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Prime Time Fighter, known in Japan as "Top Ranking Stars", is a relatively obscure, and seemingly forgotten, arcade fighter that is kinda boxing...but really, just a sort of fighting game without (real) jumping. With Kyouji Shimamoto as the project leader/producer (also known as "George K-5 or Jyuttute), who seemed like one with a fairly short stint with Taito on a handful of projects, TRS is not a BAAAAD game, but it is very simplistic, in the grand scheme of things, perhaps even considering when it was made...it is visually appealing enough, and sounds good. The execution of things does, however, leave a bit to be desired. Hitboxes seem really random sometimes, especially, as it has been said by others, when you fight the "SNK Syndrome" final bosses. In other words, despite the wonky hit detection at times, the game is reasonably fun for most, up until the two bosses. Having said that, this game stuck out to me because it appears to be one of the better games Kyouji was involved in (Master of Weapon, another one, seems to get HAMMERED, but I haven't played it to really understand why, as of this typing). Also, you might be wondering why I played the Japanese version of the game...well, I had trouble getting the EU and such version to work, but as you can see, even the Japanese version is in FULL "ENGRISH", and I saw that PTF was exactly the same as far as the dialogue and such, so it made little difference to me.

The premise of the game is super, ULTRA simple --- You choose 6 fighters you essentially want to be champion of "the world unity open-weight boxing title match", who come from different parts/areas of the world. Shouichi Kanou comes from Japan (and is typically seen as the "main character". Michael Eldorado comes from the United States of America. Aldebaran Nipper, who hails from Canada. Bruce Hasimikov, from the USSR (as stated on the arcade game flyer). Storm Viper...who STRANGELY, is stated to be from an "unknown place", on the original game flyer, but is listed as being from Brazil, within the game itself. Lastly, Tamshing Vaortao, who comes from Thailand.The two boss characters, that I won't spoil, don't seem to be listed on the arcade flyer, so it isn't 100 percent certain where they come from...but one can look at them and make assumptions, I suppose, lol...

At any rate, you throw light/med/heavy punches to the face or stomach and try to whittle away either the "stamina" of your opponent, which comes in three portions (taking one away will knockout an opponent, where they have to tap rapidly and try to stand up again before the referee calls the match), or by reducing "life". Each round is timed and if your opponent hasn't lost all their "stamina" by the end of the round, the battle starts over and they get "healed". However, "life" will not heal like stamina does, even when the battle starts over, which means that if someone has low life remaining, you should focus on emptying it, which will ALSO win the match for you. That said, there is a bit of a neat degree of strategy here, as you can attempt to duck and hide if you are low on "life", to make it to the next battle with full life, and try to either take their three portions of life again, or continue attacking their stamina. Face blows (according to the flyer) take "life". Body blows damage "stamina".

Each character also has a special technique, that can be handy when spammed (Michael's is particularly nasty for a lot of people, because that lighting and that RANGE), but the controls can be a bit spotty at times, which can put a bit of a damper on plans to MASS SPAM. Nevertheless, beating the normal 6 fighters isn't such a big deal, with the exception of Michael (who I did manage to beat here). The bosses have off-the-charts parameters though, as you might expect, and their special moves are just ridiculous...especially the FINAL final boss. Each character has their own endings and I suppose if you master this game, there is something to gain from more than one playthrough, but as is, the game is about as short and straightforward as it appears. I do not think the game was ever ported, either.

You can read up more about the game on:

http://retrovania-vgjunk.blogspot.com/2014/03/prime-time-fighter-arcade.html

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