This might be the best Capcom beat' em up game I've played from them so far!

I really like the artstyle, I really like the upgrade system, which involves you using the coins you get in stages to buy new moves in between stages, and I really liked the fact that to use those new moves, you input command inputs, just like a fighting game!

With all of this, it's not only one of the least stale beat 'em ups, but probably the best game out of the Capcom Beat' em Up Bundle, with the fun I was having!

This is like the most recommendable capcom beatemup to non-beatemup people, just by way of the aesthetic variety, goofy bounty hunter plot and purchasable moves. it's very robust on content and playability, something that sets it apart from contemporaries. but personally it fell a bit flat on me. it lacks 'oomph', and didn't have the chunky impact of capcom's other games. there's no held weapons, the music's pretty dry, the situation and bosses don't have a very imposing presence to them; still fun but i think it's the one i'd revisit last.

Battle Circuit is immensely cool. A bunch of space bounty hunters search for the CD of a master program said to be able to control all the technology in the universe, while capturing the baddies who are after the same thing on the way.

I could leave it at that, but I do have a lot to say about this game and how influential and sick it is. Battle Circuit is the swan song of Capcom's classic arcade beat 'em ups, the very last one they released for the CPS2 in 1997. As such it takes a lot of the lessons learned from the best of the genre and applies its own creative spin that ends up being pivotal to character action games. If you don't see how beat'em ups and character action connect into a single evolutionary game design line, this game will show you.

The main thing that sets Battle Circuit apart is its progression system. It adopts a ranking system for each stage that ranges from S-rank to D-rank, which scores you on the time it takes for you to defeat the boss of that stage. The faster you are, the higher score you get, and more importantly the more money you're awarded for their bounty.
The progression in fact centers around the shop system that allows you to buy moves and upgrades in between each stage with the currency you acquire from combat and mission rankings. Sound familiar?
Yeah this game literally invented Devil May Cry's progression system.

While there is no live scoring during gameplay, the enemies will drop more coins the more attacks you're able to land on them, which incentivizes long combos, something that is challenging to achieve in a beat'em up where you're always juggling several enemies at once.

Aside from that, Battle Circuit also nails its gameplay, offering all the staples of Capcom beat'em ups, with special moves, invincible superjoy moves that cost your health, invincible throws galore, 8-way dash and and the usual. Everything is here including a true juggling system, moves that hit otg, special cancelling your main attack string into either your down, up uppercut attack or your throw by holding down (or down back to throw behind you), and some of the most distinct and fun characters ever seen in a beat'em up.
A lot of time and effort was evidently spent on making the 5 playable characters as deep as possible, so much so that weapon pickups are actually absent from this entry. I don't miss them though, since the baseline movesets are so fun I don't want to disconnect from them by carrying a weapon.

The five characters are great, with Cyber Blue being a spiritual successor to Captain Commando and having access to good tools all around, with a great dash attack and big hype laser charged move. The quintessential beat'em up character.
Yellow Iris is the fast, low-damage combo character, and probably the weakest at the start without any upgrades. She is one of the best characters to farm coins with thanks to her whip special though, making her quickly snowball into a strong combo character. She also has a pet squirrel that can be used to otg enemies with a charged move.
Alien Green is the resident grappler character, lacking acces to some standard tools like an uppercut special, but making up for it with assloads of damage and a ranged vine grab that allows you to land throws from far away. It also gets some very good non-standard tools like an otg projectile that launches enemies, extremely strong all around.
Pink Ostrich is probably my favorite character, as she's extremely safe and easy to play. She can hover in the air with up+jump, and gets some devastating follow ups like an air-to-ground throw and a multihit divekick that's amazing for farming coins. Her superjoy also allows you to move around and cover a lot of ground, making her very forgiving.
Finally Captain Silver is a bit of an oddball pick who I admittedly don't have a lot of playtime on, but he gets ice powers and great range on his attacks.

Each character has access to a power-up install that can be done by pressing attack and jump while in the air, and they will buff the whole team. All of them are useful, and are key to getting S rank clears on bosses. You get damage buffs, faster moves, healing or super armor and all of them have their place in the characters' kit.

While coins for upgrades are important, score also isn't just there to show off, as finishing the game with over 3.2 million score will unlock the true final boss, which is a super tough and satisfying fight. I've only managed to get to it once, but I will surely come back to this game again and get better at it.

With this secret taken into account, Battle Circuit is very much on the tougher side of the genre (other bosses like Zipang can also be quite troublesome), but I never found the game to be unfair. Bosses will often wake up with invincible reversal moves, as is the case for nearly all beat 'em ups, but leave a lot of openings to exploit otherwise, and most can be fully comboed, juggled, thrown or otg'd.

Every animation in this game oozes personality, and it's not afraid to be weird and cooky. I love when sci-fi settings get weird with their aliens, and this game has tons of great designs, down to biker girl enemies that Akira slide all over the screen, giant slugs mounted by annoying gremlins, a big baboon that uses holograms, and much, much more.

The stage design is always fresh and varied. I have to actively stop myself from running through the whole game if I'm just booting it up to experiment with the characters, because it's just so good at naturally inviting play.
The enemy variety is good, every stage has a unique boss and sometime miniboss, Capcom really pulled out all the stops for their final outing.

Battle Circuit gets my heartiest recommendation to everyone, not just fans of beat 'em ups or character action, this is one of the highest peaks of the genre and deserves to be played for its mechanical merits and incredible charm and style.
I really hope we may one day see more from the Captain Commando/Battle Circuit sci-fi bounty hunter verse, but for now this game is more than good enough.

The most insane thing about Battle Circuit to me is that it was originally developed as a racing game. Though I'm not sure of details it seems to be one on foot? And despite being rumored complete was never released. This would explain the name as well as the bizarre cast of Wacky Racers like characters such as the eye patch wearing pink ostrich originally named Pinky, squirrel girl, and a plant like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors fighting aliens from Mars Attacks and Elvis Impersonators.

Overall this is just a weird game. It kind of reminded me of a newer and better Captain Commando with a hodge podge of different things squished together like different colored play dough slapped into a ball. Still turning a racing game into a sci-fi beat 'em up about Bounty Hunters on an alternate Earth in an almost comic book style works surprisingly well. Every enemy you defeat drops coins you can gather that between levels you can then use them in a shop to purchase some new moves for the character your using. These attacks and combos if you learn them give quite an extra option to combat and felt closer to a fighting game. Each character additionally has a power up move either for speed, strength, power, etc. You trigger it in mid air with a bright coloured flash to my friend screaming "agggghhh" as his retinas are seared. I laughed, he screamed.

As bonkers and interesting as this game is it didn't quite hit all the right notes for me in the end though. Some of the character attack sound effects get annoying quickly, pinky in particular. Not all of the bosses are really all that interesting to fight, especially the final boss, the music is ok but not great etc. It's a good game that gets by mostly on it's stand out presentation due to it's unique art designs and great use of colour and animations. It doesn't reach the level of some of Capcom's other beat 'em ups like Armored Warriors, Aliens, vs Predator, Cadillac's vs Dinosaurs or The Punisher. In Battle Circuit's credit though not many do.

Did I mention you can play as a girl riding a pink ostrich with an eye patch?

+ Weird characters and art design.
+ Move buying mechanic is neat.
+ Pink Ostrich. Eye Patch.

- Bosses are kinda mostly dull.
- Pink Ostrich. Eye Patch. Attack sound effect.

Battle Circuit immediately charms you with its eclectic cast of playable characters, off-beat sense of humour and imaginative scenarios. I had to double check this wasn't based off a pre-existing manga or anime, so well realised was the world. This was Capcom's last beat-em-up for arcades, following up D&D: Chronicles of Mystara (1996), which had taken the genre to its maximalist limit. Battle Circuit does feature a light upgrade system but is otherwise a more back to basics, all-action approach similar to Armored Warriors (1994), demonstrating their skill for aesthetics, spectacle and exciting set pieces. There's a celebratory feel about the game and you definitely get the impression they wanted to go out on top. In terms of gameplay, there's not much else to say, combat is crunchy and satisfying, as had become trademark, with enemies exploding into coins that can later be spent to unlock moves, adding replayability. The game is also surprisingly fair and not too hard. Capcom would eventually dip their toes back into the genre with Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance (2005) for PS2, an admirable 3D effort, and of course their lineage continues to show in the likes of Devil May Cry 5.

Amo cuando un juego te incentiva a jugar de una manera óptima sin forzarlo, dejando espacio para la expresividad.
Battle Circuit tiene una anomalía en los beat em ups que es una tienda de habilidades entre stages y la manera de poder comprar en esta tienda es, pues, con monedas. La genialidad recae en cómo obtener estas monedas y este CHAD beat em up opta por recompensarte con una mayor cantidad de monedas cuando golpeas a los enemigos con habilidades que requieren comandos que combinan movimientos de palanca y el botón de ataque. Ejecutar dichas combinaciones es sencillo, lo interesante y jugoso es cuándo realizarlas, donde realizarlas y contra quién. Usar torpemente estas habilidades solo hará tu salud bajar porque OH BOY este juego te llena la pantalla de enemigos en apretadas y variadas situaciones-locaciones, además de ponerte en contiendas contra geniales y agresivos bosses que, aparte de ser unos malnacidos, están acompañados (cosa que me encanta porque le suma crowd control a los enfrentamientos).
Con ese sistema de recompensa tan PUTO BUENO (que ofrece más de lo que mencioné) estarás en cada enfrentamiento tomando decisiones interesantes y a veces arriesgadas, dándole más profundidad a un combate que ya de por si era bastante bueno.
El momento donde casi me pongo de rodillas ante el juego fue cuando me di cuenta que una habilidad a distancia bastante poderosa de Cyber Blue (único personaje con que he completado varios runs) no te recompensa con monedas, a su vez, el combo estándar (3 veces botón de ataque) solo te da una moneda al asestar el impacto final. El juego te está diciendo “prueba el resto de tu arsenal dude, dale, arriésgate y diviértete” and thats forking brilliant.
De momento solo he probado 3 personajes de 5 y estos me parecieron lo suficientemente diferente como para querer completar el juego con cada uno de ellos.
El TRUE FINAL BOSS me resulta algo odioso, MF se la pasa volando y bajarle la vida es tedioso. Lo chistoso es que el juego parece estar consciente de esto porque te da la opción de no enfrentarlo JAJA.