Developer: Data East
Publisher: Data East
Released: 1994
Review Introduction:
Oh, my beloved Data East. During their years as a developer, they pumped out more than their fair share of mega hits that most gamers should recognize, like Burger Time, Bad Dudes, or Karate Champ. The original Fighter's History wasn't a mega hit, but it was their first true attempt at making a versus fighter, much like Street Fighter, which led to Capcom infamously suing Data East.
Everyone at Capcom must have been high when they called their lawyers because there is no way a Capcom guy stumbled upon the first Fighter's History and thought, “Oh crap, we're totally going to be ruined by this game”.
Make no mistake, Fighter's History would blush and take it as a compliment if you called it a Street Fighter clone. Sure there are streets and fighters, but just LOOK at it.
Karnov's Revenge, also known as Fighter's History Dynamite, is the hot new sequel on the Neo Geo and it performed well enough to get a port to the Sega Saturn, three years later...... in 1997!
Ray about to pwn Mizoguchi with a Hadouken-like fireball
Gameplay: 🕹️
All of the gameplay is standard fare here, and if you have every played a Street Fighter game, you'll feel right at home. Karnov's Revenge is a traditional 4-button fighting game with two punch buttons and two kick buttons. The button setup feels a little off at first, with the punch buttons on A and B, and the kick buttons on C and D. Fans of the King of Fighters games may take some time to adjust to this setup.
Instead of the standard dizzy system, we have the break system. Each character has a weak spot, such as Lee's KNEES. If you hit him in the knees enough, his pants become damaged, and he is momentarily dizzied. On paper, it may have seemed like a decent idea, but in reality, the weak points drastically alter the balance of the game. Some of the characters are prone to being dizzied every round since the weak points are more likely to be hit. Marstorious has weak shins ,for example (not to be confused with weak knees). Combined with his low jump, he is very easy to dizzy compared to someone who is weak in the chest.
Speaking of weak in the chest, don't expect any bouncy waifus here. All of the ladies look like they have been punched in the face so hard they had to get their face medically re-pixelated, so all of you horndogs are going to have to go back to playing Vanguard Princess or the Arcana Heart series.
Data East also added “1-2 attacks” in Karnov's Revenge to spice things up. What is a 1-2 attack? Why, that's just another name for “super crappy combo”. You can cancel a normal attack into a heavy attack and get a whopping two hit combo, which would be pretty standard in any other game. These attacks are actually worse because they end up knocking the other guy down, and you can't follow up with anything else.
The REAL combos in Karnov's are simple, but you better believe this is where the fun starts, and anybody with a little experience in fighting games will probably notice some wacky stuff going on right away. You are able to cancel into special moves from what feels like any situation with few limitations, and it gets wild. Ray and Mizoguchi can combo from air kicks if you're quick enough, and you'll be executing combos in no time that should be illegal. Well, call the cops, because I'm going to be comboing into Martorious' double german suplex all night long.
I feel like the nutty combo system was unintentional and would have been toned down and fixed under normal circumstances, but the reality is that these “unintentional features” really add something cool to an otherwise unremarkable game.
Due to some of the weird weak points, wild combos, and unintentional advanced tech for some of the characters, the balancing ends up being a fat sweaty mess. This leaves us with 4 top tier characters that dominate the game. Ray, Zazie, Lee, and Karnov are going to be the best picks, as each character has tech or a move that just destroys sad boys like Marstorious or Matlock. Don't expect a fair fight if you choose anyone else. Several of the other characters have moves that feel worthless, or the hit boxes just aren't as good as they need to be to make them viable.
None of this truly matters if you're just playing casually or against the computer anyway. Everything still feels competent, and the moves are easy enough to pull off consistently. The game's difficulty is pretty fair, so it's still a good time with any character you choose, whether or not the game-play is deliciously busted.
Roster: 🥋
At first glance, the entire cast of fighters look like a collection of basic jobbers from a Jaleco beat 'em up. Most of the cast from the first game returns for the sequel, but I have no idea what the designers were thinking when they created this group of arcade rejects. This is, quite literally, one of the worst rosters of fighters I have ever seen in my life.
Initially, when I first looked at the roster, I couldn't find a single character I WANTED to try. I didn't even want to play the game at this point. Mizoguchi is probably the coolest guy, even if he just looks like shirtless Ryu. Samchay is just an old, ugly, angry version of Joe Higashi. Feilin is just a haggard Chinese lady with big shoulder pads. Yungmei's bio says she likes burnt meat, anyone who likes burnt food isn't cool. Jean Pierre is the French version of Guile, and just like every single French character in a fighting game, he loves roses.
Oh, and then there is Clown, who is quite possibly the only character in fighting game history to be canonically A PEDOPHILE. His bio says he likes 'pretty young boys,' but I really hope this is just the worst translation in gaming history. At best, they meant to portay a balding, homosexual clown as one of the final bosses.
The crown jewel of this game is Ray McDougal, the hot-blooded American cop who dislikes cigarettes! He's the Terry Bogard of the game, with a cool flip kick move and none of the personality. He wears blue jeans and a tank top with a lightning bolt on the chest. When he takes enough hits to the chest, the lightning bolt FALLS OFF OF THE SHIRT, and he gets DIZZY. This game is so stupid at times, you'll be in tears.
Once you start playing as any of the characters and experiment a little bit, a lot of them become more likable. I ended up having a lot of fun with Matlock, Marstorius, and Ryoko, even if they are the worst characters in the game.
Weak-shinned Marstorius in his home arena inside the Roman Coliseum
Graphics: 👾
Except for maybe the Joe and Mac series or Spin Master, I don't think Data East has ever made a game with exceptional art design. Most of their catalog of arcade games look decent, but their games often look like generic arcade games. While there are certainly worse-looking games out there, Data East's titles are still passable.
Just like in real life, everybody here is ugly. Most of the character designs are pretty bland, and the idle animations are just a little too fast. They clearly ported all of the sprites from the first game and just sped everything up to obtain faster gameplay. However, with the larger Neo Geo color palette the artists added a little more depth to all of the sprites and some of the special moves have a little more vibrant color.
The artists redrew the sprites for Karnov for some reason. In the last game, he was a little beefy guy, but now he's grossly obese and full of scars. After losing last year's tournament, he must have drowned his sorrows in beer and sausages and needed to have his gallbladder removed.
Neo Geo fans are spoiled by great backgrounds, but Karnov's Revenge is a severe downgrade. The backgrounds in the original Fighter's History were pretty decent, but the developers chose to rework ALL of them for the sequel. What we are left with are some of the most boring locations you have ever seen.
Maybe I'm being generous, but I speculate that Data East had to rush this one to the market, and perhaps the old backgrounds weren't porting over to new hardware well. It is possible that the way Neo Geo handles backgrounds is just radically different than Data East's own hardware. They might not have had time to make it work properly, or maybe I just have a soft spot for janky Data East games, so I create excuses on their behalf. Anyway, the end result looks muddy and boring.
On the other hand, for people with questionable taste, these trash backgrounds add several laughable situations. I particularly enjoy when animated characters in the backgrounds pass through solid objects because they are on the same background layer. You can witness this in Ray's level, where a skateboarding girl causally passes right through some gentleman sitting on the sidewalk. That's some quality work there Data East.
I also love Zazie's African stage, where various random African animals have made peace, just long enough to come together to witness the spectacle of Karnov's Revenge. I love how they squeezed the entire body of the giraffe into the screen, and he's awkwardly bending his neck down to fit into view as if he has scoliosis and is in terrible pain. It's also cool that they drew the zebras backwards so you can see their butts, I guess. I'm sure these aren't the butts most fighting game fans wanted, but if you want zebra butts, this is your game, pal.
Data East went bonkers with the crappy animated background characters in Clown's level as well. There's a lot to process, but he has almost as many animals in his castle as the African stage, including random snakes slithering around the stage and giant crying tortoise. Why is the tortoise CRYING? Is he sensitive to violence and Clown forces him to witness the bloodshed? Has he witnessed unimaginable horrors in this castle during previous fights? Is he just plain miserable because he's a background character in Karnov's Revenge?
Doesn't this burn animation look kind of familiar?
Sound: 🔊
First of all, the speech is great in Karnov's Revenge and I wouldn't expect any less on the Neo Geo hardware. The speech samples are clear when the characters shout out their special moves and most of them are instantly quotable. After a few hours of play I found myself yelling “DOUBLE GERMAN” as I suplexed the neighbor for parking too close to my driveway.
Unfortunately, everything else sucks. The music isn't complete steaming garbage but the compositions are bottom tier compared to other soundtracks on the Neo Geo. Although they may grow on you after some time, they didn't impress me much. For some unexplained reason, Ryoko's theme always gets stuck in my head when I think of this game and I absolutely hate it. I feel like I'm being punished for ever popping in the cartridge.
Believe it or not, but the music in the first game is actually superior! The themes actually feel like they match each character's personality and nationality. I really can't excuse Data East for dropping all of the original themes. I gave Data East one pass already for the crap backgrounds, but this time I want VENGEANCE.
I do like the sound when someone gets stunned, you hear a loud “BOING” sound and I pretend my character is popping a boner.
Fun Factor: ✨
There is so much wrong with Karnov's Revenge, but at the same time, it is AMAZING. As a person with generally low standards and a passion for cheesy media, I can not get enough of this game. This is that kind of game you can bust out when your friends are over have an excellent night. You'll laugh at the wacky characters and have a blast mashing some buttons, and I can guarantee nobody will bat an eye at the awful presentation.
All I can is I am very surprised with the amount of fun I have with this title.
If the player fares well during the arcade mode, he'll face a raging bull as a secret final boss
Conclusion: 📊
There is a fine line between stupid and clever.
Karnov's Revenge is a strangely addictive game, and while most of the presentation is crummy, the game is still miraculously solid. If you're looking for a fighting gamer closer to Street Fighter, this may be one of the only options on the Neo Geo. I would still recommend Fatal Fury Special over this game any day, but if you want some cheap thrills and you already have all of the good titles, and maybe if you are drunk and shopping on eBay, and maybe if you're grandma just died and left you a huge inheritance, and just maybe if you have a spending problem – then you might want to consider picking up this game.
I would definitely recommend giving Karnov's Revenge a try at least once in your life, even if it is just for the laughs.
Don't get me wrong, this game sucks, but if any part of this review sparked a morbid curiosity, you might still enjoy it. While the gameplay is solid and fun, the presentation drags this game's score into the abyss.
Rating: 4 / 10
Screenshots via MobyGames: http://mobygames.com
Ray about to pwn Mizoguchi with a Hadouken-like fireball
Weak-shinned Marstorius in his home arena inside the Roman Coliseum
Doesn't this burn animation look kind of familiar?
If the player fares well during the arcade mode, he'll face a raging bull as a secret final boss
Apr 10, 2024 16:54:52 GMT
Apr 9, 2024 10:19:02 GMT
