Tuff E Nuff (SNES) Playthrough
413A playthrough of Jaleco's 1993 versus-fighter for the Super Nintendo, Tuff E Nuff.
In this video I play through the story mode as Syoh on the hard difficulty level.
Tuff E Nuff (Dead Dance in Japan) was one of the fighters that appeared on the SNES in the wake of Street Fighter II's success, and it was one of the many that got buried in the glut.
That's not to say that it didn't make an effort to stand out: Jaleco sure knew how to draw your eye with their box art. Whomp 'Em, Avenging Spirit, Rival Turf, Irritating Stick - there's no shortage of material to make you cock an eyebrow when cruising the company's catalog, and Tuff E Nuff still somehow manages to stand out. Half of the cover is the face of some crazed ogre demon man who has those gross white gooey strings stretching between his lips, and the rest of it is covered in big block letters reading, "HEY PUNK! ARE YOU TUFF E NUFF? MASTER THE MOVES TO MASTER ME!" You can't tell what it's called by looking at the box, but it definitely grabs your attention.
With a story straight out of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, you pick one of four fighters to take on a fighting tournament being held in an post-apocalyptic wasteland. Syoh (wtf is with that romanization? It's pronounced Sho) and Zazi are the balanced Ryu and Ken clones of the roundup, complete with dragon punches and fireball attacks. Vortz is the wrestler with powerful grapple moves, and Kotono is a ninja that flings knives.
They all have a couple of special moves done with simple SF2-style inputs as well as the standard range of punches and kicks assigned to the controller's four face buttons. The game flows well, the moves are easy to pull off, and it feels professionally put together. Unfortunately, there's no combo system in place, and with only four characters to play as (more like three since Syou and Zazi are pretty much the same character), the game doesn't have any legs. It might last you an afternoon or two, but there's no depth to stretch it beyond that.
The instant replay feature is sorta neat, though, and the translation work is hilarious. I mean, the crazed flamboyant guy, Beans, is listed as fighting with an "American sack." I don't see a blackjack anywhere, so God only knows what they're referring to.
It doesn't help the game's case that a load of stuff was cut out of its English release. The "story" mode no longer contains a story, and the characters no longer have individual endings. Apparently it was too much effort for Jaleco to translate a few dozen sentences into English, and the result is a stripped down version of a game that was already a bit too light on content for its own good.
Tuff E Nuff sits about on the same level as Power Moves and Doomsday Warrior. It plays reasonably well and it's fun for a few hours, and while it's no Street Fighter II, Fighter's History, or even Fatal Fury, it's a big step up from games like Street Combat and Rise of the Robots.
So there you go. If you think you're Tuff E Nuff, why not give it a try?
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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