MONSTER MAULERS
Original Release: Konami, 1993, Arcade
Konami didn't do much with 2D fighting games, but it did kick off the small "boss rush" trend with this paean to "big rubber monster" sentai shows
Monster Maulers (Arcade, Konami, 1993)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Konami stood out among the big '90s arcade publishers in never really trying to compete with Capcom et. al. in the post-SF2 "martial arts tournament" fighting game arena (all the more strange given it basically pioneered the whole genre with Yie Ar Kung Fu). But all they really ever did for 2D fighters was the occasional out-there concept with a limited release, little marketing and sometimes not even an international release, with none of these experiments really catching on (at least until the 3D era and Bloody Roar).
Anyway, Monster Maulers is one of those "limited release and little marketing" ventures with kind of an oddball concept. It got a partial English translation for Europe (they didn't bother dubbing the occasional voice clips), but they didn't bother bringing it to the US. That's likely in part to it being a reference to / sendup of sentai shows, which were only just about to start making inroads into the country with Power Rangers first airing the same year this came out.
It was also an oddball concept, at least at the time. It arguably pioneered the "boss rush" subgenre of fighting games, having up to two players cooperatively taking on a string of giant monsters that aren't part of the selectable roster. The two other big examples of this, Metamoqester and Mega Man Power Battle, wouldn't come out for two years yet. And it also kinda demonstrates right out of the gate why this subgenre never really caught on in a big way. It's a fun spectacle for one playthrough, but it's an identical experience every time after that and the play balance is all over the place.
So you can choose from one of three super heroes, who opt to take on the giant monsters mostly with punches/kicks and wrestling slams. Some squad of super villains unleashed six of them around the world, you go take them on one at a time, followed by an attack on their airship and a few more battles to wind things up. It looks like it's possibly a riff on a 70s anime called "Yatterman," but that one's outside of my experience.
What I can tell you: it looks really good, has OK gameplay, but is quite unbalanced. Most of the enemy monsters have very detailed animations, particularly the humanoid ones, but some are extremely easy to beat and some are insanely difficult. And it's a random distribution too; one great example is the two baddie mooks that attack you in very similar robots as the game's two penultimate battles, with the first one being a nightmare of hit priority and constant whirlwind attacks that will likely take quarter-stuffing to get past, while the second one is easy to spam throws and grapples on. The final boss is also a joke compared to at least half of the other bosses in the game.
But it's all kind of moot as once you've given it a play-through, you've seen all it has to offer. Maybe one of those games that's fun to play once with a friend, but that's likely all the mileage you'll get out of it. But if you like the Ganbare Goemon singing they got that guy to do a couple of bombastic sentai/giant mecha-style songs for the soundtrack.
Comments
Post a Comment