/vr/ - Retro Games

Rising Zan: Samurai Gunman is essentially the missing link between the clunky 3D beat-em ups of the 5th gen and the fast paced beat em ups of the sixth generation that started with devil may cry.

Speaking of devil may cry, this game came out two years before the first game, yet has an almost scary number of elements that feel like they were taken directly from that game (and later title godhand, made by many of the same people). A hero in red wielding a sword and a gun at the same time fights his way through a wacky and anachronistic wild west, interrupted by cut-scenes where people say silly stuff and minigames and set pieces where people do silly things.You have a powerup mode that makes your character very fast and changes the background music to his themesong, you have arbitrary ratings at the end of every stage to rate how "sexy" and "cool" you were (instead of stylish) and the character even has a tendency to yell LETS ROCK before kicking ass.

Speaking of the game itself, this is where the "missing link" moniker comes in. Put simply, while the controls make a valiant effort compared to how jank ps1 3D beat em ups were, they still have some issues. You move via tank controls because ps1 game, the lock on is pretty finnicky and the camera has a tendency to not cooperate. However besides that most of the elements that made devil may cry such a hit a few years later are there. You can freely combo between a variety of sword, gun and jumping moves, and while the game starts out pretty easy it ramps up the difficulty fast, with multiple playthroughs on a harder mode or to get a better ranking is encouraged.

While the combat is a little clunky, the game oozes a very specific kind of charm, best personified by the goddamn original theme song they made for the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCSfmVvHg8k