Title: Street Combat (NA) Ranma 1/2: Chounai Gekitou Hen
Release Date: 03/27/1992
Developer: NCS (JP)/irem (NA)
Publisher: Masaya (JP)/irem (NA)
This is going to be a very strange entry. For one, this is, in a weird way, a two-for-one post. Secondly, this is the rare case where we are covering both an original fighting game AND a licensed game. Third, this is just one of the worst put together fighting games I have ever encountered in general; it makes so many functional mistakes. Just know that the background portion of this entry is probably going to be a long one, as there is a lot of explaining to do. Before we move on I must say that the North American box art is absolutely terrible.
Background
When originally developed in Japan, this game was known as Ranma 1/2: Chounai Gekitou Ken (translated roughly as Town Fierce Battle), and was based off the popular anime, Ranma 1/2. Ranma 1/2 was a shonen manga, then anime, that was one of the earliest to gain popularity in the United States. The manga was originally written by Rumiko Takahashi, and it lasted for an impressive 38 volumes. It also spawned two anime series, three films, three OVAs, and a live action tv series. It was an immensely popular series, having sold over 50 million manga in Japan alone.
Ranma 1/2 follows the story of Ranma Saotome, an aspiring martial artist who is betrothed in an arranged engagement to Akane Tendo, the youngest daughter of Suon Tendo, master of the "Anything Goes Martial Arts" dojo. The only issue is that Ranma, who travels and trains with his father, Genma, fell into the cursed "Pool of the Drowned Girl" in China, and now turns into a red-haired girl anytime he is exposed to cold water. This curse can be temporarily reversed if he is exposed to hot water, so he constantly flips between the sexes throughout the show, and as the situation calls for it.
Ranma was an interesting show, because like changeable protagonist, it constantly hopped through anime genres: it was a melange of a martial arts anime, a harem anime (as both male and female Ranma had many suitors), a will they/won't they romance, a high school life anime, a slapstick comedy, a satire/parody of other popular anime, and sometimes a serious romance/action anime (especially the movies, which sometimes go full DBZ in its action). I also have a personal connection to this anime, as it was the first anime that I was introduced to by my sister. She worked at a video store known as Suncoast Video, one of the few video stores in the 90s that dealt in anime films. The store would demo certain movies or films from its stock, and she happened to put Ranma in and fell in love with it. She brought it home and we watched it together, and my burgeoning love of anime stemmed from that. Though I would say this series did not age well (lot of gratuitous anime boobies), it will always have a special place in my heart.
This game was developed by Nippon Computer Systems in Japan (also known as the publisher Masaya games), a short lived developer of such games as Cho Aniki, Langrisser, Cybernator, and most well known, the SNES port of Prince of Persia. The idea was to make a fighting game around the first couple of arcs of Ranma, when the show was still mainly set around the high school.
Now this is where this gets weird; the game was set to be released in the United States, where it would be published by irem. This publisher, though, wasn't confident in the game selling well due to the unfamiliarity of Ranma in Western audiences. What irem did instead was basically reskin and remake the game from the ground up. They remade it as Street Combat, a sci-fi punk fighting game that has nothing to do with the original source material.
 |
| North American Release |
 |
| Original |
Characters: Japanese Release
In the Japanese release, you can only play as the male version of Ranma Saotome in the single player campaign, which becomes oddly troubling when he starts wailing on some of his female love interests (the gimmick with the show is that all the female antagonists are madly in love with Ranma, while they hate the red-haired alternative). In 2-player mode, oddly enough, you can play as the female version of Ranma, so I don't know why they didn't switch this up for these battles.
1st Battle: Genma Saotome, Ranma's father and trainer. In the anime, Genma is also cursed and turns into a panda bear when soaked in cold water. Sadly this does not come up in combat at all. He is a straightforward fight without special attacks.
2nd Battle: Kodachi Kuno, the gymastics martial artist. One of the charming aspects of the show is the subversion of the martial arts with this idea of "anything goes." There are characters who base a fighting style off cooking, figure skating, and, in this case, gymnastics. She has more ranged attacks as she uses a gymnastics ribbon and juggling pins in combat.
Bonus Level: Happosai the panty thief, who is also the master of Ranma and Genma. He is a tiny gremlin of an old man who fits into the anime stock character of the perverted old man. You have to stop him by knocking panties out of his bag before he escapes.
3rd Battle: Tatewaki Kuno the swordsman who uses a bokken (wooden katana). He is a romantic rival to Ranma, who seeks the hand of Akane. His battle is probably the best handled out of all of the battles; they even add his ability from the manga to exude shockwaves do the the speed of which he can swing his bokken.
4th Battle: Principal Kuno, the literally insane principal of the high school from the anime, and parent of Kodachi and Tatewaki. He is the joke character, but arguably the toughest fight in the game. He has a series of "wacky" gag gifts to attack you with, and rides around on a skateboard. When you defeat him, he screams "OH MY GOD" and explodes. Priceless.
Bonus Level 2: Cologne the head of the Chinese Amazons. She bounces around on her staff and throws rocks and soup bowls at you. It is an incredibly tough bonus stage, but it fits with her character of the show. She is the main antagonist of an arc, and the arc revolves round Ranma trying to strike her once, which he is incapable of doing until the very end. Honestly she should have been the final boss.
5th Battle: Shampoo the Chinese Amazon princess. She is Ranma's fiance via Amazonian law (Ranma bested her in combat). She uses hidden weapons, but is a hilariously easy fight. In the anime she turns into a cat, of which Ranma has a phobia.
Final Battle: Ryogah the wandering warrior, who is Ranma's childhood nemesis and rival paramour of Akane. He is known for having a terrible sense of direction, and turns into a teacup pig when doused in cold water (which Akane keeps as a pet, having no knowledge that it is Ryogah). For a final boss, he is ridiculously easy.
Characters: US Release
In the American release, you play as Steve...yup. He is a "badass" punk with a pompadour and a rebel attitude. He wears some mean shades, he breakdances, and busts out some quippy one liners. This was a game during the age of "don't have a cow dude" Bart Simpson, and your video game protagonists have to have a good bit of 'tude in order to remain relevant (just kidding this idea sucked then and sucks now). He apparently is wearing power armor, and the "female" variant is just Steve without this armor on.
1st Battle: Tyrone the racist stereotype of an African American...Yup.
2nd Battle: Dozo, one of the most terrifying clowns in gaming.
3rd Battle: GI Jim, a weird army guy with a sword who vomits when you defeat him.
4th Battle: Helmut the skateboarding Nazi robot? Still the toughest battle in the game.
Bonus Stage: Happy the old man who smiles like a Gremlin at the end of the bonus round.
5th Battle: Lita, who is basically Shampoo with a mask on her face.
6th Battle: The evil demon lord...CJ. Who looks, in his character mock-up, like a demon lord, but in actuality is just a tiny man in red spandex. Still a super easy battle.
Gameplay
This is as rudimentary a fighting game as it gets. There is no time limit to any battle, and once you expend your foe's lifebar, they are defeated. If you win two rounds of three, then you win! Your character then delivers a pithy quote to your defeated enemy, and you move on to the next combatant.
The fighting itself is incredibly simple. You can get through most fights, even on normal, by just mashing buttons and playing aggressively. You seem to also have a very high defense, so it is really easy to just tank through most battles. Weirdly enough, there is no block ability outside of special moves. As well, the jump command is mapped to a button rather than just by pressing up. Really you only have three types of attacks: punches, kicks, and a "clear" energy attack that creates distance between you and your opponent. There are some special moves, but there are only a few per character.
The game is simple enough that it can be beaten in about 15 minutes. I beat the game on easy, normal, and hard without much difficulty. Gameplay wise, this game is incredibly forgettable.
Music: Japanese Version
The music is MUCH better on the Japanese version.
Music: North American version
This version's music is awful. Truly just bad.
Ads, Art, and Commercials
Final Verdict
This game, aside from its very strange provenance, was absolutely awful. The play is slow, the game offers no challenge, and the North American version especially is devoid of personality, charm, or really anything redeeming. The design, in fact, is almost amateurish. If you are interested in this as a collector, I would recommend grabbing the Japanese version at least.
No comments:
Post a Comment