Tongue of the Fatman / Fatman / Slaughter Sport PC / Commodore 64 / Genesis (1989)
Tongue of the Fatman
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Tongue of the Fatman
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Tongue of the Fatman
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Fatman is possibly the worst fighter ever. This game has horrid hit detection and its almost non existent movesets are horribly boring. The the biggest problem is with the game is its controls. Getting your character to do ANYTHING is nigh impossible. The controls respond poorly and the physics are as awkward as could be. The controls are probably worse than any game you ever played, without exageration. You will be tapping buttons for the entire fight and getting nothing but frustrated. You'll just be watching your character get killed by the computer while you can do nothing about it. On top of this major infraction, the difficulty is absolutely insane. Winning any fight is nigh impossible. The only thing that is notable about it is that it allows items to be bought between fights, if you can pull off the miracle of winning any.
"Tongue of the Fatman" was released originally for the PC and ported to the Commodore 64 and the Genesis. The Genesis port was retitled Slaughter Sport in America and Fatman in Japan. It's only included in this article because it's more well known than most pre SFII fighters due to its Genesis port. Fatman is about as bad as video games get. Just look at that guy with a mouth on his stomach instead. I mean really, what the hell?
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Tongue of the Fatman (C64)
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Budokan - The Martial Spirit PC / Genesis / Commodore 64 / Amstrad CPC / ZX Spectrum / Amiga (1989)
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Budokan is a multi-event competitive martial arts themed game.After choosing one of four events - Karate, Bo fighting, Kendo, and Nunchuck fighting - there is the option to practice moves to get a feel of the controls or to begin competing. There is also a tournament where any of these four events can be competed in. Moves are executed with a simple button and direction, but controls are not as easily reponsive as most early fighters. Because of the control issues, it is a rather difficult game to play. Points are rewarded for each hit and the competitor with the most points at the end is declared the winner. There is an endurance meter that goes down each time an attack is executed. The higher meter is, the higher the points that are rewarded for each attack. This system forces the player to methodically to get the highest possible points.
The PC port, the Amiga port, and the Genesis port are pretty much identical, except for mild visual differences. Stay away from the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum ports. On top of looking horrible, they control awfully. The Amstrad CPC port is pretty faithful to the PC and Genesis versions, except it looks horrible.
The Genesis version was given a plot. It's about a street fighting thug being offered to compete in a martial arts tournament by a old martial arts master. It starts with something like "I was a bad dude. You get that way growing up where I did". Needless to say, it's pretty lame.
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Budokan (Genesis)
Budokan (Genesis)
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Tenkaichi Bushi - Keru Naguuru - Famicom (1989)
Tenkaichi Bushi
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Tenkaichi Bushi
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Tenkaichi Bushi
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Tenkaichi Bushi - Keru Naguuru, which translates to The Greatest Warrior on Earth - Kick Your Enemy to the Ground, is Namco's first fighter. It was released in 1989 for the Famicom. It has an 16 playable characters, with 1 in training mode and 15 in the stand alone matches, which is an amazing selection for the time the game was released. They are each palette swaps, which saves memory on sprites. That programing efficiency, though, allows pretty amazing animations for a Famicom game.
The movesets are fairly limited, but acceptable, and everything is executed with a lone button. Jumping is performed with the remaining button. Differences between characters can be somewhat strange. Certain characters lack the ability to duck or jump, and others have less moves than the rest. A few characters can even block by holding up. Fights require EXTREMELY precise timing and distance control. Attack and retreat is the name of the game here. Health is measured with a number in this game rather than the traditional health bar or notches. Different moves will reduce that number by different amounts, knocking out the character if it reaches zero.
Training mode is actually this game's equivalent of a story mode. You choose a name for your character from a selection of eight and then proceed over a map through a series of towns and over varying terrain. Your character originally has 10 health points and can only punch. More health points will be acquired over time. There are several places where a elderly man will talk to your character and then a fight will begin against a background with pillars. Winning these fights will grant extra skills. If you walk into other buildings there will be people who will challenge your character to a fight or tell your character things. I have no clue if there is a point to what they say as I am not literate in Japanese. There will also be occasional (random?) battles like in an RPG. Except, of course, they are fighting game matches.
I really like the mildly chibi look for the game and the animation looks great. The game has pretty enjoyable music if you can get into 8-bit video game music. While this game could be argued to be the only Fighter/RPG hybrid besides Hissatsu Doujou Yaburi, there is really nothing innovative about this game's fighting system. It is a very good game, however, if you can get into this style of excessively primitive fighters.
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Tenkaichi Bushi
Tenkaichi Bushi
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Otoko Jyuku - Gameboy (1990)
Otoko Jyuku
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Otoko Jyuku
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Otoko Jyuku
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Otoko Jyuku appears to be based off a manga/anime of the same name. After starting the game, you face off against a series of opponents who generally have weapons. Your main character has a staff, but others have swords and whips. You even get to fight a mummy at one point. There are story related scenes between fights, but I'm not literate in Japanese so I can't comment about those.
There is a lone strike with your weapon available and the ability to duck and jump very high. The game doesn't really innovate in any respect. However, certain levels have platforms that can be jumped to. This feature really only allows players to pointlessly avoid their opponent and it doesn't really improve gameplay. Regardless of whether or not the level has higher platforms to jump to, the computer will jump constantly. Therefore, the enemies are extremely difficult to hit. The computer also refuses to play aggressively, so you more or less spend the entire game striking at the air. This game also has poor hit detection so it's difficult to find anything enjoyable about this game. It's only worth noting for being one of the earliest fighters to originate on a portable console.
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Otoko Jyuku
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