Slap Happy Rhythm Busters [PS1] - play as Marcantile
11This is a playthrough using Marcantile in the PS1 game Slap Happy Rhythm Busters. Read on for more information...
Marcantile is a hidden character in the game. He can be fought against in Arcade Mode as a regular CPU opponent, and is an unlockable playable character.
===== HOW TO UNLOCK MARCANTILE =====
Beat Arcade Mode 5 times.
===== ABOUT MARCANTILE =====
Marcantile is an evil 62-year old assassin from Russia who attacks his targets using his trained wolves. He has met and fought against Garia before, and has the goal of eliminating Vivian and Roxy... he could even be the pair's grandfather.
===== GAMEPLAY =====
Despite the character portrait image showing the old guy, in gameplay it's his wolf/wolves that you take control of which does the fighting for the most part. You can actually play as Marcantile though because he does step into the gameplay if his wolf's Guard Meter (which is very short) is broken. When playing as Marcantile, you can also switch back to the wolf.
The wolf is a fast and agile character who the advantages of not being able to be thrown by the opponent and being a very "low height" character. His Suvoborg special move (the one where he charges with the aura) is kind of similar to Jon Talbain's Upwards Beast Cannon from Darkstalkers 1.
Marcantile, when he steps into the fight, is a weak character who is only able to use basics by pointing his finger or hand. These basics are able to be chain combo'd, but they inflict very little damage. He can block though.
===== ADDITIONAL INFORMATION / TRIVIA =====
---- When Marcantile is in gameplay and is facing left, his pointing strikes are more like punches because his left hand is a clenched fist.
---- In the PS1 fighting game Vs. (also made by the same company Polygon Magic), there are some characters from it that has been brought over and resigned into SHRB. These characters are Ramos, Mia and Oreg/Oleg.
---- When you win a match, the announcer who says "Winner" sounds very much like the Tekken 1 announcer.
---- The main single-player mode is called Arcade Mode, despite there being no arcade version of the game.
---- The game only saw a Japanese release.
---- Despite being Japanese region-only, the entire game itself is in English.
===== ABOUT SHRB =====
Slap Happy Rhythm Busters is a PS1 fighting game where the character designs and game aesthetics are inspired by the hip music youth culture in Japan.
The in-fight character graphics consist of a cel-shaded style (I think) of polygons, which looks pretty good considering that this is the PS1 hardware. The backgrounds are 2D and have a very modern hip cartoon look.
The music of this game features compositions from various real-life DJs. The tunes are mixed, but most of them do gear towards an electric-techno-dance genre.
The gameplay is solid and is your typical old-school 2D affair. It features a flexible chain combo system which can be cancelled into specials or supers.
Perhaps the stand-out aspect of the gameplay is a universal super move called the Beat Rush - if this is activated (by hitting the opponent unblocked), you then get whisked into a rhythm-style game where you have to press the D-Pad or buttons in sync to the on-screen brackets which appear. It works like the arrows in DDR and PIU. The better you do, the more life depletion you'll dish out to the opponent after the session is over. On a deciding round, if you perform a Beat Rush (with the opponent having a depleted amount of life that can be defeated with a Beat Rush) and do well you'll then enter Fever mode, where it'll show a special finishing sequence for your character.