A sad part of getting old is realizing how much of a shallow money-suck arcade games were - especially beat 'em ups of this ilk. It's so cheap and at the same time so easily brute-forced if you just spend enough money (or press select enough times on MAME) that it just reminds you arcades were just casinos for kids to a certain point.

Not that these games don't still deserve reverence in their own way, obviously. The art here is cool and that end credits song?! My god. Incredible. But yeah, gameplay wise it's extremely basic and frustrating.