#night slashers

[lamazmorradelandroide]

'Night Slashers' Arcade (1993)

[retrogamelovers]

[techturd]

Some Data East for Halloween - Tales from the Crypt and Night Slashers

[xwagnerplaguesx]

Night Slashers

Data East/1993

[vgadvisor]

[roskirambles]

Halloween Video Game spotlight: Night Slashers (1993)

Monsters, lurking in the night waiting for the moment to strike. At least, until that fateful day when hell broke loose and the undead started roaming the earth, taking over the human world. But when all hope seemed lost, a trio of warriors joined forces to find the source of this evil and destroy it once for all. They're known as... the Night Slashers!

Yep, another monster themed beat em' up here (this time by Data East). But let me indulge in this one. Talked at length about the original Splatterhouse trilogy so it's only fair I talk about the OTHER notorious horror themed game in the genre and it's own quirky charms. Sure, many games involve the player fighting the undead or waging war against Dracula, but how many of them allow you to piledrive the bastard into the ground to music that wouldn't be out of place in Power Rangers?

Yep. If that sounds silly, buddy, that's the sales pitch.

Unlike Splatterhouse this game cannot bother to be but goofy over the top fun; it is sheer 90's campiness with a bit of Halloween flavor and a splice of anime stupidity on top of it. A grappler with cyber arms blowing off zombie heads a mixed martial arts exorcist and a chinese kung fu practioner that also knows Feng Shui magic, all with the ability to suplex the Grim Reaper to booth. It's like a mix of sentai tropes, early Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and a Romero zombie film priding itself in the stupidity. And the staggering amount of gore.

The game doesn't have anything to envy from it's close contemporaries, and that list includes the original Mortal Kombat. So while your character will never experience it, try not to play while having a meal.

Mechanically it has a more sluggish feel compared to its contemporaries like Capcom's The Punisher, or Konami's TMNT games so it's both harder and has less satisfying combos. But to be fair, it's not the worst trade off for a game with this much attitude.

Okay, I promise this is the last beat em up of the month (just partially sorry, I love this genre of games) but to be honest, the existence of this game is a bit of an anomaly. While Japan's Arcade scenes was no stranger to violent imagery and blood, out of concerns about content regulation they dialed it the hell back compared to the American arcade scene: the violence in Samurai Showdown is almost tame compared to what you see in Mortal Kombat. This game? You either get more than a little nauseated after seeing the 20th zombie explode into viscera or just eventually roll with it.

Seriously, this game's current ESRB rating is M (aka, not recommended to be played by people under the age 17) because of how bloody it is. Meanwhile the re-release of Clock Tower for the Super Famicom, which is a literal horror game meant to frighten the player, only got rated T(for people over the age 13).

No prizes for wondering which one is the scarier game between the two, but it's telling how shockingly high Night Slashers' rating is to this day for a Japanese Arcade. The camp really helps keeping the tone in check though: just listen to this music. I wasn't kidding when I said it sounds straight out of Power Rangers.

Also, the gameplay footage is under spoilers because while I won't baby anyone, I wasn't exaggerating in how GORY this game is so check it at your own discretion(the THUMBNAIL alone will be telling).

[bangjiazheng]

Night Slashers Longplay (Arcade) [4K]

[pixelcoast]

Night Slashers, Arcade