do all they can to surround you. They start just out of reach while the do so. You have to be lined up just perfectly to hit them. Enemies also like to stun lock you. There's a screen filling magic system and plentiful pick ...

Review #11039 Galaxy Deka Gayvan Mini Morphin Power Rangers PCE CD 1993 Intec Action Action › Beat Em Up F 56 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay There's a lot to like here. Controls are responsive and simple. One button to jump and another to attack. You can combo attack enemies or grab and punch or throw them by holding up and attacking. When not holding the same performs a roundhouse kick or uppercut. There's also a jump kick. When a power meter is filled you can transform into a battle suit to deal slightly more damage. So the combat isn't bad. However, I have three complaints. First, movement is slow. This is true for both you and enemies but given how tiny the sprites are it means much of the game is simply walking until you...

Review #11029 Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari River CD Ransom PCE CD 1993 Naxat Soft Action Action › Beat Em Up E 67 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Simple and fun combat which admittedly grows old aftera few minutes. But it's responsive, fair, and features a ton of fun weapons. 4 / 5 Level Design Basically an open world with shops and dead ends and all kinds of surprises to find. 3 / 5 Theme The lack of a translation patch hurts this title. There isn't a lick of English anywhere, making it hard to shop or follow along with the story. 3 / 5 Art Style As much as I like the Technos boys, they look archaic and puny compared to the ...

Review #11028 Downtown Nekketsu Koshinkyoku River City Gourmet Race PCE CD 1992 Naxat Soft Action Action › Beat Em Up E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay This is an odd one. Technos took their River City Ransom beat em up mechanics and built a little party game around it. The controls are what you'd expect from this franchise, including the annoying requirement of double tapping to run, which wouldn't be a problem if your opponents weren't capable of running without any delay. This makes the Gourmet Race-like mode extremely challenging since the other racers are always faster than you. Still, there's some fun to be had here, expecially multiplayer. 3 / 5 Level Design There are a handfu...

Review #11026 Double Dragon II: The Revenge NES > PCE CD > MD PCE CD 1993 Naxat Soft Action Action › Beat Em Up E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Massive improvement over the horrible Mega Drive version. That one was a port of the arcade game while this appears to be based on the far superior NES version. And I think I like this even more than the NES game. The biggest improvement are the responsive controls and the hit detection that actually, ya know, works. There's no hint of slowdown either. It features the same left and right attacks, using the 1 and 2 buttons. This means jumping is performed by pressing both together, again like the NES game. This results in a lot of button mashing but enemy AI is good and the moves are e...

Review #11006 Ane-san Barbie brawler PCE CD 1995 NEC Action Action › Beat Em Up H 37 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Slow movement but ridiculously fast attack speed. Enemies barely put up a fight among this a very easy game. Useless jump kick. Grand and throws make you vulnerable to attack. Enemies can attack while being attack which is the only way they ever score a hit. Hit detection feels off, like you can hit enemies above and below but not when you're too close. It feels weird somehow. 2 / 5 Level Design Four stages with a level select. Pick from one of the three playable characters to fight that stage. Death sends you back to the stage select screen with that fighter no longer selectable. The stages hav...

Review #10030 Riot Zone Streets of Rage 1.5 TG-16 CD 1993 TTI Action Action › Beat Em Up E 68 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Quite possibly the most blatant clone ever. This is Streets of Rage in ever way. Only two fighters to choose (no female) and a limited moveset. Still, it plays perfectly fine and I have no big complaints. Good hit detection and fair difficulty levels. Actually, one complaint is the lack of any weapons. No run, so the slow speed gets old. 4 / 5 Level Design Very long stages. All the obligatory environments are here, including sewers and elevators. No destructible boxes and whatnot, however. 4 / 5 Theme Again, a blatant Streets of Rage clone. ...

Review #8134 Takeda Shingen Kabuki quantum game breaking bugs PCE 1989 Aicom Action Action › Beat Em Up X 21 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay I have to drop this down to a zero because it has a game breaking bug that I ran into within five minutes on every attempt at a playthrough. Maybe it's an emulation issue, but regardless, the game is unplayable. If it weren't for the bug this would've only scored a 1, so don't be too sad. The gameplay is barebones. There's a single attack - swipe that sword of yours. You can also jump but you can't attack while jumping so there's no reason to ever jump. The gameplay has extreme problems with the vertical plane. Enemies above you can hit you from almost any depth ...

Review #6018 Double Dragon II: The Revenge Doubly draggin MD 1991 PAL SOFT Action Action › Beat Em Up H 38 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Barely playable. Controls are beyond laggy. This is compounded by the persistent slowdown that causes the game to absolutely crawl. Poor hit detection and some of the worst enemy AI ever. Enemies swarm and camp out on top of you and stun lock you into oblivion. If you go down you're guaranteed to lose at least half your energy. Impossible, even on Easy. 3 / 5 Level Design It's a shame the gameplay is so awful because the stages are fun. They've got a few ladders and platforming (which is terrible) but the variety almost makes up for it. Unfortunately enemies spawn in...

Review #6008 Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon No sir, I didn't see you playing with your dolls again. MD 1993 MA-BA Action Action › Beat Em Up F 58 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay One of the easiest beat-em-ups I've ever played. Standard moves - punch, grab and throw, and a good jump kick. Five selectable fighters, but they all play the same. You could do a lot worse, but the gameplay is unremarkable. I played this after playing its sequel, and while the gameplay is extremely similar, I'd say the other game has slightly more going for it. This one has a lot of slowdown and not much happening on screen. 3 / 5 Level Design Boring. Enemies come in waves of no more than 2, and with the slow speed of...

Review #2427 Undercover Cops How did this not come out in USA? SFC 1995 Varie Action Action › Beat Em Up D 79 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Fast movement. Great hit detection. Accessible due to difficulty levels that are true to their names - easy is easy. Three playable characters - martial artist, blond bruiser, fast girl. Satisfying combat with lots of grab and throw attacks. 4 / 5 Level Design Mostly standard fare, but good for the genre. A few interesting elements like a level on a collapsing bridge which you can throw bad guys off Double Dragon style. 3 / 5 Theme Excellent presentation. Level intro and outro screens. Has a Mad Max vibe in the character models. ...

Review #2419 UFO Kamen Yakisoban: Kettler no Kuroi Inbo The Noodle Man cometh SFC 1994 Den'Z Action Action › Beat Em Up G 43 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Super repetitive. Only three moves - punch, dash kick, and jump kick. Enemies run around so quickly that the jump kick is completely useless. The dash is effective but weak. Besides, the enemies are so braindead that punching is the best way to dispatch them. They rarely even attack making the game painfully easy. Movement is fast enough. 2 / 5 Level Design Standard stuff. Very long levels with a quick boss fight at the end. The locales change frequently which is fun but the levels have no actual variety. 3 / 5 Theme One long me...

Review #2407 The Great Battle II: Last Fighter Twin Play the other one SFC 1992 Banpresto Action Action › Beat Em Up H 38 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Slow, clunky movement. Terrible hit detection plus incredibly short reach on all attacks. Enemies don't stay stunned so can attack you in the middle of a barrage of you mashing the punch or kick buttons. You often grapple with enemies, wrestling style, and unless you mash you'll get kicked down. Enemies swarm and come in huge packs of 3-5. Way too difficult. Not much fun. 2 / 5 Level Design Dunno, I couldn't beat the first level. It didn't impress. 4 / 5 Theme I love the SD characters, despite having no nost...