Last year, I made my first Halloween article about Openbor game Night Slashers X rebalanced made by BonusJZ. It feels wrong if I leave the original Data East’s Night Slasher (1993) unwritten.
That’s wonderful logo within starry night. The basic premise of Night Slashers is beat em up game where you beat up Halloween staple. Trick or beat them up! If you will. You like the sound of that? Anyway, here’s the story bit…
“It’s been three months since that fateful day come to pass…”
“The World, overrun, by monsters, mutants, and walking dead, has become all but unfit for human habitation.”
”Armies overrun, Survival supplies running low, the few remaining humans have almost run out of hope”
Essentially, this world has undergone whole-horror-creature apocalypse. Not just zombies mind you. Those guys at Walking Dead show have it way easier than these poor gits. But there’s a family living alone in the middle of forest. That just asking for big trouble in this very dire situation. Either, they’re conglomerate family that stubbornly refuse to live in commoner’s neighborhood, or the head of family is novel writer that need to live in isolation in order to spark some inspiration while writing. Either way, they’re stupid. Sure, you’re cut off from massive zombie outbreak because they live away from crowded residential zone but they’re also away from police station or hospital if emergency situation happens. Thankfully, Trio Night Slasher arrived to destroy all zombies that attack this family and manage to evacuate the family to nearby border post.
Now on to the cast of Night Slasher which is the usual trilogy of balanced, strong yet slow, and fast yet weak characters. Jake the American monster hunter is certainly the strong and slow character because he’s the biggest among 3 and armed with cybernetic arms that may or may not be inspired by Jax from Mortal Kombat series. Next is the balanced character: Christopher. With name contain “Christ” word besides Christian, Christopher must be religious person. His specialty is vampire hunter because he can work with garlic, I assume. Lastly there’s Hong Hua who I assume has the same line of job as Master Kau from Mr. Vampire movie, in which he’s expert at using the paper talisman and Kung Fu application to undead and any sort of supernatural being. My main is obviously Jake because I like strong character. Also who can say no to that charming smile.
For the sake of variety, I choose Japan version. This prologue dialogue for example has more line and it includes character’s portrait whereas in international version it’s just “Destroy enemies in hospital” narration. Let’s see what are they saying.
Jake: Are they creating zombies and androids(?) in this hospital?
Hong Hua: Then let’s get this settled.
Christopher: Let’s crush them so they don’t grow any more.
I see. There’s more plot exposition in Japan version. Hospital is supposed to be facility to heal people and not making zombies. Preposterous! We will get to this, for sure!
YES! I like this dynamic entrance like in Contra Hardcorps. Though I have to question why this hospital’s wall is so brittle and explosive. Is it made by Semtex or something? That can’t be okay within hospital’s safety standard.
Don’t punch zombie in groin unless you have cybernetic arm like Jake does! The control is pretty standard: joystick to move your Night Slasher around, first button to attack, second button to jump, and third button to activate screen-clearing bomb move that cost big chunk of your health when used. Pressing attack button consecutively on enemy will produce combo which is usual yet reliable way to deal damage. Pressing both attack and jump buttons will produce the usual desperation attack that drain your health a bit. Pressing attack after jump will make your Night Slasher does jumping kick.
You can hold attack button to charge which makes 2 blue lines appear above and below your night slasher. When they form into complete circle, you can release the attack button to activate charged attack, usually in form of powerful forward attack. Your night slasher can run by wiggle the joystick forward and you can follow it up with running attack. I prefer the charged attack over the running attack because it’s more powerful and has more attack duration.
Another special feature of this game is steel briefcase. I’m not kidding. Throwing a steel briefcase kills a zombie! After hitting someone, the briefcase reveals a pick-up item. Steel briefcase is really useful in this game! I know that there’s oil drum over there but much to my disappointment, I can’t pick it up and throw it to enemy. Shame on you, drum!
Then I encounter the mad doctor who’s rabidly cutting the zombie to pieces. Plus, he does that while standing on gurney. Wonderful display of balance and creativity, freak! If you think the doctor is good guy because he defeats a zombie. Well. You’re wrong! He’s the sub-boss that I must defeat before going forward. The reason why he cut the walking dead to pieces, I assume the zombie deemed to be defective product, doesn’t meet the doctor’s seal of quality because too weak or something. I know that hotdog lies on this hospital infested with zombies, isn’t healthy to eat but I have to because my health is quite low.
So, I beat the mad doctor up. Doing some pro wrestling throw while at it. So, there’s the usual sticky grab mechanism where you have to walk to your enemy to initiate a grab. Pressing attack button while grab initiate grabbed attack that you can do up to 3 times. Pressing attack button and holding joystick either left or right direction will activate a throw. Pretty standard throw mechanic.
The boss of this level is mad doctor’s masterpiece: the Frankenstein monster and I slam him multiple times for good. Funny thing is this slam is Jake’s grabbed attack, not the usual knee strike or gut punch. Medic_goodjob02.wav
Another special feature of this game is, you can make enemy nailed to the ground with the downward attack jump. While stuck on the ground you can give the enemy some thorough low kick. However, most of the enemies can and will fight you back. For instance, the Frankenstein monster will discharge electric through his body to electrocute you when you stomp on him.
I believe this cutscene only exist in Japanese version. Let’s see what they said.
Hong Hua: Vampire?
Christopher: Ah, the vampire lord who commands the nobles of the night, the enemy of my grandfather and my father!!
So, we get extra information from this cutscene. The vampire lord who taunts the night slashers, is the enemy of Christopher’s father and grandfather. So, vampire hunting is running through Christopher’s blood line much like Belmont from Castlevania. Instead using the -so called- vampire slayer whip, Christopher just beat the heck out of vampires. I like him better than any Belmont. Hot take, I know.
Next stage takes place in misty woods, on our way to Dracula’s castle. The first 2 enemies that I encounter is a lesser vampire and a bat that hides inside a barrel. They’re no match for Jake’s might. Your stupid strategy doesn’t do you any good, stupid bat!
Then this auto-scroller section where the night slasher chases the vampire on that carriage while werewolves assault you. This looks weird as you can see. Some portion of carriage is see-through. When Jake got knocked down, he isn’t stumbled away. He can get up without losing any momentum. Nitpicking, I know.
Jake manages to catch up with the carriage, only to fight demonic Geppetto and Pinocchio. The story repeat itself as the Pinocchio German suplex Jake, pretty much similar thing happens in Night Slasher X Rebalanced.
The Pinocchio is dead, now is your turn, bastard Geppetto! The thing with charged move, you can use it in various way. For example: if you let go the charge when grabbing, Jake will perform this spinning powerbomb. Some call it “Flipping Tiger Bomb”. As for me, I like to call it Brahma bomb, which is Mister Darun’s throw from Street Fighter EX.
Sometime you find this “Stinger” item which will empower any of your first attack after picking it up. Perhaps, it makes the first attack instant kills any enemies. Heavy_sf13_influx_big04.wav
I come across a graveyard and I stomp each and every zombie that come out from tombstone because clearly, they’re not Rest in Peace yet. One thing I learn from Dead Space 3 is: you don’t respect dead bodies. Stomp them to pieces for necessary security measure.
The boss in this stage is golem. Not exactly staple of eldritch horror. Oh, wait! I said that line before in Night Slasher X Rebalanced. My bad. Even though I said that, the golem can summon zombies to aid him in fight so I give him a pass in eldritch horror standard.
Jakes’ screen-clearing bomb move is he emit strong blue aura and then rocks floating around. The golem doesn’t like that move as he bleeding there. Wait, golem bleeds? He’s certainly not ordinary Golem that just made of stones. Sounds horror enough to me.
After killing the golem, I engage into the first bonus level: Whack-a-mole but I stomp zombies. Stomp-a-zombie, then. What makes me very confused is the audience. They’re clearly zombies too, what’s with the bleed, exposed arm bones, and one of them juggle her head! Apparently being zombie is boring so they let their brethren get stomped by night slasher for their amusement. Hopefully, night slasher will let them go away with their undead life intact. I also like to point out the hungry burger advertisement in the back. I certainly don’t want to eat that even though it’s claimed to be 100% fresh meat. By fresh meat, they mean raw uncooked meat. On top of that, there’s hand and eyeball as meat part. Yup. No, thank you very much!
So, here’s the waiting Dracula cutscene come from. Let’s see what he says...
“Hmm…I never thought a mere human would come this far”
Night slashers are clearly not mere human, drac. They beat up almost 50% of horror creature in Halloween catalogue. One of them even have cyborg arms. I can see why this cutscene is removed in international version. There’s too much blood in this cutscene. The dead damsel. Then there’s some bloodstain on the living sword. Also, I just notice that the candle has blood dripping on it. I feel bad for whoever cleaning this bloody mess. It must be tough job.
We start at the ground floor of Dracula’s castle. With high confident, I dare say that this suitcase is fireproof as it can kill fire elemental with one throw. Sniper_niceshot01.wav
There’s alternate version of screen-clearing bomb if you press the button after jumping. In Jake’s case: he throws gravity orb to the ground which makes all enemies in the screen pinned to the ground. I assume this deal less damage than the anti-gravity ripper but it makes enemies pinned to the ground thus vulnerable to boot the head. I thought the moveset only revolves around charging the attack button turns out there’s more to that including the jumping screen-clearing bomb move here. For giving this knowledge through the FAQS, I give a big credit to Goh_Billy. Pyro_thanks01.wav
HACKED BY GUILOTINNE! That’s my thought immediately as those dumbasses get hit by massive guillotine. That’s the effect of playing Deception III Dark Delusion. :P
Ah! Elevator section. A must have in proper Beat em up game besides oil drum. With the power of magic crystal, Christopher makes avalanche that freeze Dracula’s minions and they’re shattered to pieces.
Christopher also has the power of holy cross! Nevermind. The living armor can block that holy power easily.
If the holy cross is not effective against living armor, then the power of DDT will! Heavy_domination07.wav
After defeating the possessed armor, I encounter fat zombie who likes to elbow drop on me from super high jump. Also, the haunted painting of Napoleon III or something.
I hate these masked undead guys. They’re more annoying version of Hollywood or El Gado from Final Fight because they deal more damage and have more health. Jake’s charged attack is powerful sliding kick and it only hit one of them because the other one doing leaping blender move. At least, I don’t get hit either.
At last, we have fight with Dracula, in the battlement. That’s because the throne room is in the middle of thorough blood cleaning. That what you get from being ignorant to your room’s cleanliness. Obviously, vampire fighting in outdoor can be dangerous if the fight goes on until morning. Christopher’s charged throw is flipping neck breaker. It looks awesome and deserved to be in gif.
As his health getting low, Dracula summons his reliable minions: lesser vampire and bat. Still, they’re no match for Christopher.
Lucky for Dracula, Night Slasher manage to beat him to pulp before sunrise. Sunlight is less preferable than beaten up to death. Let’s what they talk about this time.
Jake: But even so, it’s going to take so much time to eliminate them one by one like this. We need to get rid of their roots quickly
Christopher: Well, there must be a source of their magical power somewhere.
Hong Hua: They’re in Mexico and Australia.
Christopher: ?
Jake: Hey, I understand.
Hong Hua: Oh, it’s easy. I can find out in no time using this magic spell.
Jake: Okay, let’s go to Mexico first.
Hong Hua: We can’t afford to linger.
So, we go to Mexico and beating the bunch of undead there like usual. Christopher’s jumping bomb move is: he summons storm that sweep enemies. The difference with the blizzard is enemies will get repositioned to random spot instead of frozen in place.
The one who responsible for the gate of evil world in Mexico are these Mexican dark priests. One of them do running slam on Christoper. Ouch!
After defeating the Mesoamerican dark priests. Christopher board a military plane to Australia and immediately get chopped by executioner. Christopher can’t take a break, can he?
The living armor is back. But this time it’s golden. As far as I know, gold is not harder than steel. No wonder, the golden armor is not tougher than the previous armor. Another way to implement the charged attack is by releasing the attack button after jumping which results in spinning dive attack as taught by Dhalsim, the yoga master. I usually prefer the screw attack over the standard charged attack because it’s amusing to see the night slasher imitates Dhalsim’s drill kick or drill headbutt. It looks dumb but it’s powerful attack.
The boss of this level is a mummy. He’s quite large chap. Christopher has another charged attack which is dashing knee strike that has higher hitbox. To activate it, you have to release the attack button while holding joystick in down direction. With that kind of input, you would though that will be for sliding attack but no. Sliding attack is done with charged attack at neutral state. If Goh_Billy didn’t tell me about it, I wouldn’t know about this charged knee strike.
Another suplex story that repeats itself. The mummy performs suplex on me like in Night Slasher X Rebalanced. My theory is: this Pharaoh come into monarchy once he beaten previous Pharaoh in honorable wrestling tournament that’s held monthly, thus explain why he’s skillful at pro wrestling. Maybe there’s secret Egyptian kingdom that put wrestling as part of their holy tradition or religion.
After defeating, the mummy. I go to next bonus stage which is bowling but with zombie as bowling pin and I throw another zombie at his friends. The control is very simple: mash attack button within limited time. Usually, I always win mashing minigame but this one is too hard for me. I think the time limit is too short for me to amass full power on the power meter.
But nevermind that, I want you to look at the advertisement in the back. “Come on, operation!” says the doctor that I murdered in first level. That doctor really obsessed with operation much like Medic from Team Fortress 2. Next ad is: Scream Ice Cream. Pretty good tongue twist there. This ice cream makes the commercial star screams obviously because the ice cream is made of human meat. I feel sorry for her but she’s super dense. Can’t you check what’s the ice cream made of first? Next ad is Murderer Chainsaw that’s may or may not be bootleg Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Now, we arrive what supposed to be a region in Australia. Please don’t mind the severed hands on the pilot’s control. They’re just decoration and not from zombie that we murdered so we can hijack this plane. That’s totally not the case.
The golem is back because he’s resurrected by Grim Reaper. Christopher can’t do anything with arm that the golem thrown because this case is not in any page of “Vampire hunt manual” book that his family taught him.
Then I fight haunted helicopter that constantly drop knife zombiemen. I assume this helicopter seeks revenge to that anonymous shootguy in Riot. Although not what it looks like, dodging the helicopter’s gun is pretty easy because there’s crosshair mark on the ground before the helicopter actually shoot the gun. You have to be careful that the gun makes explosive area of effect though. I get hit here because I was busy with the knife bastard and have little time to react to the gun. Hit the helicopter enough time with jump kick and you will eventually stand triumph over the haunted helicopter.
Hong Hua’s turn now. There’s another throw besides standard and charged. It’s done by holding down direction and press jump button which is rather unusual command for throw. Once again, if Goh_Billy didn’t tell me, I would not know this. I’m not sure if this throw deals more damage than the standard, but I know it looks interesting. Hong Hua juggle her opponent up in the air and then kick them hard forward.
Hong Hua’s charged throw is Frankensteiner. Finally, the zombieman can rest in peace because he’s dead with his head clamped between Hong Hua’s thighs.
Hong Hua also has 2 bomb moves. While standing on the ground, Hong Hua will summon the power of Phoenix to burn entire screen. When he does the bomb move while jumping, he summons thunder instead. I’m not sure what’s the difference between the bomb move except for the visual effect.
Another new thing that I learned from Goh_Billy is: there’s special move when your health is 10% or less which means you’re about to die. There’s no flashing in the health bar to indicate that, as far as I know. The only reliable way to know that my health is 10% is: my night slasher will do block instead of the bomb move. Blocking while your health is really low seems useful but you will die if you try to block attack from horde of enemies because the block is short and you’re open to attack from behind. The only use for the block that I can think of is: to block projectile one at a time, usually in boss fight.
Anyway, if you play as Hong Hua while her health is 10% or less, you can unleash a fireball. The input is holding attack button, do motion: down, down+forward, forward, then release the attack button. This special move is lots more useful if Hong Hua is not dying and the detection on the special command is more intuitive. Besides there’s fire orb right there which is projectile weapon so the fireball move seems less and less useful.
Dracula is back but so Christopher and also his powerful storm. I’m happy that I can take a screenshot at the exact moment where you can see the oil drum has Data East trademark on it. :)
The boss of this level is Grim Reaper the death itself. As you can see, he’s grabby with Christopher’s face. I can tell that his bony hand reeks death. Also bit of sulfur.
Then Death hugs Christopher. I think he’s needy. You don’t see this kind of interaction between Vampire Hunter and Grim Reaper in any Castlevania. My strategy for this boss fight is: jump kick him when he’s spinning and don’t get too close if you don’t want to get face grab or hug. The hug is not worth the risk, believe me.
Then Death got defeated by DDT move. To quote Jake Roberts regarding what’s DDT meant. He replied “The End”. It’s the end for the grim reaper, indeed.
Hong Hua: No matter who shows up, we’ll defeat them with everything we’ve got!
Well said, Hong Hua. If Mike “Metro City Mayor” Haggar (from Final Fight) can clean his city by beating up all bad guys, why it won’t work for the night slasher, huh? Keep fighting, night slashers!
The final boss is Cyborg Satan. Kind of similar to Cyberdemon from Doom but -you know- without rocket launcher. I was about to complain why the level takes place in our country’s neighbor, Australia which is more famous with dangerous fauna (especially Emu). Wouldn’t be our country Indonesia which is more famous with various horror creatures? But I don’t think we can house Cyborg Satan. We’re not good at high technology. So, I let that one slide.
On contrary from Night Slasher X Rebalanced, the Cyborg Satan actually easy in original version. All you need to do is give him space for him to walk to you then use charged attack to surprise him then repeat.
If you get too closed, the Cyborg Satan will repel you with his devil aura or he just slam you over and over again like this. Just stick to charged attack and you will be fine.
There’s another auto-scroll with flying Cyber Satan upper half after you defeat him the first time. He can stunlock you but he’s not that difficult to beat. After killing Cyber Satan for good, all of the zombies and zombiemen melt just in time before they can break the barbed wires. Remember there are 2 armed soldiers on intro? Where the heck they go? Do they just run away because they’re out of ammo leaving the poor family behind? How irresponsible of them. Soldier_jeers06.wav
With the crisis over, the trio separated on different way. On the left, Christopher goes back to business of hunting vampires as usual. On the center, Jake gets addicted to gambling in Las Vegas. Christopher and Hong Hua coincidentally in the same casino place as Jake. Later he asks to loan money to the duo only get rejected afterward. Then Jake states “I guess. I’m going back to monster hunting”. I reckon successfully hunt down Rathalos and Rathian, can afford 60 chips. Meanwhile Hong Hua’s summer vacation gets interrupted by her little sister that fail to do exorcism.
But before I end the article. I like to show you some more gif. First one is Christopher’s special move which is pretty similar to Captain America’s Final Justice. It’s Final Exorcism, if you will. It’s done with the same input as Hong Hua’s fireball. Speaking of Captain America, Data East made 2 Avengers games: the simple beat em up game that I wrote very long time ago and the fighting game called Galactic Storm or something. Should I review the fighting game? Anyway, I digress.
The last gif is where Jake makes bloody surfboard out of his enemy which predates what Dante can do in Devil May Cry 3 by decades! This is done with holding down direction and pressing both attack and jump buttons while grabbing. Ok we can warp this up now.
Data East’s Night Slasher (1993) is fun beat em up with Halloween staples. Werewolves, Zombies, vampires. You can beat them all up! If only there’s giant pumpkin head or headless horseman as enemy, the game becomes perfect. The gameplay is fun. You have various way to deal damage reliably besides the combo. Charged attack is powerful with adequate range. If I hold the charged attack for 5 seconds, the aura line become flashing blue and yellow which results in stronger charged attack but I fear I get stunned if I hold the attack button for 6 seconds. There are also tag moves and double throw but I need second player for that and there’s no way people around me wants to play old arcade game with me. There’s no health bar for enemies, but they’re not as damage sponge as in Night Slashers X rebalanced, luckily. In weaponry department, Night Slashers X rebalanced is better because it has guns, chainsaw, and you can even throw oil drum like proper beat em up game. Whereas in original game, you only get throwing weapon such as Chinese exorcist sword, knife, and even simple stone is explosive! But I like the idea of throwing suitcase that deal big damage. This game predates Mr. P from Brawl Stars by decades. I really love the various way of charged attack button as opposed to Streets of Rage 4 where it implements various way of health-draining move instead. I have to think 3 to 5 times to use any move that drain my health unless it deals great damage over large area like bomb moves in this game or the one in Nekketsu Oyako. Although, I can use usual desperation move without thinking much, to knock away surrounding enemies. The lack of food items is bothering me even though the Japanese version has bit more food item than overseas version. The sound effect is fairly great. If you like “splurch” sound of zombie being smashed, this game is meant for you. Then there’s funny voice line such as Frankenstein monster says “You, puny bard” at the start and Christopher says “You caught me off guard” everytime he gets up after being beaten down. The music is pretty good. My favorite is the one in first level.
Night Slasher (1993) is video game that you must play during Halloween. To me, nothing more fun than beating up horror creatures to celebrate Halloween. Surely you can’t do that to trick-or-treat kids. That will be crime and not righteous. Also the feeling is very NOT the same.
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