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.
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.