Street Smart - Arcade / Genesis (1989)

Street Smart (Arcade)

Street Smart (Arcade)

Street Smart (Arcade)

Street Smart is SNK's first fighter. Disappointingly, it isn't very good. Gameplay-wise this game is like a series of eight beat-em-up boss fights. If you are the only human being on Earth who enjoys beat-em-up boss fights this might be for you. However, these take quite a while to beat. Moves are executed by holding a direction and tapping the kick button or punch button. Jumping is performed by tapping the jump button. The major complaint I have with this game is that moves will cause your character to move forward while executing them. This makes the gameplay extremely awkward and can cause problems when you move past the enemy you are trying to attack. Your character will accidentally keep moving in that direction while attempting move toward your opponent instead. The game is innovative in that it is the first game in the genre where normal moves can be part of a string of combos. These combos are executed the same way as a beat-em-up, by connecting more than one attack in a row. The combo system is simple, but it is the first of its kind. It also was the first fighter to have co-operative play. Two players can team up to fight the game's boss characters. The game's graphics and audio aren't spectacular but could be worse. The characters are higher resolution than other fighting games at the time. There are pretty horrible character designs, but there are nice details like the "SNK Ambulance" that takes away fallen foes and a different woman congratulating the hero/heroes after each fight. At the end of the game the hero/heroes are seen standing in a stadium with each of these women congratulating them on winning the game. There is a level that takes place in a bar that looks great, but otherwise the designs are not really noteworthy. This game's music isn't very good, but there is digitized speech, which is always a nice touch. There was a Genesis port produced, with the digitized speech and the SNK Ambulance removed.

Street Smart (Arcade) Street Smart (Genesis)

Fist of the North Star / Hokuto no Ken: Seijetsu Juuban Shoubu (1989) Gameboy

Fist of the North Star

Fist of the North Star

Fist of the North Star

FotNS is the first fighter to ever originate on a portable console is also the first ever Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken fighter. Tragically, it is not any better than its horrible SFC sequels. This game is based on a manga-turned-anime called Hokuto no Ken, or Fist of the North Star in the West . The series follows the nomadic exploits of a martial artist named Kenshiro in a Mad Max inspired post-apocalyptic future (even the character designs look like they were inspired by it). His secret martial art style, Hokuto Shinken, allows him to kill an opponent with a single hit by causing them to explode. Take all the kicking from Chuck Norris movies, Steven Seagal movies, and Jean Claude Van Damme movies, and change it to punching. Multiply that by a bazillion. There's that much punching. Two of the games based on the series are even called "Punchmania". There are a number of characters from the manga, including the hero, Kenshiro, Mr. Heart, Shin, Jagi, Uygur, Souther, Raoh, Falco, Han, Hyou and Kaioh. After each win each battle, your character will earn experience points, which will level up the character and make them more powerful. Oh, and nobody explodes in this game, sorry. I was disappointed, too. There are two buttons for attacking for certain characters, but a few only have a lone button. A few characters have a fireball that is executed by holding down a specific attack button while a meter charges below the character's health meter. Releasing the button then will launch the fireball. The only noteworthy gameplay elements are that many consecutive attacks can be performed while airborne, and that characters can be brought back to the ground at any time after jumping by holding down, allowing for a high level of control of jumps. Controls are otherwise as bad as would be expected if you have played the SFC follow ups. Graphics and audio are even worse. If you find camp appeal in bad games it will be difficult to get past the terrible gameplay here. There really is not anything good to say about this game, and it merely stands as a curiosity due to its license and awful follow-ups. At least this entry proves that those games were not SFII clones.

Fist of the North Star Fist of the North Star Fist of the North Star

Last Apostle Puppet Show / Reikai Doushi: Chinese Exorcist - Arcade (1989)

Last Apostle Puppet Show

Last Apostle Puppet Show

Last Apostle Puppet Show

Without a doubt, Puppetshow is the most high-end looking fighter to be released prior to SFII. It's also the first fighter with digitized sprites. The main character is based on a traditional Chinese puppet, like every other character in the game. He probably has the best design in the game. The game over screen shows this puppet in a stance that brings Lei-Lei from Darkstalkers to mind, and is probably the best graphic in the entire game. The gameplay is completely generic. There are three buttons: Kick, Punch, and Jump. Simple stuff. The game offers no interesting gameplay elements except the ability to attack multiple times while airborne. However, a stork that releases health items and hazards was a neat innovation. Health items and hazards would be seen in Samurai Shodown and other fighters years later. I have two major complaints with this game. While the controls and physics are decent enough, the hit detection is something of a problem. You pretty much have to guess whether or not a attack will hit your opponent from where your character is standing. The game is also inexcusably difficult. You opponents will deplete quite a bit of your health meter with each attack, but your attacks will never deplete more than a notch from their health meter. Opponents don't seem to die easily, which is a big pain in the ass. Even after their health meter is depleted, it can take several more hits to achieve a victory. While most motion capture games look gaudy after their "wow factor" wears off, this game is able to get by on its character designs, which are actually fairly novel. Every character looks like a bobble head doll and their heads will even fall off when they are defeated. Backgrounds are superbly designed as well. My favorite background the huge cloudy mountain in the map screen. All in all, Puppetshow is a really great looking game.

Last Apostle Puppet Show Last Apostle Puppet Show

Hippodrome / Fighting Fantasy - Arcade (1989)

Hippodrome

Hippodrome

Hippodrome

Hippodrome, or Fighting Fantasy in Japan, is a weapon based fighting game from Data East. The player controls a generic warrior with a sword who fights a array of monsters. At the beginning of this game the player chooses from any of three monsters to fight. After they are all beaten there are three more monsters to choose from. Then you have to fight against two opponents at the same time. After that, you fight against a final boss that might as well be impossible. The game has hit levels, blocking (hold back and tap the attack button), a jump button, and health points. It also allows attacks to be made in any direction by holding that direction and tapping the attack button (much like the eight directional whipping in Super Castlevania IV). The lone attack can be made straight up while standing or diagonal and up while standing. This game is the only fighter I have ever seen this kind of attacking. Though it's interestion to see an original attack method, the gameplay isn't very good. After each fight gold points will be rewarded. The amount of gold you receive is determined by how much of your health remains after a fight. Weapon upgrades can be bought with this gold and a weapon is chosen from your inventory before each fight. Each weapon has different characteristics, like average power with long range, or high power with short range. With this feature, the game was the first weapon based fighter with multiple weapons. While the monster fighting theme might make it more noticeable than most of its contemporaries, but the gameplay is about as bad as it gets.

Hippodrome Hippodrome

Violence Fight - Arcade / PS2 / Xbox (1989)

Violence Fight

Violence Fight

Violence Fight

Taito's Violence Fight is Pit-Fighter if it were a bazillion times less horrible. It ain't good, though. There are four characters: Bad Blue is blue enough a dude to rescue the president. Don't argue with me. This is not a joke. Ben Smith is the game's beat-em-up style high-speed-low-power character. Lick Joe is the game's beat-em-up style tank character. He is slow as all hell, but powerful and is al- ... Wait, WHAT THE HELL!? LICK JOE?! That seems less like a name, and more like a command I hope to never hear in my life. Lee Chen is just a generic kung-fu character. There are two attack buttons and a single jump button. It plays like Pit-Fighter, as noted, which should say something about its lack of quality. Each character has their own moves, but given that they are all boring to play as it really does nothing to make the game more enjoyable. There is a boring fight against a tiger at one point. This fight does absolutely nothing to give the game variation. After finding that the tiger is practically impossible and that it doesn't need to be beaten, you will probably let your guy get killed just to get past it. The only thing innovative about this game is that it was the first fighter with destructible environments. The major appeal of the graphics and audio are the non-intentional humor. The character designs and graphics are laughably ridiculous. Like in Data East's Captain America and the Avengers, there are all kinds of comic book-style noises such as "GOOOON", "GOGOOOOON", or even "DOGOOOOON". In all fairness, whatever injury makes the noise "GOON" probably hurts like hell. Ever seen a Jean Claude Van Damme movie? Yeah, that's the plot. A badass street fighter gets himself caught up in a life of kick boxing and gambling. According to the scrolling storyline: In early 1950's America "a game called 'violence fight'was in vogue among mafia, reckless drivers and general business men." This game was "to struggle" for the title of the greatest "quarreler" in America. "And of course" they got money as well. "And of course"? The game says that like it does not need to be said. I'm sorry, I don't remember Jean Claude Van Damme ever getting rich from street fighting. Bad Blue is the hero and he and his manager (Manager? I do not remember Jean Claude Van Damme ever having a manager) seek for prize money. "As a matter of fact" will Bad win it all? THAT IS UP TO YOU! However awesomely bad the Engrish is in this game, no amount of campiness can save this thing. Everything about this game is horrible. The game was ported recently to the PS2 (North America, PAL, and Japan) and Xbox (PAL and Japan only) under the Taito Legends 2 collection. There's also a sequel called, appropriately enough, Violence Fight II. It came out post-Street Fighter II, however, so it won't be discussed here. It is pretty much the same thing, though.

Violence Fight Violence Fight Violence Fight