Joy Mecha Fight | 8-Bit Brawling - Blast Processing
34Fighting games were thin on the ground for the 8-bit generation of consoles. Those that did appear were often severely compromised ports or half-hearted attempts to cash in on the fever surrounding the genre. So how on earth did the Famicom end up with a fantastic, exclusive fighting game of its own?
NOTE: I often refer to the Nes throughout the video. Technically the game was only released on the Famicom as it never made it out of Japan, but the Nes was the western equivalent of the same console.
Joy Mecha Fight - Famicom Disk System (1993)
★ TABLE OF CONTENTS ★
• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:52 Title
• 1:06 Japan-only title
• 1:52 English translation
• 2:03 Visual style and progression
• 2:36 Controls and gameplay
• 3:09 Visuals
• 4:45 Story mode
• 5:22 Conclusion
Most people will look at Joy Mecha Fight and assume it is little more than an interesting anomaly. A 8-bit fighting game, developed by Nintendo, released in 1993? It's all very odd! Dig a little deeper, though, and you'll find a fully-featured fighter with tons of characters, a story mode and some of the most creative technical choices on the entire system.
The obvious quirk is how the game displays the various robot characters by using small sprites placed in relation to each other to represent each fighter's full body. It is not only a stylistic choice, but a technical one. By reducing the number of unique animation frames and replacing them with static sprite movement, it allowed the 8-bit hardware to pull of an incredibly smooth fighting engine on ancient hardware. It also just happens to look extremely unique as well!
The game itself is a lot of fun, particualrly when you unlock and play around with the wide variety of robot characters. There are various archetypes available here, each with moves that are easy to pull off with the Nes control scheme despite its limited button configuration.
All in all, this is a fighting game that is more than just a curiousity. It's a genuinely good time and something that fans of fighting games should seek out. Whilst it was a Japan-only release, there is an excellent English translation patch that is widely available online.
🔴 *** RECOMMENDED VIDEOS ***
🎥 Zetta, 'The Best NES Fighting Game (and it's spiritual successor) (Joy Mecha Fight/Uchu Mega Fight)': https://youtu.be/9PtyjNUUz_4
🎥 Designing For, 'Nintendo's BEST Fighting Game -- Peak Design': https://youtu.be/RxryBRYuGno
🔴 *** WEBSITE REFERENCES ***
🌐 Zoey Handley, 'Throw down in Nintendo’s own lost classic, Joy Mecha Fight': https://www.destructoid.com/throw-down-in-nintendos-own-lost-classic-joy-mecha-fight/
🔴 *** CHANNEL LINKS ***
✅ Twitter: https://twitter.com/blastprocshow
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🔴 *** ABOUT ME ***
My name is Nick Barkl. I’m an actor and video editor from Sydney, Australia. As well as video games, I love jazz music, bad movies and basketball.
🔴 *** ABOUT THE CHANNEL ***
Blast Processing is a Youtube channel about retro video games. It covers a range of topics, from reviews to prototypes to retrospectives and more. Blast Processing is generally a solo project – I write the scripts, record the voiceovers and edit the videos myself. Occasionally, I’ll rope a talented friend or two into helping me out too!
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