It's SOR2, but it looks worse, it sounds worse, and it plays a lot worse. An obvious downgrade from the Genesis original, it's also a downgrade from SOR1's 8-bit conversion. Don't even play it for the novelty.
Fantastic port all-around, and probably the best 8 bit beatemup I've played. Worthwhile complement to the genesis version for the faster speed, and the different take on boss AI and special moves
But yeah, what the fuck is up with those stunlocks? Those martial arts and ninja enemies are obscene
But yeah, what the fuck is up with those stunlocks? Those martial arts and ninja enemies are obscene
i'd actually like more stunlocks please
Was surprised to see that this 8-bit version has a decent reputation as I had a miserable time with it. For curiosity, after I finished I tried the Game Gear version and I soon realized why. If you're going to play this stay well away from the Master System version, I don't know exactly what happened but the team who ported it must've thought that proper hit detection was a recommendation rather than a necessity. I still don't think it's a great game however you play it but at least it isn't soul-crushing on Game Gear - you can do much better than this even with 8-bit hardware.
What Yuzo Koshiro does with the Game Gear sound chip is nothing short of extraordinary. And hey, this is a genuinely competent port, just like the first game.
I don't really have much to say on the design of this one, it's just a brilliant translation of SOR2 to 8-bit consoles! The graphics are fantastic, some of the best I've seen for this level of hardware, especially for handhelds of the era. Comparing this game to really, any Gameboy games graphics in 1993 is just apples to oranges, but realistically that always tends to be the case for Game Gear VS Game Boy. The music is also stellar, again done by Yuzo Koshiro so not surprising, all the moves are brought over from SOR2 MD, its really as good as you can get, the only ONE minor issue is that rarely you can get stun-locked leading to a death, but it's not a common occurrence, and you get more than enough lives to comfortably complete the game without putting on too much of a sweat. Great game, great port.
The Game Gear was a magic trick; backlit color Sega fire in the palms of your sweaty kid mitts. No one I knew was cool even to have freakin’ Bare Knuckle II on the gosh darn Game Gear.
The color in this game makes it a killer all on their own, but all the amazing action brilliance of THE GREATEST BEAT EM UP OF ALL TIME (second only to streets of rage 3 of course…) is boiled down into the adorable pixel perfection of the Game Gear. Rising Upper forever.
The color in this game makes it a killer all on their own, but all the amazing action brilliance of THE GREATEST BEAT EM UP OF ALL TIME (second only to streets of rage 3 of course…) is boiled down into the adorable pixel perfection of the Game Gear. Rising Upper forever.