Eight Man - Arcade Longplay (Neo Geo) [093]
1EIGHT MAN
RELEASE DATE : 7th June 1991
OVERALL : 49%
Eight Man is a side-scrolling beat 'em up arcade video game developed by Pallas and published internationally by SNK for both the Neo Geo MVS (arcade) and Neo Geo AES (home) platforms in 1991.[1] It is based on Kazumasa Hirai's 1963 manga and anime superhero of the same name, who is considered one of the earliest cyborg superhero characters from Japan. Staying true to its concept of a crime-fighting super-robot, players take the role of 8 Man and his robo-comrade 9 Man respectively in a fight against an invading evil robot army.
GAMEPLAY
Eight Man is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game where players control the cyborg superhero 8 Man (P1) and his former rival comrade 9 Man (P2), across ten stages that take place in a futuristic setting where a bio-computer system called Cyber is threatening mankind with his army of robots.[4] During gameplay, players can only move between left and right in the levels, while enemies are fought with either the A or C button (which activates the character's special attack), in addition of the B button that serves for jumping and pressing it when holding the joystick down, the characters perform a slide movement. The levels are broken into different phases and some of them involves the players chasing a vehicle, while enemies are coming out to attack. Power-ups are also scattered along the way to be collected that will enhance the player's attacks, as well as granting screen-clearing bombs that damages all enemies in sight. After reaching the end of a level, a boss must be fought in order to progress onto the next stage.
If a memory card is present, the player is allowed to save their progress and resume into the last stage the game saved at.[4]
REVIEW
The manual goes a little into the storyline, laying down a comic-book sort of storyline. Eight Man is the eight member of a crime fighting units who's secret robot identity is known only by the division chief. In times of crisis both he and his partner "Nine Man" (no joke) are sent out to save the day. You are trying to stop some kind of evil brain from stomping the city in its new giant robo-suit. The finale comes out of nowhere: you fight what appears to be Death on a freeway overpass. Neither the game, instruction or any of the support material I've seen or read explains this final battle. The ending is pretty lame.
The game itself? So-so. The big gimmick is the fast pace. There are quick scrolling running screens that will remind you of Sega's famous 'blast-processing' marketing ploy back in the early 90s. Other than that, its another run-of-the-mill beat'em up.
GRAPHICS:
The game keeps a nice comic book style for its cut-scenes, but the levels feel uninspired. There is a very odd neon color scheme to a few scenes, but the rest of the screen is usually gray or blue. I liked the attack animations of the characters, and the game frequently scales characters in and out without a hitch.
MUSIC/SFX: "Ape Man!"
No matter what arcade you were in, you'd always know if they had Eight
Man on their MVS. The game boasts one of the clearest intro voices of all time (although it was unclear as what he actually said).
Once this voice brought you to the machine, you noticed that the game had nothing to do with apes, but rather was a fast moving super-hero game. The in-game voices were sparse and completely unintelligible. The rest of the sound effects seemed to be a collection of generic Neo Geo sounds from other games. The super-hero themed music is forgettable.
PLAYABILITY:
Simple, no frills running and punching with special bomb-attacks thrown in for flash. There are power-ups that increase your attack capability and increase your bomb attacks quite substantially. The controls are responsive, but numerous cheap hits and the traditional, ludicrously unfair Neo Geo final boss keep it from scoring high. There are only four levels, and they are broke down into 2-6 short (sometimes ridiculously short) areas.
Unlike the speeds of games like Sonic the Hedgehog, the speeds in Eight Man are only window dressing and do not affect the gameplay. The game isn't terrible, but there's very little one-player replay and only moderate 2-player replay. Maybe the fans of the series will be able to get more out of it.
OVERALL:
So there you have it, a so-so game with an interesting history. If your into Neo Geo and into Anime, you may want to consider tracking down a copy of the VHS collections of the original series or DVD collections of the latter series (both are available on Amazon). Or you might want to just skip it and buy one of the King of Fighters series. It's up to you.
BREAKDOWN:
GRAPHICS: 48%
MUSIC/SFX: 49%
PLAYABLITY: 51%
OVERALL: 49%