SAILOR MOON
Original Release: MA-BA, 1993, Genesis
Other Releases: Super NES (1994)
Brawling with dorks by day-light ... Sailor Moon is a competent (if repetitive) beat-em-up with some nice sprites and a good roster of moves
Sailor Moon (Genesis, MA-BA, 1993)
Where to Buy: Play-Asia
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
The most famous Sailor Moon game is probably the mid-90s arcade beat-em-up, but there were a couple of similar titles released before that for consoles ... I believe this title was the among the very first crop for any system. Kinda hard to believe for such an iconic enduringly popular series, but for whatever reason there was only a brief flare of games during the 16-bit era and one effort for PlayStation before developers pretty much gave up on any attempts.
The Genesis/SNES and arcade games look alike at a quick glance, but are actually totally different other than being beat-em-ups. The arcade title was by the short-lived Gazelle (formed by Toaplan refugees) and came out in 1995, the console games were by Arc System Works (they of the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue franchises) and started coming out in '93.
Arc was still primarily a port contractor finding its feet in this period, and this title definitely takes direct gameplay and aesthetic inspiration from Streets of Rage. It does show their penchant for detailed sprite art and quality soundtracks, however.
It's a fairly standard belt scroller, but actually on the more sophisticated side for '93 in terms of player abilities (very comparable to Streets of Rage 2). Each of the Sailor girls gets at least a couple of Street Fighter-esque special moves, and they all have some little differences to their movesets. Sailor Moon and Sailor Legs (Brunette) have quicker short-range basic attacks but also automatically launch into devastating combos. Sailor Legs (Blonde) whips her hair across the length of the screen as a basic attack, but doesn't get the benefit of combos. Sailor Big Bitch In A Tunic has slower but more powerful heavy attacks, and some awesome wrestling throws. Sailor Bumbum seemed the best overall to me though, she has the very short and quick attacks but launches into a great crowd-clearing slide kick auto-combo and also has a nice crowd control/escape Shoryuken special move that's easy to do.
The game's failing is in having levels that are just too simple and repetitive. The stock of enemies is quite small, and you keep seeing the same faces through the whole length of the game: primarily Werewolf Grunt, Broccoli Axe Warrior, ClownBot and We Have Blanka At Home, just with occasional palette swaps and usually with obnoxiously lengthened lifebars for each new level. There is a little dialogue at the beginning and end of each level, but this was a Japan-only release and no fan translation at this point so I guess you'll have to tune in to the show for an inkling. Aside from bland levels and repetitive enemies, one of the things that drags it down is that the Streets of Rage inspiration extends to enemies that love to hide off the screen and deliver cheap shots (without which the game would probably not be at all challenging).
As a general beat-em-up, the game has its qualities but is also lacking in some key areas, making for just an OK overall experience. It's more than substantial enough that big fans of Sailor Moon will probably enjoy a romp or two through it though.
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