One of the first NES games ever released, this game is the first NES beat em up, and its a pretty good game.
You can punch with the A button, kick with the B button, and jump by pressing UP on the D-pad. Then, by holding DOWN on the D-pad, you can crouch, and do low punches and low kicks. The game has a very fast and adrenaline pumped pace, so this simple control scheme works very well, but the game can become a bit boring after a while.
Graphics --- 9/10
For the time, this game had fantastic graphics. the animations of the character are very smooth (again, for the time) and there are a lot of different enemies and bosses with good sprites.
Sound --- 7/10
The sound is also great for the time. The music can become quite repetitive, but the sound effects rock, and really make beating your opponents more satisfying. There are also digitized voices (the characters little punch and kick grunt/scream, and a booming laughter when you die) that are really ahead of their time, and were probably amazing to hear back in the day on a home console.
Controls --- 7/10
The controls haven't aged that well, as sometimes they can feel rather clunky (especially the jumping). But this game works best with this very simple control scheme, and once you get used to it, it definitely makes for some intense rounds.
Gameplay --- 8/10
This game is very fast paced and fun. Its pretty good for being one of the first ever beat em ups, yet alone on a home console. It is a very challenging game, so you wont just blow through the first level or two, it takes practice, memorization, and time to accumulate the skills to go further. Which is one of the great design choices. Another cool design choice, was that you weren't always running right, some levels went left, some went right, and all of them had you fighting both ways.
This game inspired many, many beat em ups after it (including the TMNT games for the Gameboy) and was a pretty revolutionary title when it was released. Even though it was a launch title, its still one of the great NES games, and even though the NES had some amazing games come out later on in its life span, this is still one of the gems that holds out well, even to this day, and is comparable with some of the NES best stuff. I would definitely recommend this game, to any gamer looking for a challenge, or to any gamer looking for a good start game, its a fantastic and simple starter game, and is a game every NES collector should have in their collection.
7/10
Great!