[04/09/05] Savage Reign

[Z-Neo]

Game: Savage Reign

System: Neo Geo / Arcade

Emulators: Kawaks, Nebula, Mame, or any other NeoGeo emulator

 

Released during the fighting game craze of the mid-90's, Savage Reign was often overlooked by the Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat fans of the world. Even SNK had bigger games in it's own stable, with it's own King of the Fighters and Fatal Fury series. Savage Reign takes much of what SNK had used in it's earlier fighters, and throws in a few new twists.

 

Each of the 10 selctable fighters uses a weapon of some sort. Not too many fighting games let you use a girl with a gymnastics ball as a weapon, so the characters themselves are as unique as some of the weaponry.

 

The graphics themselves are nice, though inferior to the likes of later SNK games. The characters are large and have good amounts of animation and color to them. The backgrounds, while lacking some detail, do have degrees of interactivity to them, such as being able to knock lanterns off onto your opponent in Chung's stage, or stalagtites falling to the ground in the cave stage. A zooming playfield, such as in Samurai Shodown and Art of Fighting, is also implemented into the mix, allowing more of the playfield to be seen.

 

The controls are relatively simple. A button punches, B kicks. Combonations of joystick movement with the A or B button will usually result in a special move of some kind. The C button is used for your weapons attacks, and when pressed with the B button, you are able to throw your weapon with most characters. The D button adds a new feature, allowing you to move your character betwen the upper and lower fighting planes, somewhat similar to the dual plane method employed in Fatal Fury. Be advised, however, that you are still susceptible to a jumping attack or a projectile attack even when on a different level than your opponent.

 

The sounds are average at best. The BG music seems muffled, and really doesn't get you in a mood to pummel your opponent. Some of the character voice effects, such as some of Mezu's or Gozu's, remind me of sounds from the Fist of the North Star anime. They too, sound muffled, and subpar when compared to sounds from other SNK works.

Hey, who you calling *chicken?*

 

Overall, this is one of the poorer SNK fighters made, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun. It's unique cast and features make it worth a try.

 

 

Control: 7

Gameplay: 7

Graphics: 7

Sound: 6

 

Overall: 6.75

 

Grade: D+

 

Overall I give it a thumbs down, but just barely

[Baseley09]

Always struck me as a little hard to play, where as the sequel is highly enjoyable.

[Diso]

There's a sequel to this game? Rushes off to check on klov.com

 

Btw good review there Z. Reviewing a game that doesn't get a lot of recognition

[Z-Neo]

Thanks Diso. Yeah, Kizuna Encounter is the sequel, I plan on doing it next. Matter of fact, I could spend some time with that now