Cannon Dancer – Osman, originally released as Osman in arcades back in 1996 came around during the dying days of the arcade scene. Developed by Mitchell Corp, a developer not very popular in the West and best known for the Pang! series, they came hard with their take on Strider. You see, Cannon Dancer is so heavily inspired by Strider that many kids back in the day said it was a sequel to that game, although it is its own thing. That said, if you like Strider then you are going to love Cannon Dancer – Osman!
In the game you take on the role of very stylish merc named Kirin, on a mission across six stages filled to the brim with insane cyberpunk enemies. Cannon Dancer – Osman is the epitome of quarter muncher, and I never knew a single person that made it past the first stage without going through a roll of quarters first. And it’s no different in this Nintendo Switch port of the game that will ruin your day with the difficulty. Thankfully, a lot of quality-of-life improvements have been added to the game this time around. Well, I say this time, but this is actually the first time Cannon Dancer/Osman has seen a home port, something that blows my mind to think of.
The original arcade game is here in all its glory which is great for the masochists out there that love the pain of video game death. You also get the now standard CRT filters to get that perfect old-school look. You can also play in pixel-perfect mode for the purists out there making this release better than any of the emulation-based versions of the game. Now, we are calling this release Cannon Dancer – Osman because both the Japanese (Cannon Dancer) and Western release (Osman) is in this package. They are essentially the same game with some translated text the only thing I can see being different. Never really understood why Cannon Dancer was Changed to Osman as Cannon Dancer flows better, but what do I know.
Each version is split with each having the same number of modes to experience the original and updated release. The “Challenge” mode is the game as it was in the arcades and the “Standard” mode is the updated release that lets you use a number of enhancements like rewind, endless continues (so you can see the end of the game for once in your life), and the ability to give yourself a Double Jump which changes the entire feel of the game, in a good way. This is the best way to see the game and really learn the ropes as Cannon Dancer – Osman will not hold your hand. What’s great is that you’ll be learning how to play and can then jump into Challenge mode, and there is incentive to do this as the games feature Achievements in that mode to earn for bragging rights.
If you can beat Cannon Dancer – Osman in the challenge mode, then I’m pretty sure you’re a gaming god at this point. Control wise the game works well on the Nintendo Switch in portable mode for that arcade fix. It plays better docked so you can use a Pro Controller, although I enjoyed it best using an arcade joystick for the most authentic pro gamer experience. The game is only three buttons with a jump, attack, and special like most arcade titles. Movement is almost an exact copy of Strider, almost to the point I wonder if they got their hands of the original code or even poached a developer in order to make it work so dang close.
Jumping is fluid and you can climb on any surface just like in Strider but without using a hook. Kirin fights with his bare hands like a real badass. He uses a bunch of kicks and punches feeling like Bruce Lee with his speed. You can attack in all eight directions whether you’re standing or hanging from something. Kirin can also sprint, and this becomes a vital tool as you’ll be needing to outrun massive enemies and obstacles and jump across huge pits that come out of nowhere. He also slides identical to how Hiryu which leads me to go back to my feeling that they poached a developer because it’s so dang close.
Cannon Dancer – Osman is pure arcade fun, the kind that you don’t see much of today. It’s a gorgeous and brutally hard action game that gets a ton of quality-of-life improvements. This is a long overdue release that deserves to be played and not having to be forced to emulate it from some shady website that’ll probably give you a virus anyways. Support good publishers and developers who release their old stuff for those retro purists and those wanting something new in their life. The only downside to the package is the lack of “feelies” that a lot of these releases get.
Considering Cannon Dancer – Osman has never released before it would have been great to get art, behind the scenes stuff, paperwork about the machine and more, but this isn’t a dealbreaker as the gameplay stuff is the most important thing. If you want pure arcade fun inside a neo-cyberpunk adventure, then pick up Cannon Dancer – Osman right now and drive yourself crazy testing your gamer skills to the very limit.
This lesser known and often forgotten Arcade gem finally gets a home release with lots of quality-of-life improvements.
Final Score:
* A review code was provided by the publisher for this review*
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