BIRUME SENTAI BARAYAROU
Original Release: Virgin, 1995, Super Famicom
Other Releases: SNES (2018)
aka Gourmet Rose Sentai Squadron, Gourmet Warriors or Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou. A really wild and anarchic fighting game that lets you play as any enemy character, even when their moves glitch out and lock up the game!
Birume Sentai Barayarou (SNES, Virgin, 1995)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: SNES Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
This is a pretty insane brawler in which various thuggish types (such as Snidely Whiplash and Vulgar Punk Gargoyle seen above) have overrun some futuristic city or another. So a crack gourmet martial arts asskicking team is sent in to clean house.
You can pick one of three characters and hit the streets, or have a friend join in for simultaneous two-player brawling. In addition to the standard punch and jump attacks , your characters can also run and do a sliding attack. There's also a button you can hold down that just makes them randomly pose for no apparent purpose (as seen here with my chick showing off her ample booty , while mohawk punk salutes in the background. Sa-lute!).
One of the more cool features to this one is that you can get a Shadow Clone that is computer-controlled and helps you beat ass. Unlike other games that tried this trick (such as Final Fight 3) , the shadow clone in this one is actually pretty good about kicking ass effectively and not jump kicking you in the back of the head. It also waits politely to see if you'll pick up food before it snarfs it down. In between levels you can take all the random food you picked up off the streets and have Ninja Robot Chef whip up a tasty dish for you! Which raises your stats ... or something.
Backgrounds and graphics are colorful and nicely detailed. As seen here, giant robot in the background keeps shuffling from side to side and peeping in on the battle for added effect. The music and sound in the game are just so-so, however.
The game only has a handful of levels so the replay value seems fairly low ... however, the best feature of the game is hidden. By holding down L and R on the title screen, you can move the little knife cursor to any point on the screen. Clicking on random points gives you control of random enemies from the game! Pictured here is me controlling Devil Mask, arguably the most powerful enemy you can control. Most foes simply bounce off him and die when touching him and he can do some crazy Odin-like charge across the screen to cleave everybody up. Sadly , he has a weakness ... the small mushroom-like men in Level 2 (pictured on right). They can't hurt him , but he has no way to reach down and hit them, preventing the screen from ever scrolling onward and thus halting your progress. If you want ultimate Devil Mask killing power I guess you'll have to play 2P and team him up with one of the normal characters who can do low kicks....
Here are two more of the random enemies you can find , Bunny Girl and Sneezing Head. Bunny Girl has some Blanka-like electroshock thing that trashes up foes easily while Sneezing Head can fly into the air and come down at any point for big damage. He also has a cool blingin' pose he can strike for ya. Experiment around with other random spots on the select screen to find even crazier enemies (like the one guy who is floating in the air offscreen the whole time , until you push attack and he flies down for a suicidal strike that ends the game....)
Anyway, it was rare to see games this experimental even in the 16-bit era, it's not exactly smooth polished perfection (strictly as a beat-em-up it's pretty stiff and repetitive) but it's definitely worth a download just to see its nuttiness and it's even better if you can get a bud in on the action.
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