The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

There was really only one move you had to master: punch + jump. Translated to the video screen, your character would perform an elbow punch, easily knocking down any enemy, big or small, with weapon or without. There were plenty of other moves you could do: punches, uppercuts, high kicks, jump kicks, knee thrusts and shoulder throws, but mastering the elbow was how you won. Your character could also pick up an assorted array of weapons as they became available. Enemy characters would have knives, bats, whips, dynamite and the main boss character at the end of the game welded a machine gun. Tough odds for sure, but playing in two-player mode sure helped things out.

This is the first game I recall where female characters attacked and also took punishment. It was also quite shocking when I first saw the game when I was 11 or 12 years old, seeing a baseball bat being used as a weapon. Of course, there is no blood, no real nasty sound effects to portray the kind of damage your doing to a person's insides and such. But for a game made in the 1980s, it was something to see.

The game begins when a group of thugs take your girlfriend hostage. There is really no explanation as to why they do this, but you have to go rescue her. The game is one of the first where if you accidentally hit your friend while playing in two-player mode, you could do damage to them. There were a few times where I was so frustrated by my partner's ineptness, I would concentrate on pummeling him instead of the enemies on-screen. If the two of you are left at the end of the game, you fight to the death for the hand of the fair maiden. Yes, apparently she was sleeping with both of you and you didn't find out until she was captured.

This game suffers from slow-down when there are several characters on the screen, but aside from that it's a fun fighting game. It doesn't take a lot of time to finish if you keep continuing, but for a two-player co-operative action game, this game holds up and is lots of fun.

Other thoughts: This upcoming Senators four game road trip will determine if changes are coming. If they manage to blow all four games, trades or firings will happen. If they can come out with 3 or 4 wins, they'll probably stay the course. Either way, it's time for them to put up or shut up.