All 16-Bit

Review #12507 Heavy Nova The laziest CD port ever MD CD 1991 Micronet Fighting Fighting › 1v1 X 11 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay Looks and plays exactly like the Genesis version. No added FMV or anything else to improve the game. Lazy The most unresponsive controls ever. Turning around requires double tapping but it works maybe half the time. Hits register randomly, like maybe 25% of the time. Actually that's being generous. It's more like 10%. No idea how to pull off special moves. 0 / 5 Level Design You traverse a very short 2-3 screen "level" with obstacles and enemies which only serve to demonstrate how horrible the controls are before having a 1v1 fight with another mech. ...

Review #12104 Samurai Shodown Choose your weapons Sega CD 1994 JVC Fighting Fighting › 1v1 E 68 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Easy to pull off special moves 12 fighters that all feel distinct and interesting Some strange but unique features like grappling that happens when you lock swords with the opponent or a special move that I couldn't figure out but my opponent used to clobber me more than once. Weapon based fighting creates various amounts of reach for your attacks Refined gameplay 4 / 5 Level Design Lovely backgrounds with tons of animation Story, versus, and the beat everyone with 3 min mode seen in other SNK games No practice tho 4 / 5 Theme I reall...

Review #12099 Revengers of Vengeance The 1v1 fighter with a top-down RPG Sega CD 1993 Extreme Fighting Fighting › 1v1 G 47 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Surprisingly decent fighting gameplay, given the game's myriad other deficiencies. Weak, mid, and strong attacks. Fairly easy special attacks. Even some parries and cancels for added depth. Laggy controls are the only real problem. Well, that and enemies seem to deal twice as much damage as you do. Sub par but not terrible. 4 / 5 Level Design Some interesting ideas. Three modes including the standard arcade mode, a tournament, and an overhead RPG complete with shops, equipment, and side quests! I wish this was the entire game. 3 / 5 Them...

Review #12080 Mortal Kombat What a lazy port Sega CD 1994 Arena Fighting Fighting › 1v1 F 53 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Read the Genesis review for my critiques of this game. Here I just want to comment on this port to the Sega CD. It adds nothing. Nada. the gameplay, graphics, and music are identical to the other version. 2 / 5 Level Design Only one mode of play - Tournament. It has some interesting later levels such as having to fight two opponents in a row but this is to compensate for the fact that there are only two boss enemies. 3 / 5 Theme Blood! This was the non-neutered version of the game. That's gotta count for something, right? Standard fighting tou...

Review #12073 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Bad as an adventure, horrible as a fighter Sega CD 1994 Sony Imagesoft Fighting Fighting › 1v1 H 34 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay It's a 1v1 fighting game with light adventure segments between fights. Slowly walk around a room, click on just the right spot to find an item, use the item in the next room to unblock your progress, and then move to the next room. Boring. As a fighter, it's as limited as could be. You have two attacks with no special moves. It's easy to cheese fights by standing close to the opponent and spam the quick punch. Hit detection is horrible and things are increbily limited. Also, the game has a solid 5 minutes of title screens. Uggh 2 / 5 ...

Review #12042 Fatal Fury Special Super Fatal Fury 2: Turbo Champion Edition Sega CD 1995 JVC Fighting Fighting › 1v1 D 71 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay 15 fighters including all the FF2 bosses and a few from FF1. Plays the same as FF2 The pseudo 3D is here and it's somehow more annoying than in the previous games 4 / 5 Level Design Even more interesting levels. 3 / 5 Theme Again generic 5 / 5 Art Style Impressive animation. huge sprites and far more detail than the SNES version. One of the best looking fighting games of the era. 4 / 5 Audio Terrific sound quality of the music and voices, although the sound e...

Review #12039 Eternal Champions - Challenge from the Dark Side Challenge is the operative word Sega CD 1995 Sega Fighting Fighting › 1v1 H 36 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Punishing difficulty, with no way to change the difficulty level. Enemies corner and stun lock you to death. I played for half an hour and never even won a single round. Stiff, laggy controls. I couldn't perform a single special move. 2 / 5 Level Design Only a story and versus mode. No difficulty levels which again is a massive bummer. 4 / 5 Theme I like the "characters from across time" theme. The opening cinematic sold it for me. 4 / 5 Art Style Looks like a ...

Review #12015 Brutal: Paws of Fury Zoo Nope ia Sega CD 1994 GameTek Fighting Fighting › 1v1 G 41 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Enemies love to stun lock you even on lowest difficulty. You can also abuse this by pushing the enemy to the edge and mashing the weak attack. Not as difficult as the SNES version but still stupid hard. Standard SF2 controls but with only 3 buttons you only have a weak, med, or heavy kick. Bad hit detection and minimal reaction to getting hit. It just doesn't feel very tactile. Feels like if one of the bad THQ licensed games were a fighting game. For example if you jump and land inside the opponent's hit box you both sort of slide away from one another. You can attack during this movement but the hits won't registe...

Review #12012 Black Hole Assault Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Sega CD 1993 Bignet Fighting Fighting › 1v1 G 45 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Laggy controls and terrible special moves. I couldn't get any to work but they would do so sporadically if I button mashed. Ultimately, it was a bad experience. The long animations of moves means that everything feels slow. In fact, reminds me of Shaq Fu. 4 / 5 Level Design The developers went out of their way to provide a lot of modes and tons of customization options. you can fine tune difficulty, play as any of the robots, create a tournament, etc. If only the gameplay were better. There are ten stages. They have minimal animation in the background, as it's mostl...

Review #11124 World Heroes 2 Street Fighter for Dummies PCE CD 1994 Hudson Soft Fighting Fighting › 1v1 E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Plays like a dumbed down Street Fighter, which I don't mind. Better simple than complex in my book. I'm looking at you Weaponlord. Only two buttons, like the original. Most fighters only have 2-4 special moves plus an all powerful throw. Plays significantly better than the original. No more sliding around on ice. Excellent hit detection. Things connect how they should. Three speed levels are nice and the fastest one is quite speedy. 14 fighters to choose from! 3 / 5 Level Design Stages have nice animation in the background Only the versus and story mo...

Review #11099 Ryuuko no Ken The zoom is broken PCE CD 1994 Hudson Soft Fighting Fighting › 1v1 E 64 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Standard SFII clone right down to having Ryu (Ryo) and Ken (Carlos) clones. Controls ok although special moves are hard to pull off. Only two buttons for the most part - punch and kick. The L and R buttons do weird stuff. Sometimes they blast the guy in front of you while other times they kick behind you. Why would I ever want to kick behind me when I'm always facing my opponent? 8 fighters but only two can be played in story mode. 4 / 5 Level Design Standard 3 round fights but can be made 1 round in the options. Can also turn off time limit and dial down the difficult...

Review #11093 Ranma ½: Dato, Ganso Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu I can see why this didn't catch on in the states PCE CD 1992 Masaya Fighting Fighting › 1v1 H 37 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Every fight is unique. Even the attacks are distinct. Only two buttons - jump and attack. Enemies have a few seconds of i-frames after being attacked which extends the length of fights. Terrible hit detection 3 / 5 Level Design Again, the fights are more like scripted encounters than like traditional fighting game stages. They're not particularly difficult, but are fun to see what comes next. Near the end of each fiht the enemy changes their attacks, sort of like an extended desperation move. It's a unique and interesting...

Review #11068 Martial Champion Konami made a console fighting game? other than TMNT, of course PCE CD 1993 Konami Fighting Fighting › 1v1 F 55 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Passable, but entirely forgettable. Hard to perform special moves. Lots of difficulty settings. 10 playable characters. 4 / 5 Level Design Three modes: Tournament (story), VS (2p only), and Group Match (a very cool 5v5 battle royale that happens one fight at a time). I really like the Group Match mode. 3 / 5 Theme Blatant Super Street Fighter 2 rip-off. You cna just about match up every fighter. The presentation makes up the difference as it's got a great arcade look and feel. 2 ...

Review #11057 Kabuki Itto Ryodan Kabuki Quantum Fighters PCE CD 1995 Hudson Soft Fighting Fighting › 1v1 D 77 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Great SF2 clone. Moves and feels good. 4 / 5 Level Design Standard story and versus modes. Difficulty levels that actually work to adjust the difficulty. And the stages are all interesting. 3 / 5 Theme Kabuki characters. They're wild and wacky. 4 / 5 Art Style Incredible animation. Wacky sprites but they look a little flat, without much shading. It looks good, but lacking a little bit of detail. 3 / 5 Audio The music doesn't do it for me and is too quiet anyway. Good ...

Review #11059 Kakuto Hao Densetsu Algunos Look elsewhere PCE CD 1994 Intec Fighting Fighting › 1v1 H 30 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Slow, stilted, laggy movement. Insanely bad hit detection. Horrible experience. 2 / 5 Level Design Only a 2P versus mode, or Story mode. 2 / 5 Theme Generic, all Japanese. 1 / 5 Art Style Tiny sprites, horrible animation. 3 / 5 Audio Cheesy 80s music. Sounds like CD quality Rolling Thunder tracks. tolerable but a product of its time. More PCE CD reviews Browse all reviews

Review #11041 Garo Densetsu Special Super Fatal Fury 2: Turbo Champion Edition PCE CD 1994 Hudson Soft Fighting Fighting › 1v1 D 71 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay 15 fighters including all the FF2 bosses and a few from FF1. Plays the same as FF2 The pseudo 3D is here and it's somehow more annoying than in the previous games 4 / 5 Level Design Even more interesting levels. 3 / 5 Theme Again generic 5 / 5 Art Style Impressive animation. huge sprites and far more detail than the SNES version. One of the best looking fighting games of the era. 4 / 5 Audio Terrific sound quality of the music and voices, although t...

Review #11040 Garo Densetsu 2 Not quite King of Fighters PCE CD 1994 Hudson Soft Fighting Fighting › 1v1 E 69 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Far deeper than the first game. Uses all 6 face buttons. Gimmicky use of two planes to fight on. Moving between planes is very slow so it's a gimmick to wears out its welcome almost immediately. 8 playable characters including Mai! Rivals the quality of SF2 4 / 5 Level Design Again very interesting level designs with a bunch of cool animations. For example in the Korea stage bikers ride between the two planes of the fighting area. Almost immersive 3 / 5 Theme Generic. But hey, it's got Mai. 4 / 5 ...

Review #11035 Flash Hiders Fighting simulation PCE CD 1993 Right Stuff Fighting Fighting › 1v1 E 61 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Responsive controls, but the difficulty is too high, even on Easy. Special moves are hard to pull off. There's a counter system but I couldn't figure it out. Same with throws. Blocking makes you invulnerable so the strat is to get the other guy into the corner and wait on them to slowly wittle down their health. Enemies do the same thing to you. 3 / 5 Level Design Three modes - versus, scenario, and advance. The first one is what you'd expect, but the other two are weird! It's a fighting simulation game, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. W...

Review #11011 Black Hole Assault Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots PCE CD 1993 Micronet Fighting Fighting › 1v1 G 45 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Laggy controls and terrible special moves. I couldn't get any to work but they would do so sporadically if I button mashed. Ultimately, it was a bad experience. The long animations of moves means that everything feels slow. In fact, reminds me of Shaq Fu. 4 / 5 Level Design The developers went out of their way to provide a lot of modes and tons of customization options. you can fine tune difficulty, play as any of the robots, create a tournament, etc. If only the gameplay were better. There are ten stages. They have minimal animation in the background, as it's most...

Review #11007 Asuka 120% Maxima Where'd this come from? PCE CD 1995 NEC Fighting Fighting › 1v1 D 74 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Crunchy attacks that deal heavy damage, knocking enemies across the screen or dealing multiple hits. Easy to pull off special moves. Responsive controls. Feels great. 10 fighters with wildly varied styles. You can even combo and parry and block projectiles. There's a lot of depth here. 3 / 5 Level Design Ho hum. Almost no animations in the background. Boring settings in high school style arenas. 3 / 5 Theme Another mostly girls fighting roster. The Japanese sure loved these things. Long cutscenes (no video, mind you) tell a story in all Japan...