Mug Smasher (Arcade)

It's time for me to go back to my usual favorite: Fighting Action game or better known as Beat 'em Up game. So today's article is about Electronic Devices's Mug Smasher (1990). 

 

I say that's some fine wall graffiti. I mean look at those smooth end on every letter. I though the protagonists of this game are wild man that love to break every drinking cup that they see. Turns out 'mug' can be also translated as thug. So, yeah. It's another Beat 'em Up game about punching street ruffian, mainly in the face as mug can also be translated as someone's face. Kudos to Electronic Device for such brilliant title.      

The backstory begins with fat criminal mastermind who's certainly not resembling Kingpin from Marvel comic [Medium Sarcasm], talks alone about some police that's threat to his criminal activity and he has plan about that.    

 

As in every video game, the police who happen to be female, get kidnapped by the villain. I know that this supposed to happen in San Francisco, United States of America. But i don't think any American News will report temperature forecast in Celsius, as you can see in top corner of the newspaper. Or maybe the price for the newspaper is 30 cents? That sounds impossible too. The big news about a police being kidnapped supposed to net big bucks. No way, any American News can be generous by putting huge sale on their product like that. Things for sure is, the red head guy seems annoyed with this Mad Dog guy for abducting this particular police.

So that guy is Axel, an ex gangster and apparently fans of sunglasses or maybe he's hiding his iris that's in pink or other color that's considered embarrassing . Unlike Axel in Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle, his hair is red and mess jumble. So the police who's kidnapped is his sister?

 

Yes, she is. I'm bit shocked about it. In other game, the kidnapped lady most likely is protag's crush/girlfriend/fiancé but sister is quite uncommon. Not that i complain though. Also unlike in other game, the villain wants her dead! Oh, no!

 

And here's Miles, Axel's friend. He prefer wearing suspender dungarees so he can shows his well-built muscles off. Anyone who laugh at his fashion will meet bad fate. Maybe, Axel once did that and he got permanent black eye. That's the real reason why he wearing sunglasses. And that's Miles's nicest way to punish someone questioning his macho attire. So be very aware!     

 

So Mad Dog is the not-Kingpin man, huh. I'm relieved that he isn't Mad Dog from The Raid. I reckon i can take some fat boss of mafia/gangster rather than some badblood who's rumored to teach martial art to President's bodyguard squad.     

The instruction is very detail to the point of showing player how to pick items (by pressing attack button near them, of course). It is very friendly assuming the player is complete beginner, is what i try to say. As you can see here there's 3 buttons: One for attack, another for jumping, and last one for heavy attack. To unleash the special life-draining move, press jump button and heavy attack button at the same time. That's quite unusual. The character is fixed to each player: Axel is the 1st player and Miles is the end player. There's not much difference between those two except for heavy attacks and running attack.

 

As soon as i start the game, this map appears. It tells us route of our hero's quest, kind of similar to Final Fight. What? You expect me not to relate this game with the Capcom's pioneer of Beat Em Up, don't you? Well, the game clearly wants to follow its footstep so how can i not do that? But clearly, Electronic Device put some quite detail map of -i reckon- real San Francisco here unlike Capcom who just made some compressed map of fictional city. For example: there's Golden Gate Park and Presidio which is fortified military settlement in case you don't what it is.

 

There's Sheila still in her cop uniform, being gagged and tied to helicopter. Oh, the humanity! I hope she has high air-sick resistance.

 

Then here i go to chase after her. Of course, thugs here don't like the idea of me doing so. So i "persuade" them with my fist. Some enemies is chilling for a bit before fighting me like that guy in bottom right corner. I reckon his sitting posture is uncomfortable. But you do you, dude!  

Remember the ninja turtles able to punt water hydrant in their game? In here, i can lift it and throw it to that smug guy who think that my sunglass is funny.

 

How can you tell someplace is a real slum? By looking at the proof that everyone love to drink booze like that stabber and that poor guy that only serves as decoration. But for some reason i found Oscar Award that certainly not belong in here. It serves as score-up item. Bless it!     

There happen to be a wall in the way and our hero just beat the hell out of it as if it's only oversized tough biscuit. But it doesn't stop there, he then carry the remaining then throw it to nearest thug. Demoman_positivevocalization01.wav

 

Shortly after that, first boss appears. As his name suggests, he's bigger than the average thugs by not much. He does nothing spectacular, except some nice looking flying kick. Also his fashion is ordinary: sleeveless leather jacket, spiky bangle, jeans, mullet hairstyle, and jeans. Take that aside, i want you to focus on mug that almost like Axel. He's wearing white shirt and brown hair not the one who get backstabbed. That's definitely Axel. This similar-to-Axel enemies are quite often appears so your eye can be fooled if you're not careful enough.

After beating 1st stage, i recover my health by using this "test your strength" game. Weird but it's okay if you can tolerate button mashing.

At the start of 2nd stage, we see Sheila is transported on the back of forklift. It's nice touch that she's being transported at every start of stage proofing that our hero is competent to make such intense pursuit. By the way, i never sit in the back of forklift. Looks nice and cozy.

Yep, it's factory stage already. But if i remember correctly there's no conveyor belt or foundry pit like in other beat 'em up. But there's spikes that periodically pop-up on the floor. Unsafety standard. Check!

 

What factory is this? Bomb factory will be good guess as there's bloke who throws bomb at you and then run away just like molotov-throwing guys in Final Fight but he's only alone. You can also guess blunderbuss factory as i pick one and use it to blast every villains here including that bloke with balaclava. It's kind of strange to see someone in 100% terrorist get-up that doesn't wield any firearm and rely on either his fists or jumping kick. But, whatever. It's your lose, man. 

 

There's also boomerang for your combat instrument but it's not worthy as it doesn't travel far and bit cumbersome to return to your hand. The bloke with sledgehammer and gymnastic suit on right corner, quite reminds me of The Bad Brothers in Golden Axe. Not so gigantic in size but still packs a punch.

 

Look at that! It's the obligatory elevator section and mandatory karate guy/martial artist. But it's strange that there's rubbish bin in elevator. No, you can't deceive me there, factory worker/mechanic! Your innocence look can't avert my eyes on that bin behinds you.

They must be in really deep meditation and the front one seems very focused to not use handgun right in front of him. But soon i will interrupt his focus with this garbage bin. :P

Then i pick stool and use it to clobber everyone. Heavy_positivevocalization01.wav

 

The boss this time is Redman because he's man in red gi. You can tell that he's the master of all the karateka because of: 1) His size, he's the biggest of all 2) Correct sitting posture 3) Lush chest hair. He's more challenging than Bigman because he like to dash or jump around so he's harder to hit. But you can eventually beat him.

Oh God, why? I have to punch all these arcade cabinet to restore my health? It's taboo just below " Kick kitties really hard" on my list though i have (reluctantly) shot cats before. Because my hesitant, i can't destroy all arcade machine thus my health isn't fully restored.  

3rd stage start with the same elevator but this time it goes down. Nevermind about stool and (another) garbage bin that aren't supposed to be in elevator, look the martial artist guy on the left that refuse to be bound by lift's spatial boundary. He's the true anomaly in this screen!

 

After the lift, i go down to the street. This time i decide to be Miles the 2nd player. If you think that you can pull jumping kick by pressing jump button and pulling direction stick then pressing attack button like usual, then you will be disappointed. If you execute forward jumping that way, your character will only do mid-air rolling and you can't follow it up with kick like what you expected. That aerial acrobatics move only good to leap over gap like this and rolling barrels.   

 

As you can expect from San Francisco as port city, you can beat many seamen as you pleased. I mentioned about your inability to jumping kick and i didn't lie about it. Here is Miles running attack # 2, executed by pressing jump button while running (double wiggle and hold direction stick). While his running attack # 1 (which is executed by pressing attack button instead of jump button) is clothesline move similar to Combattribe.

 

This boss stage is fireman because he's pyromaniac with flamethrower, you see. So far this boss is the most annoying one. No, he's the most annoying boss in this entire game. He's equivalent of Captain Commando's Shtrom Jr./Shtrom/Druk, harassing you with projectile weapon and diving kick. It's not as simple as approach him then unleash combo on him, he can simply bails you by either diving kick or smacking with his weapon. Moreover unlike the harpooning bastards, fireman projectile can't be deflected with your fist. But the method to defeat him is almost the same: repeated running attack will dishes his health quite well. 

 

Defeating the fireman, grants me free ride on trolley car that hopefully go to where Sheila being taken.

 

But before continuing the pursuit, i have to mash button to push this villain car like Hercules will do to charging bull/boar/any beast.

Now Sheila is taken with cargo net. The villains are really inhumane toward their hostage but that's reasonable as -you know- someone who are evil.

 

Because this is a harbor, it goes without saying that i confront with seamen, again. Sailor with white uniform or dark blue ones, you name it. Here's flaw on Mug Smasher: you can't see lesser villain's health bar or not even their names, making smashing these mugs feels tiring or tedious. But that just minor flaw in my perspective.

 

The seamen are tough but you know what's their weakness? That's right! Sea storm. I can turn into tornado of fury and that's close enough. While doing tornado move, you can move anywhere before the duration expires just like Taz, the Tasmanian Devil himself.

 

The boss stage is another man: Hazyman. This is almost like Megaman series. Perhaps Mad Dog's brain has same wavelength with Dr. Wily's. Why this burly man named Hazyman while he can't conjure haze or whatsoever? Maybe our fight isn't memorable or shall i say "hazy" thus what his name. Yup. I go with that.

 

This time, the bonus stage is breaking every giant ice cubes in this freezing room so the villain can't make any snow cone anymore. I manage to break all of them unlike previous bonus stage with arcade machine.

 

Sheila is taken via car that is bit undersized in my opinion. Maybe it's clown's car. Anyway keep your hope up, lass! I'm coming to save you.

 

But you have to wait longer as i have been stumbled by drum that's thrown out by some criminal inside a box truck. As far as i know Hamburger is originated from Hamburg city in German, but that doesn't mean hamburgers don't use ham patty. Hence that mascot suggests. It's like Colonel Sanders but discovered pork hamburger instead of fried chicken. Also it's pig not some old man.

 

There's big gap on the streets. Thus i have to go down into this dry sewer that's infested by terrorists and some bald midgets who can be walking totem pole.

 

This boss stage is Hatman he like to throw his hat like Kung Lao of Mortal Kombat or Spike McFang if you will. Every stage boss has limited supply of goons to assist him. Therefore Hatman ramps up his reinforcement by having 2 Bad Brothers from the start and i die noticeably a lot here from previous bosses because of them. Aside of that, he's not so hard to beat even though he wears same fashion of Raiden the Thunder God himself.

Do you not feel tired doing cross-leg sitting like that? Here, have a seat (on your head)! :P

For some reason i barge into some Chinese restaurant. There's 3 guys on the background enjoying their drinks except the ones in center as he's worried about brawl that happens in front of him, fearing that he will get hit. And also he pays the bill of this drink meeting. Another my complaint: the mug throwing move is the same as stuff throwing move. I know asking for Mayor Haggar's like wrestling move is too much but more variety will be nice.

 

Turns out, i can also defy spatial boundary by passing this wall. I think this is down to design's flaw rather than emulation problem. Nonetheless, this game runs well.    

 

Handman is the boss in this stage. He called that because he like to hit you with palm strike move or fireball coming from his hand. You know what's more dangerous than energy fireball of martial/magic art? That's right! This Beretta M12 that i just found. It's one of best firearm in the game besides AK-47 or M16, with its fast fire rate. Proofing that Electronic Devices have great pride on their fellow countryman's product. The submachine gun is made in Italy, you see. Surely Handman can't stand so much against said firearm even though he previously got help from (other) 2 Bad Brothers.    

 

Next stage is just the usual boss rush. You have to re-fight the bosses that you defeated but thankfully there's no minions helping them at all. Just you wait, you smug bastard! Once i hit continue, i will beat the hell out of you, again!

The final boss uses gun. As expected from boss of arm dealers. What i don't expect is why none of his thugs wield any firearm like at all, even the terrorists? Unlike Mr. X from Streets of Rage, Mad Dog doesn't have ability to do sweeping shoots. He can only do single shoot action. Maybe he's more like Belger from Final Fight, but fat thus he's slower and much easier to deal with.

 

So police take necessary action after all, huh? Can't you act faster before these vigilantes crush the criminal syndicate all by themselves? As if you takes their credit there, officer. By the way, why Sheila is still being tied? She's your sister not stuffed turkey, Axel! At least, release her gag! 

 

Electronic Devices's Mug Smasher (1990) is decent Beat Em Up game albeit its crayon-like tone. The gameplay is good even though there's flaws that i have mentioned and occasion of loose hit detection. The difference between the heroes aren't so many but quite significant: Axel's running attack #1 is just shorter jumping attack, Axel can do handstand kick by pressing forward and heavy attack button, and Miles can do low spinning sweep kick by pressing down and heavy attack button that can attack both sides. There's lots of weapon that you can use to bash to or throw at. Not to mention guns that you can use to blast enemies from distance. Collecting score or healing items is bit tricky, as you can found them on barrels/rocks/hydrants/etc you throw at their landing spot and you can't break them on the spot with your fist or kick. There's also big box that you can destroy on the spot but it's quite rare and often contain enemy. The bosses are quite often hard to hit or take way too many damage but overall they're fine. But not that pyromaniac, mind you! The decoration and background aspect is pretty good. The music is quite noticeable and fit to brawly nuance.

I definitely can recommend you to play Mug Smasher (1990) more than SNK's Burning Fight. Although both game implement heavy attack button and single type of throw. Burning Fight is way more tedious, trust me! My last word: Don't treat your sister like giant package that keeps tied and such! That's just wrong.