Tonight I did something that I haven’t done since the early 90’s; sit down and spend almost an entire night playing an NES game.
Okay, so I’ve played many an NES game into the early hours of the morning over the years, but those have been with classic NES titles that came out long before most people reading this review were probably born. Never did I think I’d be sitting on the floor reliving the precious moments of playing a brand-new cartridge based game. I have to thank the team over at Mega Cat Studios for this, with the release of their NES title Creepy Brawlers.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the game comes in a pretty stunning translucent red NES case. The devil is in the details and Mega Cat Studios really went overboard with the design of the whole package. As the cartridge is translucent, you can see the PCB inside which is simply top notch is terms of fabrication. It even has the Mega Cat Studios logo on it for some added charm and professionalism. These folks seem to really care about what they are creating, and the whole Creepy Brawlers package shows this. You even get a textured box that only serves to show how much they put into this project.
But what about the game? Well, Creepy Brawlers is this neat mix of the original Punch-Out and monsters inspired from the classic Universal movie world. For me, this is fantastic as I’m a really big fan of both of those things. This is the game that Punch-Out 2 should have been, or rather, what Power Punch 2 ended up being; but that’s a really strangee story for another day. Booting up Creepy Brawlers you are treated to the games main title screen that gives players two options to choose from.
You can select from the Championship mode, or select the Training mode. The training mode is what you would expect, and you can select a fighter from the list to take on in a practice setting. What is different from most every single NES game, is the fact that Creepy Brawlers lets you run through a tutorial that helps explain the game for those new to Punch-Out, or video games in general. Most people will skip this, as the game comes with a printed color manual, but it’s nice to have there.
As for the gameplay, this is essentially Punch-Out is all its glory, only in a movie monster setting. And like Punch-Out, Creepy Brawlers tells it’s story though the interstitials between matches and rounds. These do a good job explaining what’s going on and they each play off of each monster in some funny ways. The boxing part of the game seems inspired directly from Punch-Out and it feels really natural jumping between the two.
Sure, Creepy Brawlers isn’t quite as tight as Punch-Out, but it isn’t too far off. You can dodge from side to side and duck down to avoid a punch. Your attacks are also similar with left and right body blows, as well as left and right head shots and the special you earn from dodging your opponents special. It’s not a complex system, but it’s a tried and tested one that is still fun in 2018 as it was when it first showed up all those years ago on the NES. The team at Mega Cat Studios seem to really know what works and as the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
The characters that you face are from all over the horror spectrum. You get the generic zombie that fills the role of Glass Joe, but from there things find their own creepy groove. The team could have easily copied the style of classic Punch-Out characters, but thankfully they mixed things up with all original designs and patterns. Each fighter you’ll take on gradually increases in difficulty and each feature some fun designs. The backgrounds are also all quite nice and fill out the negative space since there is no traditional ring to be seen.
Taking on the likes of Satan, a killer bride, a captured alien and so on really helps to keep things fun and fresh. Creepy Brawlers, like the game it’s inspired by, is all about finding enemy patterns and exploiting them. Every character has a tell and as the game progresses these will become harder and harder to spot. This is were I was thankful for the practice mode, because once you reach a character in the main game, you can run through them in the practice mode to work on your boxing game.
Creepy Brawlers is a solid experience, but it isn’t without a couple of issues. I’m not a huge fan of the label used on the cartridge as the template they used doesn’t quite for the space right, but I’ve seen others get one that fits perfect. Sure, this is more a nitpick on this individual cart, but you’ll really notice it is you plan on keeping the cart alongside your other NES games. As for the gameplay, I dislike the fact that you have to win a match by knockout to advance in the game.
I figured I just got beat by points a few times, as the game makes it seem like it goes to decision, but that does not seem to be the case. I went back to the first opponent and knocked him down two times (three times in a round and you get the KO) in each of the three rounds to see what would happen. I even did so without taking a punch just to make double sure the game wasn’t pulling something.
At the end of the three rounds the game went to decision and the zombie dude go the win. I suppose it’s not the worst thing in the world, and maybe I’m injecting too many modern boxing titles into what I want, but it still sort of annoys me. This isn’t a big deal early on, but in the later matches you are going to go right to the bell in many cases, especially when trying to practice the patterns of an opponent. Thank goodness there is a practice mode, but still.
Those small grips aside, Creepy Brawlers is a top-notch video game that is sure to please all the retro gamers out there. It even has a very basic achievement system built-in for those completionist’s out there. The game is highly recommended for retro fans and there’s absolutely nothing quite like the experience of popping in a new NES game into that big gray box.
Final Score:
4/5
Played on original Nintendo hardware with a copy provided for review
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