Panzer Bandit

"All you need to know about this awesome game aside from its' giant flying whale-ship...."

First released back in 1997, Panzer Bandit is probably the only straight, fast paced beat-'em-up oriented game ever to be developed by Fill-In-Cafe, which have since disappeared into thin air by late 2000. The publisher themselves, Banpresto, have been acquired by Bandai as of currently.

Now, you might question yourself why am I even write the review for this game after almost 12 years later since it release...., but truly in my opinion, this game is just simply to great to pass up and for me not to say anything about it after repeatedly playing the game countless time until today. I owe a great deal of fun to this game, and for it, I will try to make the best of my experiences why so.

About The Game;
As with many others beat-'em-up genre you would expect, the objective in this game is simple, to the point of self-explanatory.

First, story mode, You have 4 characters to choose from to go through 8 stages in total to brawl it out before completing the game. In addition to that, there is a versus mode, which allow you to duke it out one on one, two on two, or battle royal up to a total of 4 players or CPU controlled opponents.

That, however, is merely one piece of fun with the game. Right off bat, you can actually unlock an extra addition of another 8 characters (the bosses in this game as they appear in story mode).

Coupled with the original 4, there is actually a total of 12 playable characters available to choose from in both story and versus mode, automatically adds a lot of goodness reasons for replaying the game by solo or multi-players with your friends.

Controls;
The game control are relatively easy to get into and can be probably mastered after 3 to 5 days of getting used to it.

First thing you might notice upon playing is your health bar and super bar (shaped like a clock/compass). The health have 2 bars, yellow to red, and then red to black. Upon losing all you health, you are forced to use your extra lives available or end your game.

The super clock-shaped bar is essential gauge to do your special or super attack, you would need at least some of the bar to do special attack and a full bar to do a super attack. The gauge will become yellow-ish upon reaching the max gauge possible.

Going on with the button configs, generally, all characters in this game have X button as weak attack and Square button as strong attack as their main offense in the game.

Triangle button is a 2 directional attack in case you get pincered (although you should totally avoid this situation in any game like this in particular).

Circle button serves as a long range projectile attack that resembles fireball in Street Fighter series for most characters, it also have a homing element, which instantly target the ranged enemy in sight.

In addition, aside from the basic function of each button, each characters also have special attack that can be executed by pressing L2 and it variation (Down+L2 or Jump+L2), almost unique for all characters in this case.

R2 is basically your 'super', which is high damaging and buffer up version of Circle button, useful to use when you are on a pinch and clear many enemies in sight at once, also do a fair to bosses.

Last but not least, L1 and R1 button let you change trajectory, from the 'lower' screen to 'upper' screen, it saves you some breath while being pincered, but truthfully, there are chances that you might be attacked in the process, so it is not really useful as it sounds, jumping your way is far more effective, it gives you change to start up offense too rather than completely avoid the enemy for a while.

Story;
Ok, you might not care much about this part, or possibly will not even care less to understand what's going one since it is not needed to play the game at all. Regardless, here is the quick rundown of the story.

In the world of Panzer Bandit, world have since gone scrace with the reduction in energy that consistently used by human. For this, an organization called Arc (actually the name of the giant flying whale-ship) lead by the evil Prof. Farado seek to manipulate the the consumption of preserved energy (the little crystals you see throughout the game) and ultimately conquer the world with that in possession. For the course of the game, your heroes are required to take the preserved energy before "Arc" does in the first 4 stages, and ultimately, destroy whatever left of "Arc" in the last 4 stages

One thing you might want to know is the story of this game actually intended to be incomplete for the 'to be continued....' message actually come out after you beat the final boss of this game at normal difficulty or higher. However, as Fill-In-Cafe have since disappeared, there will probably be no more future Panzer Bandit game whatsoever. Chance of Banpresto actually doing anything with the title is slim as well.

Graphics;
For a 1997 released game, the graphic is quite awesome. A total pixelated 2D graphics in the actual game like many beat-'em-up genre. The details however, is a lot better since this is specifically designed for PSX compared to other same genre of games that are simply ported (Captain Commando and Nakketsu Oyako for example) or those that actually use 3D, but atrociously horrible by sight (Crow and Spawn for example).

Other than those primary 2D graphics used for the main portion of the game, you are presented with a beautiful anime styled opening along with a song, plus detailed characters' profile and portraits in-game.

Sounds;
The soundtracks and music are generally consisted of what you would expect of this game, a soundtrack for each stage, which surprisingly actually fit the theme when you are punching and beating the hell out of the pack of enemies in front of you. There's also a theme for bosses that would get your adrenaline going as it sounds to challenge you by inserting a 'dangerous' feel to the music.

The sound effects is top notch itself as it provides quite a good effect whenever you are hitting your enemies and cause explosion nearby, it actually differs as well when you hit a machine or human enemies. Along with that, the character also have voice acting whenever they do their attacks, throws, specials, getting hit, death, and whatnot. It fits completely despite the fast pace of the game.

Replay Value;
It goes without saying that the replay value lies in the high score and varieties when replaying in this kind of game, providing you could choose 3 difficulties and up to 12 characters, it might really keep you for a while playing this game over and over again. Even better If you have a friends to play with, since lots of the combination playstyle possible with each 2 of the 12 characters.

Casually beating the game might not be a big deal first time, but trying challenge yourself and beat hard mode with no continue will absolutely get you trigger on and adds the replay value to high nigh until you are able to beat the game singlehandedly.

Overall, I couldn't express my gratitude to this game more than I should have. The game still made me come back and playing it time to time even after more than 10 years since I played the game, it is just so good that I cannot ask for a better 2D beat-'em-up anymore. It is really a great pity the Fill-In-Cafe have been disbanded, otherwise we probably would have a sequel as promised in-game from this absolute goodness of a game.

If you, by any chance, can still come across this great game. I suggest strongly to give this game a run, as it would really be your best interest to experience this stunning beat-'em-up game like no other.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/09

Game Release: Panzer Bandit (JP, 08/07/97)