I'm probably not the best person for reviewing this game. I know almost nothing about Gundam, Kamen Rider, or Ultraman. Like I know they exist and stuff but I just...don't have time to watch their source materials. So you might ask, why even play or review this? Well I actually hear good things about the Great Battle line of games. This first game was one of the earliest titles for the console coming out becoming the 9th game and also the last to come out in 1990. It's surprisingly not a bad game and not even the worst game of the 9 games.
There's 7 levels of this adventure as you control 3 different characters with one from each series. There isn't too much of a difference between them. Their shot is a little different animation though I can't tell if power has a difference. I should address I use the default controls so please keep that in mind if you ever decide to play this so you know what does what. You only have one normal attack but you also got a special attack and once you obtain one, you can have an option assist you but it costs the same as using a special attack so keep that in mind. I find it weird how there's only two options and yet the last one is so late in the game. I probably should have used them more but I liked using special moves more.
So you go through a top down action style for the whole game shooting at enemies as you go. You'll also fight many bosses that don't require too much thought to beat at times. There's also platforming but it's so basic and uninteresting that it really doesn't matter. I do like how you can stand close to an edge and not fall though this presents it's own problems where you can be restricted on a direction depending where you jumped at on the very edge. This game also has a problem where enemies can just cheap shot you at times especially in the later half but at least they die pretty quickly.
You can switch characters with the R trigger and you can even unlock 3 more characters and once I got the 2nd Kamen Rider character I stuck with them for most of the game. The main reason is HE DRIVES A MOTORCYCLE FOR HIS SPECIAL! That's badass! I don't know what the other one does though, I couldn't figure it out. You also get a knight gundam for the last level but I couldn't test his special because I wanted to reset my lives and it took my remaining special meter and there wasn't more in the stage. :<
I do have one annoying gripe with the game. You can't strafe like why!? Would the game be too easy if you could? I just was wishing you could for most of the bosses because sometimes it's a pain to hit them especially the ones that like to move around a lot. There's also a problem with inputs. I'm like 95% sure it's not my controller's fault because there were many times the button just wasn't registering, it annoyed me the most with jump not coming out.
The game isn't too hard and even if you die you can just respawn where you're at. You only have to do a full stage again if you game over. There's surprisingly no hard mode which shocked me but I did play on normal mode for this run. While you can still die pretty easily if you're reckless, you should be fine for the most part if you set your lives to 5. Just keep in mind you can only continue a couple of times and there are no cheats for this game.
The game itself looks nice for an early game. I will admit some of it kind of just feels like they were put at gunpoint to show stuff like mode 7 in the game but again it's all fine and dandy. You know what's not fine though? The music. It does that thing games like Little Samson and Spongebob Revenge of the Flying Dutchman do where the music is dictated by the character you have. That means you're stuck listening to the same three songs unless it's something like a boss or the last stage. Since I played as the 2nd Kamen Rider for most of the game I was just forced to hear his song for most of the game. I really don't get why they would design the music like this. Also the sound effect for when you get hit bothers me, why do they sound like that?
Overall it's a decent game and one I could see fans enjoying. I'm hoping these improve as I play the others someday. This game was going to get a US release under the name "The Great Battle" but sadly it got cancelled. I'm not even sure why tbh. While this isn't as good as some of the other early games but at least it's not Bombuzal, yeah you heard me that game is terrible. Will the other 4 games on Super Famicom be any good? I guess I'll just have to see for the future.
There's 7 levels of this adventure as you control 3 different characters with one from each series. There isn't too much of a difference between them. Their shot is a little different animation though I can't tell if power has a difference. I should address I use the default controls so please keep that in mind if you ever decide to play this so you know what does what. You only have one normal attack but you also got a special attack and once you obtain one, you can have an option assist you but it costs the same as using a special attack so keep that in mind. I find it weird how there's only two options and yet the last one is so late in the game. I probably should have used them more but I liked using special moves more.
So you go through a top down action style for the whole game shooting at enemies as you go. You'll also fight many bosses that don't require too much thought to beat at times. There's also platforming but it's so basic and uninteresting that it really doesn't matter. I do like how you can stand close to an edge and not fall though this presents it's own problems where you can be restricted on a direction depending where you jumped at on the very edge. This game also has a problem where enemies can just cheap shot you at times especially in the later half but at least they die pretty quickly.
You can switch characters with the R trigger and you can even unlock 3 more characters and once I got the 2nd Kamen Rider character I stuck with them for most of the game. The main reason is HE DRIVES A MOTORCYCLE FOR HIS SPECIAL! That's badass! I don't know what the other one does though, I couldn't figure it out. You also get a knight gundam for the last level but I couldn't test his special because I wanted to reset my lives and it took my remaining special meter and there wasn't more in the stage. :<
I do have one annoying gripe with the game. You can't strafe like why!? Would the game be too easy if you could? I just was wishing you could for most of the bosses because sometimes it's a pain to hit them especially the ones that like to move around a lot. There's also a problem with inputs. I'm like 95% sure it's not my controller's fault because there were many times the button just wasn't registering, it annoyed me the most with jump not coming out.
The game isn't too hard and even if you die you can just respawn where you're at. You only have to do a full stage again if you game over. There's surprisingly no hard mode which shocked me but I did play on normal mode for this run. While you can still die pretty easily if you're reckless, you should be fine for the most part if you set your lives to 5. Just keep in mind you can only continue a couple of times and there are no cheats for this game.
The game itself looks nice for an early game. I will admit some of it kind of just feels like they were put at gunpoint to show stuff like mode 7 in the game but again it's all fine and dandy. You know what's not fine though? The music. It does that thing games like Little Samson and Spongebob Revenge of the Flying Dutchman do where the music is dictated by the character you have. That means you're stuck listening to the same three songs unless it's something like a boss or the last stage. Since I played as the 2nd Kamen Rider for most of the game I was just forced to hear his song for most of the game. I really don't get why they would design the music like this. Also the sound effect for when you get hit bothers me, why do they sound like that?
Overall it's a decent game and one I could see fans enjoying. I'm hoping these improve as I play the others someday. This game was going to get a US release under the name "The Great Battle" but sadly it got cancelled. I'm not even sure why tbh. While this isn't as good as some of the other early games but at least it's not Bombuzal, yeah you heard me that game is terrible. Will the other 4 games on Super Famicom be any good? I guess I'll just have to see for the future.