Three Dirty Dwarves (Saturn) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
545A playthrough of SegaSoft's 1996 beat 'em up for the Sega Saturn, Three Dirty Dwarves.
Three Dirty Dwarves is one of those extremely unique, endlessly playable, and criminally-overlooked titles that Sega always has had a knack for producing. Like so many of their other forgotten games, though, Three Dirty Dwarves is still fondly remembered by the few that were lucky enough to experience it when it was new.
It's a 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up where you have three controllable characters all on-screen at once, and with a multitap, you can have three people controlling each of them simultaneously, which was (and still is) an incredibly cool and unusual feature. Playing with one or two players, you can use the shoulder buttons to switch between which you're controlling at any time.
The three dwarves all have their advantages in different situations - their speeds, power, and attacks (of which there are A TON) all differ quite a bit from one another, and you can even have them team up for moves that can clear a screen full of enemies. With so many options at hand, there's a lot of strategy to consider in how you approach the 15 different stages. The stages all have quite a bit of variety as well - sometimes your riding a wrecking ball (swinging into and out of the screen) to kill a dragon inside of a burning building, sometimes you're hurtling forward in a mine cart, or jumping across a busy freeway. Even the more traditional side-scrolling stages mix things up quite a bit with the challenges they present. I was a huge fan of the prison break stage, in particular.
Even though it's a beat em up, it feels completely different from games like Final Fight or Streets of Rage. There's a whole lot of personality and creativity going on here that you just don't get playing as someone in blue-jeans punching everyone in the head. And that really is one of the game's biggest strengths - it's memorable, no doubt about it. It's also fairly difficult, but I really enjoyed that about it. You have to think as you play: walking left-to-right button mashing is a pretty good way to get killed very early on.
The graphics and sound are top-notch. Granted, the visuals are a huge step down from the hi-res sprites of the Windows 95 version, and the music suffers a bit since it's not all streamed from the CD like it is on the PC, but there's still very little reason for complaint. Everything is well drawn and smoothly animated, and the sprites and backgrounds often look like they were ripped straight out of the Saturday morning cartoons. Of course, so do the FMV cutscenes - they're hilarious (I mean, you play as sporting goods toting killer dwarves summoned from another dimension by AD&D playing children) and they're really well done with their oddly low-budget charm. Another huge plus for the presentation is that there aren't any "filler" enemy types. It never feels like you are smashing an army of clones - Three Dirty Dwarves was clearly a labor of love, and it had a ton of effort put into it.
Three Dirty Dwarves is a top quality title that never got its due like so many other Saturn games. If you're a beat 'em up fan, slap yourself if you haven't played this yet. And then go play it.
Who would've ever thought the guys that did the PS1 Contra games had it in them to produce this?
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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