Growl (Arcade) Playthrough
0A playthrough of Taito's 1990 arcade beat 'em up, Growl.
Played on the machine's default settings.
Remember that time when Indiana Jones, world-reknowned adventurer and honorary member of The Planeteers, traipsed across Africa with a rocket launcher in the name of wildlife preservation? How he summoned armies of elephants to gib crowds of jazz bar hostesses and Depression-era ragamuffins? How he beat Jason Voorhees to death with his bare hands and saved the world from an alien invasion?
Me neither, but Taito certainly did.
Growl is a peak example of Taito's love for the absurd. It's a brawler that favors spectacle and bravado over depth and good taste, and it does a bang up job of distilling the essence of a big budget 80s action flick into an interactive twenty-minute thrill ride.
Playing as not-Indiana Jones or one of his three colorfully garbed clones, you blast your way through seven set-piece laden stages slaughtering the "group of evil poachers" who "recklessly hunted animals nearly to the point of extinction."
The action is gleefully chaotic. Groups of up to a eighteen enemies mill about the screen at a time, explosions send body parts flying in every direction, and the animals you save regularly come to your aid by tearing through the playfield. The fighting neither as smooth as Final Fight's nor as varied as Double Dragon's, but the sharp graphics and controls, the pace of the gameplay, and the variety of situations you find yourself in keep it exciting through the end. (I could've done without the platforming in that obnoxious lava cave stage, though.)
Growl was one of my favorite arcade games when I was kid. There was a pizza place we used to go to, Winner's Pizza at RAF West Ruislip in north London (anyone else remember that joint?), that had a cabinet, and everytime we went, I'd hound my dad for any spare change in his pockets to go play it. Fun times.
It was a really nice surprise, then, to discover that Growl is still as fun and as ridiculous as it I remember it being thirty years ago. If you've not played it and what you see here appeals to you, I'd highly recommend giving it a shot.
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