Urban Champion

"All things considered, its actually not bad at all really...."

Ah Urban Champion, infamous little early NES game that is supposedly one of the initial fighting games. (Though it more feels like a start to brawlers if you ask me, but that could be just me.) This is a early NES game however despite that its one of the better games when it comes to graphics. (I mean really the graphics in this game are suprisingly good.) Your basically a blue-haired fellow having a fist fight with a green-haired fellow. You two pretty much try to push eachover to the edge of the street while you fight in front of a building. You keep on doing this for MANY matches however in each stage on its number is a multiple of 3 you get to knock him on a manhole. (Even though he always gets back up in a matter of a few seconds.) Then a cute girl with the same hair color throwes down some confetti you celebrate then you get back to the fighting until the ''Multiple of 3'' match and then so on.

Basically the obvious description for the gameplay is the ever-so obvious ''Rather, Rinse, Repeat'' of button-mashing. Like I've well said before this game lacks variety (I mean c'mon couldn't they at least give us a palette-swap of the opponent every now & then?) The only surprise you'll probably get is on how some fights your opponent will fight hard while in others he just stands there for the most part. The A.I is awfully uneven with this one. Sure most games of back then were never known for high variety (Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda being the only exceptions) but still this is pretty darn low. (Kind of a shame too, if its gameplay was a bit more on par with the rest of the other qualities of this game then it would've been a somewhat more memorable title.) What makes this NOT a bad little ''quick fix'' game you ask? Simple while the gameplay itself is absurdly simple, the control is surprisingly quite well. Collision detection is just fine, both punches and defense work well enough. In another words its another NES game with decent enough ''Quick Fix'' appeal.

Overall its just simply a decent little underrated title for the NES on which its graphics and music fit its design quite nicely. Oh sure there are MUCH better games out there for the NES (even when it comes to this genre), but when it comes to ''Bargain Basement'''' priced titles this is actually not bad at all. It's generally not hard to find and is usually only $1.99 so frankly its just simply a decent little addition to your NES game collection. Not much more, not much less....

+ Surprisingly good graphics for its time.
+ While the gameplay is incredibly simplistic its not incredibly terrible (at least the control is good)
+ Pretty good music that fits with the game
+ Its good ''Quick Fix'' material
+ Its at a VERY cheap price of $1.99
- The gameplay is INCREDIBLY simplistic
- The A.I of your opponent can awkwardly go from really dumb to really smart.
- There are much better games for this genre (even via NES.)
- The whole thing is INCREDIBLY dated as well.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/04, Updated 02/16/04