Nekketsu Oyako

"A decent beat 'em up effort by TecnoSoft"

As the 32-bit era burst on the scene, an old fan favorite genre went by the wayside. At least for the most part it did.

One thing was certain: the ''beat 'em up'' genre was no longer a flooded class.

With Nekketsu Oyako, released in summer of '95, Tecno Soft attempted to bring back the good old days one more time. But is it a trip down memory lane we'd like to take? Or avoid like a dark stairway filled with beastly growls?

Before we take the plunge with gameplay, graphics and the rest, first let's look over the basics. This 2D brawler has a lot of trademark features that harkens back to classics like the Streets of Rage games. For example, when you fight enemies, their energy bar will pop up under yours. Also, along the journey will be food to consume and weapons to take advantage of.

The weapons include bombs, bazookas (only Rando can use the bazooka), rifles, machine guns, daggers, and my personal favorite: the sharp disc. It works like a boomerang and gives new meaning to the phrase, ''It slices! It dices!!''

Sometimes weapons will be lying down in the open. Other times you'll have to destroy barrels, crates, or colorful vending machines to unveil them.

There's a punch, jump, and ''super special move'' button. The super special move will automatically damage all onscreen enemies, even kill some of them, but it will also take away some of your own health.

You get three characters to choose from: Haggar-clone Rando, the all-around Tora, or the girl Rio.

The enemies and bosses in this game are OK. Some designs are decent; others are borderline laughable. There are 5 stages total. Loading times are good and slowdown only occurs in a few sections of the game. Nothing too bad though.

Graphics: 5.5
They resemble the Final Fight games more than they do Streets of Rage. It has a cartoony look, not a gritty one. Some of the animation is quite lackluster. This game just doesn't have trademark A-Class animation. In fact, not even B-class animation. Especially Rando's moves; the animation on them is quite awkward-looking at first. The throws are also lacking animation. However, attention to detail is very nice in some areas. Knocked down poles will break into segmented pieces. Statues broken will shatter apart and cars demolished will flip wildly in the air with tires flying every which way. The flames look pretty nice. More cool details -- on the second stage, you'll see some sort of fish swimming in the water beneath you, nice touch.
Overall, the graphics could be improved, but they're not a complete eye sore and the details are there. The backgrounds are your typical beat em up fare, though with some strange spices thrown in, like the battle on the roller coaster or the battle inside the whale's stomach.
All in all, the graphics just scream 16-bit. The Saturn's 2D graphic powerhorse was barely squeezed here. It probably didn't even break a sweat.

Sound/Music: 6
Sound is a mixed bag. Some great sound effects are present, like Rando's explosive and loud super special, but then you have areas where the game doesn't register any sound effects at all, which is very disappointing and uncalled for in a 32-bit game. (e.g. the sharp disc attack, I wish it made some sort of slicing sound as it juggles its victims. But no, there's just silence as it cuts through enemies, what a shame)
The music was fairly adequate. Maybe a little too relaxed sounding at times, but nonetheless there are some nice beats in the soundtrack. I noticed that when you pause the game and unpause it back, the soundtrack restarts.
Enemies have decent ''death cries.''
But nothing too spectacular here.

Control: 9
I do not have any major complaints. These type of games usually have simple controls anyhow. Only thing is the item/icon issue. Sometimes there are too many icons lying near one another and in the heat of battle, as I press attack with intention to whack the enemy, my character will bend down to pick up the item/icon and get nailed in the process. Too bad they didn't make use of the extra buttons on the Saturn controller. Perhaps this lies in the gameplay issue more than the controls, however.

Gameplay: 7
Nothing special. You've seen it before. The various weapons scattered about help keep the action somewhat fresh but it can get a little repetitive. On the higher difficulties, the CPU AI can be a pain.
The ability to juggle the enemies and also to hit them while they're lying down breathes some fresh air in. The boss fights were a little too easy. In the instruction manual there's quite a few combinations of moves possible for the 3 characters.
Is it a shallow game? Yes. Is it linear? Of course.
You pretty much should know what to expect coming in. People either like these games or don't. I fall in the former category and I think Nekketsu Oyako's gameplay is decent enough, but nothing really worth writing home about.

Replay Value: 6
Like many others in this genre, this is not a game I plan to play 10 hours every week. It's best in small doses. Although there's only 5 levels, the game is long, taking you about 50 minutes to beat. It's something you might pull out every now and then. Then again, you might not, after beating the game 4 or 5 times.

Fun Factor: 7
Sometimes it's just fun to beat up anything that moves. (Don't move!) What I enjoy most about this game is that it doesn't always take itself seriously. Nekketsu Oyako doesn't set out to be the genre defining game -- it's just a decent somewhat-fun addition to the class.

Bottom Line:

I feel that Nekketsu Oyako had a lot of potential. Some areas were filled in adequately while others left a small to large gap. Better graphics, better sound, and night time battles would have been great. Also I must say this game doesn't feel very impactful. The punches you deliver to enemies don't feel very crips or have that ''OOMPH!'' to that. That disappointed me.
But personally, seeing as these types of games are sparse on the Saturn, I'm not going to complain all that much. Nekketsu Oyako lived up to my expectations as a semi-competent 2D beat 'em up that doesn't do the genre disgrace. It's a notable Saturn game in my book since it's the Saturn's sole true Final Fight 2D fist-to-fist clone. If you're a fan of this old genre and find a copy for $20 or under, it's worth picking up.

Just don't expect too much.

Overall: 6.0

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/24/03, Updated 08/28/03