Creepy Brawlers (Retro)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Publisher: Mega Cat Studios
- Developer: Mega Cat Studios
- Genres: Fighting
Game Features:
Creeps and Brawls
Creepy Brawlers is, as its name suggests, a brawler with a creepy twist; this is in the form of your otherworldly opponents. Now, how does your character end up facing Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Thing With No Name? It’s just your luck a spectral hand pulled you from your theater seat and into the big screen while you were at the movies complaining out loud how lame the movie was! Now the underdog in an underworld championship, you must punch and dodge your way through timed battles against creepy opponents in typical horror movie settings. Be aware getting KO'd here not only means losing the round, but your soul as well.
Punch It Out!!
As over the top as Creepy Brawlers’ plot sounds, the game does a decent job at fleshing out the setting before and after each fight with some dialogues avec cheesy lines—and if you want to learn more of each character, you’ll have to open up the game manual in true NES fashion!
While the story is respectably put together for a fighting game, it’s the gameplay that interests me the most here. As you might have guessed from its looks, Creepy Brawlers takes a lot after Punch-Out!! which is obviously the game’s primary inspiration. The gameplay is mostly similar, with a back view of your gloved-up character whose actions revolve around punches, dodges and blocks. Similar to the game it's paying homage to, you need to vary your offensive style to avoid the AI predicting your moves and blocking your attacks.
Despite its obvious inspiration, Creepy Brawlers is enjoyable as a game on its own merits, particularly in its original cast and setting. I count eleven different horror movie monsters and four different arenas where you can brawl through in the Championship mode. Each opponent has their own original set of moves and winning will mostly rely on identifying their fighting patterns and visual cues to find where you can strike a powerful blow. Several fights will be fought more than once as they get progressively more challenging; however, if you battle against the same opponent right after losing a match, he or she will change fighting patterns, adding another degree of difficulty. You’ll have to go through the pattern-learning process once again until you master it.
To better tackle all of the horror movie monstrosities and help your character get out of the silver screen, the game has a Training mode where you can practice against every opponent singly. You can use it to hone your skills and get acquainted with the movesets of a particularly tough opponent. Alternatively, it’s a great option to play casually without the stress of progressing through the championship. The Training mode also saves your best time against each opponent should you want to best your personal record.
Authentic To The Board
Creepy Brawlers is an NES game through and through. It has been custom made to fit in an original NES cart, plays on the NES console and for all that, the game carried the accompanying hardware limitations; the graphics aren’t much to write home about and the environments feel poorly detailed, but there's something timeless about music score and its classic chiptune tones. these limitations do however add to the charm and authentic feel of a classic NES game.
A more contemporary addition to this title is the Achievement menu. There, you can check out trophies you’ve unlocked, or those still missing and how to unlock them for full bragging rights.
One glaring omission is the lack of a two player mode, something that would add to the fun and replayability of this title. A mode that would allow you to team up with a friend to take down the monsters or impersonate some iconic horror movie characters would have been a much welcomed addition to this game.
Try it! Buy it?
If you’re still on the fence with Creepy Brawlers, Mega Cat Studios even made a free demo available which you can download right here and check out for yourself.
If you’ve decided to buy the game, there are several options available:
- Just the cartridge: $44.99
- Complete with box and manual: $54.99
- Limited Edition: Custom Acrylic Cartridge: $100.00
The custom acrylic cart looks pretty slick!
The latter two options are mostly geared towards collectors while the first cartridge-only option are for those looking to try out the game only and can’t be bothered with the extra space allocation for the box.
I received a sample with the box and manual and would recommend going for that one as the cartridge, box and manual are very faithful to original NES games in both looks and feel. The custom acrylic cart does look slick but is quite pricey; for those with the funds, it seems a fine use of them!
Closing
I've enjoyed Creepy Brawlers for what it is: a commendable effort to develop a new game on an old console with as much authenticity as possible. I won't dismiss it as a Punch Out!! clone at this point as it was made by the devs mostly as a love letter to the iconic game rather than as a ripoff. Their effort to bring back the feelings of an era of gaming long-gone for nostalgic aging gamers, or introduce younger audiences to how games looked and played like in all authenticity can be appreciated.
Creepy Brawlers Trailer
Verdict
- Compatible with original NES console
- Cartridge faithful to original ones
- Challenging opponents
- Achievements
- Original and amusing plot
- No 2 player mode
- Pattern-learning can be off putting
Options
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