Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen

"This is not just another fighting game..."

I never liked fighting games until I played the Mega Drive version of Yuu Yuu Hakusho! It is so different than the concept that I had of this genre...

The graphics are just perfect, except for Yuusuke's hair being totally green, but it's just a minor detail that doesn't matter in the gameplay.

The sounds and musics are very cool, too! The game musics fit perfectly the arena. And the characters' voices do the same for each character (unlike games like Street Fighter where you can poorly hear what your character is saying). The sounds are very clear for a Mega Drive game and could not be better!

The game looks like any 2D fighting game like Street Fighter and others, but it has unique details! By pressing Y (C+Up in the 3-button joystick) you can go to the other side of the arena. Also, it can be played by up to four players (using the Team Player, of course)!
Each player has two bars: the regular life bar and a ''spirit'' bar. The ''spirit'' bar is used for attacks like firebals and elements. You waste a bit of the energy of this bar everytime you use such attack. But you can recharge it by holding A or B.

The gameplay modes allow competitions between two, three or four characters. And they don't need to be all human players! As long as at least one human player is playing, the other(s) character(s) can be controlled by either other humans or the CPU (with four difficulty levels to select). These modes include a stunt-like (where the last surviving player wins), team battle (2-vs-2), and the traditional arcade mode (1-vs-1).

Yuu Yuu Hakusho is compatible with both three-button and six-button joysticks. In the default controller options, A-button is strong attack, B-button is weak attack and C-button is defense. That button is used for defense because the characters in the arena doesn't face each other all the time; if you press Left your character will face left, and if you press Right he/she'll face right (this is because of the 4-players game). In a six button controller X-button is used for evade, Y-button to go to the other side of the arena, and Z-button is used for run (in a three button controller you can press B+C for evade, C+Up to go to the other side of the arena, and Fowards + Fowards to run).

With the variety of characters and modes, and with such cool music and sfx, you can have more fun with Yuu Yuu Hakusho than with any other Mega Drive game! I still like this game even with all those Dreamcast, Playstation 2 and Game Cube games out there! If you like fighting genre, get this game! But if you don't, give this game a chance and you may change your mind! If you are a Yuu Yuu Hakusho fan or not you must play it!!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/02, Updated 05/12/02