Ultraman

"You must defeat the evil aliens from other planets!"

Ultraman is a big thing in Japan, but if you ask around in America, hardly anybody has heard of him. He's like a lot like Godzilla (not looking) and he fights rubber monsters that destroy cities in the movies. So why would this game be released in america? I don't know, and it shouldn't have been.

In Ultraman you get to fight giant monsters with your equally giant guy. It's one on one fighting, winner take all. Consider it Street Fighter minus the fun. You can't just pound your opponent into a bloody pulp and expect to win matches. You can keep punching and kicking and throwing him, but he'll never die. After a while, his life bar starts flashing "finish". When it does, you have to hit him with an ultra fireball to kill him. You have a fireball meter that fills up with time, and you can use fireballs at any time, however, if it's not filled up all the way, it won't kill the guy, and it only kills him if he's flashing finish. This adds another element to the gameplay, but not necessarily a good one. You can get really frustrated if you miss with your ultra fireball, as you'll have to build it up all over again.

The graphics are nice, but they're not great. You can tell that you're Ultraman, and you can also tell that your opponent is really ugly. That's usually all that you need for a fighting game, and it suffices in this one. The sounds are ok, but they're not outstanding. You may be better off with mute on.

There is no two player mode, and that really hurts a fighting game. Also you can't be any character other than Ultraman, and you can't do anything except go through the levels, where you fight different monsters in the same order every time. The game isn't particularly challenging, but some of the bosses can be somewhat frustrating if you're not very good at the game.

Overall, a mediocre attempt at a game that never should have came to America. The control really lags, and the game just isn't any fun. But this is how all fighting games were until Street Fighter 2 came along.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 08/07/01