Night Slashers (Arcade) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Data East's 1993 horror-themed beat 'em up arcade game, Night Slashers.

Played through as Jake Hunter on the default difficulty level.

While it might not be terribly original, Night Slashers follows in the same footsteps as many Data East titles before it. It takes its cues from a highly-popular trending genre as it lifts gameplay mechanics and presentation elements wholesale from successful titles. It plasters in a bizarre and somewhat hokey story, and imbues the entire package with Data East's distinctively strange sense of personality. And somehow it all comes together to create something that's comfortably familiar, bat-s**t insane, and extremely compelling.

And lo, behold the might of Data East's genius.

Like Fighter's History, Vapor Trail, Heavy Barrel, and many others, Night Stalkers doesn't do much mechanically to separate itself from the crowd. But, it does easily match the competition's efforts, and it sells itself on just how memorable it is.

Night Slashers begins with an army of undead storming the city, and you take up the mantle of one of three hunters that have decided to take up arms against the horde. You get a huge array of moves - some of which remind me of Battletoads - that you'll use to turn anything that opposes you into a puddle of viscous goo and pulpy bits of flesh. And it's ridiculously violent: you can literally punch the heads off of the baddies. The sheer volume of gore on display is glorious. Cathartic, even.

It plays just like any of the Capcom or Sega beat 'em ups from the early 1990s, and it easily stands toe-to-toe with the classics featured in the recently released Capcom Beat' Em Up Bundle. You have a button for punching, for jumping, and for a special attack, and you get several types of throws, jumping attacks, and other combos to trash the undead with.

The graphics are excellent - the pixel art is highly detailed and the animation is fluid, and the quality of the soundtrack doesn't disappoint. The character designs are often unique and plenty varied throughout, and like I said before, it doesn't pull any punches in getting "visceral" with its content.

I think the reason why Night Slashers never got the same attention as its more commercially successful contemporaries is probably that the game never saw a home console port of any type. If they had managed a somewhat competent conversion to the SNES or the Genesis, far more people would still be talking about this one today.

I really like Night Slashers. It's horror stylings helped it carve a niche that few other games (save Splatterhouse 3, and to a lesser extent, Mutation Nation) ever attempted, and the end result is clear. Move over, Final Fight and Streets of Rage - Night Slashers wants its share of the spotlight. It's earned it.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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