Brawl Brothers Game Sample - SNES/SFC
0Ahh... much better. Brawl Brothers is the second game in what is known in Japan as the "Rushing Beat Trilogy" (with "Rushing Beat", "Rushing Beat Ran: Fukusei Toshi", and "Rushing Beat Shura"), developed and published by Jaleco in 1993 (1992 in Japan). The game has an improved story, better graphics, a more consistent framerate, three new playable characters, a much better soundtrack, and new attacks. The game is also less buggy (though you can still scoop up downed enemies with combos and throws, just not as blatantly easily as in Rival Turf!) and more fun to play with labyrinthine levels and nice boss battles. As icing on the cake, Brawl Brothers has the honor of being one of the only dual-language games on the SNES, as you can do a code to play its Japanese counterpart, "Rushing Beat Ran: Fukusei Toshi", which has slight gameplay modifications, the original Japanese character names and story (where conversations are longer than they are in English). The Japanese version also doesn't have maze levels, so if you didn't like them in the US/EU versions, use the code and kiss them goodbye. BB/RBR is generally the best game in the series overall.
Jack and Oozie are back (now named Rick/Hack and Doug/Slash likely to distance itself from Rival Turf!) along with three new recruits, Lord J., Kazan, and Wendy Milan, and they're out to clean up an even greater criminal than before. A twisted thug named Dieter has amassed the most ruthless gang of thugs thanks to his collaboration with some the world's most devious scientists, who have created a way to clone armys of the most powerful fighters to do their bidding as well as construct machines and top notch weaponry. However, not simply satisfied with their warriors, they've kidnapped three of the five heroes as well (you can choose any two, but the rest have to be saved in the story), brainwashing them and using their fighting data to enhance their ruffians. So... we have a game that actually addresses all the look-a-like thugs in its story (well, the manual anyway)? Awesome!
The game has a variety of different levels which are all designed quite nicely. Most enemies are a bit smaller in scale than RT, but aren't too small to the point of being unappealing, and the game has more animations and nice stage elements like flashing lights, smooth running water, clouds scrolling, and other things. Some stages have foreground elements in addition to background elements as well and the game looks great, generally speaking, though there is minor sprite flickering. The music is more diverse than the original game and, more importantly, the quality is much better and more lively. The colors are also brighter than the original game as well (the game has a more cartoony vibe), and characters have nice character portraits reminiscent to other Jaleco games like Tuff E Nuff / Dead Dance. The one main peeve I have is that you can hit friends with weapons even when the option is turned off. Overall, this is a fun game that can be played with a friend and is one of the better SNES beat-em-ups in spite of its (small) flaws. Enjoy.