Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner and autumn has arrived as we all know what that means. The Halloween season is upon us, and it’s my favorite holiday of the year. Unlike the last couple of years, in 2019, we will go over several horror themed titles that are not necessarily scary but fit the Autumn vibe. The game in review to start the spooky season is Night Slashers, an arcade brawler developed by Data East in 1993. The game is now released on the Switch and PS4 as Johnny Turbo’s Arcade along with others in the same marketing. If you are unaware of Johnny Turbo, then check this article to get an idea what I am referencing. Unlike his eccentric behavior in those short comics where he acted like a fanboy, I enjoyed his role here. That’s something NEC should’ve originally used him for as he’s the perfect character for this kind of marketing. I say that because Johnny comes off more relatable in this scenario with his game choices. Data East were a studio who stayed close to Capcom’s standard for arcade gaming. Capcom and SNK might’ve been the leaders for this platform, but Data East was no slouch when it came to the arcades. Gameplay The classic arcade gameplay stays true to the formula considering this is the same studio who helped set the standard. As typical, the players follow a linear path to the end with facing several undead and demonic beings as they face a boss at the end. There isn’t anything groundbreaking when Capcom was already doing such features in Final Fight and Sega's Streets of Rage. However, this arcade classic doesn’t need innovation as its core gameplay is fun all around. The characters each have their own weaknesses and strengths as well as patent attacks and specials. Jake Hunter is the power character who uses lightning and has cybernetics included in his strikes. Christopher Williams is a balanced fighter of the three as he uses ice for his patent attacks. The last one is Zhao Hong Hua as she’s my personal pick due to playing nearly like Blaze Fielding from Streets of Rage. She uses the fire element for her special attacks and moves a lot quicker than the other three. As you guessed the specials take out all the enemies on the screen and can take a nice chunk of health away from the bosses. In fact, each one has two unique kinds of their own, and the only thing different is the visual effects. Now, you’re thinking all the players need to do is spam their specials to get through a play session. Unlike X-Men where a player can spam these powerful attacks, Data East gives them a penalty and takes ¼ of health away. That is why this studio did its best to follow Capcom's standards as they always used good concepts even from Sega with Streets of Rage. In this image Khao is performing a variation of the Cyclone Kick. Each character would have these secondary patent attacks. When I was surrounded by several enemies, performing any patent attack nearly helped get me out of a tight situation. The enemies include all sorts of monsters of zombies, werewolves and demonic spirits. There are even mummies, possessed armor knights and the generic slasher killers. Each of these can make the game difficult but not in a terrible manner. That is why two or three players can help produce a better experience. The bosses like usual are the strongest enemies to encounter and will include a large health bar to cut down. The diverse cast of monsters isn’t the best I have seen when compared to Castlevania, but it gets the job done. I did enjoy the tropes the bosses represented as the player encounter a Frankenstein and a Vampire lord to even mummy pharaohs. There’s nothing else this title can have (aside the classic fish monster) as the typical creatures in horror movies are found here. The only issue I discovered comes from the weapon use as hardly any are found through the stages. I mean when knives and rocks are the only choices does make this the weakest area of the gameplay. Of course, you can slide pillars of stone at enemies, but they are far in-between. Then again, the characters are already very capable to begin with, so the extra weapons come off pointless. Rating: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation When it came to their games Data East knew how to follow graphical standards of the arcade. Out of all their titles, this is probably the best one they made as the game has broad visuals. That is the reason I always loved about the Arcades’ systems as any of them were able to produce graphics beyond 16-bit. Starting with the environments and each one pertained lush visuals. The animated backgrounds as seen from the hospital stage really added to the environment. A zombie horde continues to lash at a metal fence as you fend off undead. The art for the characters uses an anime style from the 80s, and I’m getting Cyber City vibes from looking at them. The enemies had different designs from the other as seen by the zombies and slasher killers. The best one probably came from the werewolves thanks to the studio showing homage to Thriller from Michael Jackson. Before the werewolves transform the first time you see them, they are wearing jeans, sneakers and red varsity style jackets. However, the bosses look a bit generic sometimes and the vampire lord and the mummies are the best example of that. None of them don’t even have names or one made from stock titles. It’s the same thing for the common enemies and makes this part come off lazy in a sense. I can tell they focused more on the main characters as each one had defined names and appearances. It also plays to their ethnicity and feels genuine to see them act who they are as people. The special effects from Khao's flame attack in the form of a phoenix would turn into a massive blast. I love the attention to detail Data East did for the specials and the animation leading to the blast makes this impactful. Probably the funniest thing about this area is the hilariously bad voice acting. I mean this is the Original Resident Evil on PS1 bad, however, the cheesy dialogue was still enjoyable before a boss fight. The theme was the basic evil undead ruler wants to make Earth the demons’ domain. Now, gamers don't ever play a brawler for its story which is why there are no issues here from me. It isn’t copying by any means as there’s no crime lord trying to take over a city but a demonic being wanted to rule the Earth. The premise is the same, but the theme got executed differently which is all that matters. For any miscellaneous stuff, during the bonus rounds I noticed some funny tidbits on the background. They were monster related products being advertised from promoting some burger sandwich (presumably made from human) to a clothing line. You got to love the extra mile this studio put into even for the bonus stages with these parody ads. It’s those little details that helps the environments stand out then simply making something look graphically good. Rating: 8.5/10 Features/Content We all know that a brawler or a fighter game isn't the same without these bonus rounds to rack up points. Now, on a side note remember when I mentioned those monster related ads well the "Hungry Burgers" or "Drug Zombie" is the reason I love Japanese gaming. For any brawler during the 90s, the multiplayer function is basically the backbone of this genre. That’s why these games have so much replay value as any person can switch to three of the characters around in different play sessions. The multiplayer supports up to three players at once for all your monster bashing. As mentioned before, team effort is often needed here to get through the hordes of enemies and the powerful bosses. It is the reason Data East gives players a penalty for using those specials and to focus more on teaming up. Konami made that mistake with X-Men Arcade and encourage others to kill themselves off only to restore their powerful attacks. Another fun feature are these small bonus rounds to rack up points in between stages. The first one is a “whack a mole” type round where the goal is to kick off the heads of zombies that are already grounded in a short time. The second one has you hit the attack button repeatedly to charge a bar and hit an enemy across a field on to a horde. These bonus rounds did surprise me as it wasn’t common to find the bonuses designed in this manner. These rounds either had the player smash an object as seen in Street Fighter II or take out a bunch of baddies in a traditional fashion. I still find this fun to play around and presents the wonkiness of Japanese gaming. Rating: 8.5/10 Final Rating Night Slashers offers not only Data East’s best designed game I have played but a true gem in a sea of quality titles. The gameplay comes from a true old-school brawler formula of beating up baddies as you progress through the levels. Like any common brawler in the 90s, there’s two specials for each character, and these powerful attacks are really spam proof. The graphics looked broad with detailed environments and special effects that went beyond the 16-bit consoles. Another thing that makes Arcade graphics stand out comes from the large sprites thanks to the superior tech. The gore effects only add to the detail and even though it's not Mortal Kombat levels but enough to illustrate the blows. The content had the typical two-three player co-op as this was the backbone of the genre in many ways. If the multiplayer wasn’t enough then the wonky bonus rounds adds another layer of content. There’s nothing fun to do, then to knock off the heads of zombies or launch one into a horde of undead. It was a pleasant surprise to come across this gem in a Capcom and SNK dominated market. Gameplay: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.5/10 Features/Content: 8.5/10 Final Rating: 8.5/10
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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