It’s the grand time again, guys! The anniversary of this very blogger. I celebrate it with the number 1 best beat em up game made by Capcom: Battle Circuit (1997).
Look at this prologue! It’s so magnificent that I have to make gif out of it to show you the real charm. All those scrolling text. Full-action demonstration. Fast scrolling plot. Everything is so *chef’s kiss*. Despite my previous claim of this game being #1 Capcom’s beat em up game, I personally still prefer Warrior of Fate or Guardians/Denjin Makai II. Because the former has slower pace so I can understand the situation easier. Thus making WoF my comfort game. While the latter has extra button to fire projectile and various throw. The plot of this game is pretty simple yet engaging: In year 20XX, a big gang, bounty hunters, and an evil scientist are competing for the disk that could control the world. Remember when floppy disk is important in any story? The plot is certainly more complex than the legendary Final Fight where a mayor’s daughter is kidnapped by a gang so it’s up to the mayor himself and his companions to rescue his daughter. You take on the role of bounty hunters. Sure, they don’t do justice purely because righteousness and they do it for money but they’re still proper good protagonist. Here are the cast:
From left to right on top row: Cyber Blue, Alien Green, and Captain Silver. From left to right on bottom row: Yellow Iris, and Pink Ostrich. I have 2 mains here: Alien Green and Pink Ostrich. Former is alien plant with an eyeball on their base and a chameleon pet. Latter is an ostrich that’s renowned as the only ostrich that can fly in the world and she’s accompanied by Pola, the little girl. They’re strange fellow, I know. Anyway, the roster has various difference and specialty. More information on the roster will be explained later on character stats analysis section, as usual. For now, I choose Pink Ostrich who has role of “Sky Fighter”. It may refer to her moveset that mostly done in mid-air and also has ability to fly.
The first level start with cutscene where that skeleton shaped ship being bombarded by smaller ship. An orb coming from it into the skeleton ship. The orb is the bounty hunter you choose.
The control is typical. Joystick to move around. First button to attack and second button to jump. Pressing attack button consecutively will produce combo. Holding up or down during combo will produce throw as combo finisher instead of usual strong strike. Pressing both buttons will produce the usual desperation attack which is area attack around you at the cost of bit your health. In this first level, my job is to apprehend a criminal named Dr. Saturn, the guy with head like crater surface and with Saturn’s ring over there. First, he orders his lizardmen henchmen to get me but I easily defeat them. I notice that the crewman’s chair is a toilet! No excuse for those lizardmen to go to bathroom. If they want to do their toilet business, they will do it right away in their position without leaving their job. It’s time efficient but also disgusting.
One of new thing in this game compared to other Capcom’s beat em up game is Battle Download (BDL). Each bounty hunters can give players (including themselves) a unique temporary boost. That’s BDL. You can see how many BDL you have on the semi-circle thing on the left of the bounty hunter’s portrait. Each lit segment represents 1 BDL unit. To use the BDL: you do the desperation move but after you jump.
It doesn’t take long time to subdue Dr. Saturn. He’s quite push over. Soldier_DominationMedic07.wav
We bring Dr. Saturn to our boss here who look like from Colonel Sander’s lineage. His name is Harry. I think Dr. Saturn need to be handcuffed there. Anyway, money! It worth 50 coins, to be exact. Engineer_mvm_collect_credits03.wav.
You use your money that you earn, to buy stuffs in this shop screen. They’re usually special move like projectile or powerful attack. Also, maximum health increase and extra life. I won’t recommend you to buy extra life because it’s quite pointless and also expensive. If you want more life reserve, just credit fed the game. Easy!
My next target is criminal no. 5783, known as Johnny head of Delete Gang. He hides in this disko. Apparently, Capcom don’t like disco as they accuse disco as den of evil. I mean those muscular Teletubbies look evil to me.
How do you amass many coins? There are various ways to do that. There’s using “money maker” item (which is item that can instantly kill lesser enemies and turn them in coins. But it doesn’t kill boss enemy though still give you some coins) at the right time. Then there’s kill every enemy. Some of enemies will retreat instead of fight to the finish like brave mook. Most importantly, you must know the special move that can produce coin on each hit. I like to call this special move “Mug” as in the stealing attack in some Final Fantasy. Each bounty hunter has their own mug moves. I think some of the mug moves must be purchased for the price of 50 coins. That’s the reason Harry give you 50 coins straight away after finishing level 1.
In Pink Ostrich’s case, her mug move is this claw kicks. I like to call it “aerial chicken clawing” because it’s very similar to chicken digging the ground to search for worms. Except Pink does that to search money inside her enemy’s body. So how to do this mug move? Firstly, It’s kind of cruel for Capcom to hide the command input for Pink’s essential move: the flying or the game called it “levitation”. I had to search the internet for it. So, to fly: I press jump button and move joystick up after jumping. If I press jump after jumping, Pink does double jump and it’s different from flying. Once Pink is flying, pressing attack button will make her dive. If the dive connects to enemy, she begins to claw them and you have to keep tapping the attack button to make her keep clawing the unfortunate git.
Sometime there’s this yellow cute UFO flying in the air. Kick this cute git because he’s flying item dispenser and you will get food item if you manage to hit him.
So, Johnny is Elvis’ evil impersonator. He is camouflaged well in disco, naturally. He wants to distract you from lack of “h” letter on his name on health bar with his overly long robe.
If you think Pola the little girl doesn’t help in the fight, this screenshot proves otherwise. For the anti-air move, Pink jumps high diagonally and pecks Johnny. Pola follows the attack with club beating as I press attack button repeatedly. It’s a good form of teamwork.
Most enemies are defenseless against flying Pink Ostrich. However, some bosses can break free in the middle of the aerial chicken clawing like Johnny here for instance. So, I’m forced to rely more on the normal combo.
As I defeat Johnny, he turns into fat small guy far from the image of his previous form. However, the bigger surprise is Dr. Saturn break into the disco and take the disk that Johnny dropped. I told Harry to put handcuff on Dr. Saturn, didn’t I?
Before we chase Dr. Saturn, I purchase the sky capture move. The aerial chicken clawing deals good damage however as I have mentioned before that some bosses can break free from it. Plus, it can make my hand tired, mashing the button for maximum clawing. So, I buy this anti-ground grab. It deals considerable damage.
Level 3 gets considerably more difficult because from this point forward, the game deploys gun-toting robots. Lots of them. Gun-wielding enemies usually make any beat em up game less fun and this case is no exception. Especially these gunbots always fast on their trigger and they fire fast bullets too. Even if you manage to close in on them, they can swiftly hack you with their blade. So be careful!
I manage to catch up on Dr. Saturn. This time, he’s in his combat car which makes him more formidable opponent. Because I can chicken claw multiple enemies at once like here, I suggest using this move in non-boss section instead when fighting level boss. It’s more profitable and less interruption.
I defeat Dr. Saturn for second time however Barbara and her gang of topless biker interrupt me. As Pink gets distracted by them, Dr. Saturn runs away.
But we manage to steal hover vehicle from those gunboats. Don’t worry! They’re criminal. They can’t report us for vehicle theft to nearby police station. Besides we only steal 1 vehicle from them. Once again, Pola is proven useful because she’s the only one with opposable thumbs to drive the vehicle.
Apparently, the vehicle has gun that I can use to shoot Dr. Saturn vehicle’s backside. Wonderful! There are 2 objectives in this bonus stage: 1) Collecting coins that lay around in the road. 2) Shooting Dr. Saturn. Objective #2 makes him drop coins and snow cone. However, Dr. Saturn mostly drive not in the same line as the coins whereabout and he will escape within fixed time whether you manage to wreck his vehicle or not. Besides, at the end of the bonus level you will be judged based on how many coins you can get, excluding from Dr. Saturn. So, you can’t do both objectives. Nonetheless, I prefer to shoot Dr. Saturn to finish because he’s one of the main bad guys.
The road also has floating mines that you have to avoid either by jumping over them or using ramp. Getting hit by them doesn’t hurt you but it does hurt your pocket as some of the coins will drop because of the mine’s explosion. What a weird effect of mine.
I got pushed by those biker girls into this beach where I fight Barbara herself. She’s huge lady boss that predates Alcina Dimitrescu by decades. How original of you, Resident Evil Village! Anyway, Barbara like to summon these jellyfishes around her to make you having hard time to close in on her. Don’t be fooled by these cheerful-looking git! They can produce thunder strike. If you can get past them and close in on Barbara, she can order them to gather on her spot and explode themselves. In this situation, Pink’s flying ability is useful. Barbara can escape the aerial chicken clawing but Pink can grab and slam her with the newly bought move.
The biker gang also help Barbara. But they either become impromptu projectile against her or become target when I throw her.
I have enough coins to buy this weird Sonic-ish move. Wouldn’t Pola get crushed between Pink Ostrich and ground if she rolls around like that?
We return to the office. Harry gives us the plot exposition. Basically, he explains that the disk that Dr. Saturn stole, is the key to conquer the world and we must get that disk. I like the funny word “Tlebattle” and “Cuicircuit” in the background.
So, off we go to Dr. Saturn’s lab. It’s somewhere nearby. Believe me. This cliff section reminds me of that bad Aliens Vs Predator snes game. Kind of sore note to me.
At the most top of cliff section, you encounter sub-boss: bigger robot. He can diskharge unibeam along the ground so watch out for that. Being “Sky Fighter”, Pink Ostrich has some anti-air ability. First, the diagonal rising attack. Second, the air throw that currently shown here. It’s hard to take perfect screenshot of the air throw because: 1) Not many enemies are in mid-air. This bulky robot is one of the enemies that like to fly, so he’s perfect target for the air throw. 2) Pretty often that Pink and her target is far on the top of the screen.
We found the lab behind the waterfall from previous spot. It’s guarded by flamethrower turrets. Unlike those turrets in Alien vs Predator, this one has short range attack so I can defeat them safely with the burning arrow. I think Pola learns the move from Huang Zhong in Warriors of Fate. Nice feather hairband, by the way.
Floating mines also part of Dr. Saturn lab’s security. However, you can destroy them harmlessly. Look at that Pink’s expression! She really like to kick the mine.
Because this is Capcom’s beat em up game, there are dozens of oil drums naturally. Standing one. Rolling one. You name it.
In this section, there’s lizardman factory. You should destroy this specific part otherwise lizardmen keep spawning and soon overwhelm you. They’re the lowest grunt but when there are too many of them you will have hard time dealing with them.
We meet with Dr. Saturn. But this time, he uses his creation to deal with us. The only reason I make this part into animated gif is: so, you can see his slime assistant pumps Dr. Saturn up after being flattened by his very own creation.
Octopus Mark 2 doesn’t break free from aerial chicken clawing. However, he launches missile upward that definitely can hit flying Pink. She smells like fried chicken from here.
This Octopus robot can do lots of things. Ramming charge. Shoot laser around him. Shoot missile forward or upward. Even throwing punch left and right. Eventually I defeat him! Heavy_mvm_mighty_robot02.wav
When we’re about to confront Dr. Saturn. This short guy riding 2-headed giant snail breaks in and spray us with slug’s oil(?). He took the disk and capture us. Heavy_negativevocalization03.wav
However, we’re still allowed to shop. Medic_mvm_encourage_upgrade02.wav
We’re put into this room with deadly giant spiked wheel. Luckily, the glass wall has some cracks on it, meaning it’s destroyable wall like in Duke Nukem 3D. The reason why there are some crack on the glass wall probably previous prisoners attempt to break the glass wall but they’re not strong enough and thus they die in vain, grinded by the horrible spiked wheel. But I won’t let their sacrifice for nothing. I will finish what they start by destroying this wall fast. By the way, I just purchased new anti-air move that remove the previous ones. Personally, I like the jumping peck & club move than this spinning attack that like Pink’s desperation attack but travel diagonally and doesn’t cost any health.
Apparently, I’m in Delete gang’s prison camp. Not only me who’s being held here but also Dr. Saturn. As crazy as it is, I will free him from that wooden prison.
My prize for rescuing Dr. Saturn is this funny cutscene. And also, free health upgrade, left by Dr. Saturn. Engineer_mvm_loot_godlike02.wav
Suddenly, I’m attacked by fat man sitting on throne snake named Dave and his men. Dave’s moveset is bizarre. His throne can shoot dragon shaped beam. He can shoot explosive projectile with slingshot. He can run over you when his throne’s leg turns into wheel. His throne can also fly. When I said his moveset is bizarre, I really mean it.
Next, we move on to treehouse with banana tree in the center. You should beat it senselessly because it gives you lots of banana when you do that. Using BDL makes all bounty hunters glow specific color and obtain special boost. In Pink’s case, her BDL is Death Blow which gives her and her friend a critical strike buff. When under that buff, bounty hunters have chance to kill lesser enemies with their attack. I think Pink’s BDL is the weakest one because the buff duration is short and the effect is not so helpful because it doesn’t work on boss. Maybe the critical strike buff can deal double damage on bosses but I can’t confirm that.
We encounter the boss of this level. It’s Doc & Jennifer. I assume the human with explorer fashion is Doc, because he looks professor-ish. Then Jeniffer is the mandrill. The boss can do lots of thing: sliding, body press, throwing various thing ranged from rock to bomb, and quick punch. They can also make duplicate to trick you. The real one is the one with red shadow on the ground. The more player, the more duplicate they create. Minimum amount of duplicate: 1.
It's quite busy fight but eventually the boss is down. I don’t see Doc around. He’s probably crushed beneath knocked-out Jennifer. Poor git. Mysteriously, a warp portal appears which leads us to the disk stealer whereabouts…
...which is Fujiyama City, the home base of Delete Gang. That biker girl looks having hard time hitting the asphalt. She should wear proper gear when riding the bike. At least wear helmet, you dolt! I just notice that the biker girl wield gun that looks like Franchi SPAS-12. However, it fires repeated bullets like machine gun instead of shotgun like how Franchi SPAS-12 is. Big mistake there, Capcom.
However, the real threat doesn’t come from the biker girls. It comes from the sudden rolling oil drums! Once again, Capcom reminds me that this game is genuine beat em up game.
At the end of the road, I encounter these trio bikers who are tougher than their ordinary counterpart. Chris wears green jacket, Betsy wears red jacket. Lastly, Cathy wears blue jacket. Except for their bike and jacket color, they’re not different from one another.
Once again, we’re pushed by the biker gang. This time, we’re end up in boats. Fortunately, we find the disk stealer but he manages to escape. Suddenly this so-called cyber samurai gets in our way. That robot’s hand design reminds me of Armored Warrior or Cyberbots. Very distinguishable mecha design by Capcom. However, I hate fighting this robot rode by twin because they like to block my attack a lot with umbrella and immediately counter attack me. Good thing, I have the sky capture move. They’re pretty susceptible by the diving grab.
Should you need health refill in this sub-boss fight, feel free to eat that fried ox on the back. You can even eat his skeleton. I'm sure those Yakuza and Geisha don't mind eat that fried ox.
Finally, we catch up with the disk thief. Strangely, he doesn’t have much health. Only a layer of health bar. Oh, he has 2nd phase. No wonder.
Now he’s in full power and also his stead is fully grown. I think Mr. Zipang here is the most tedious boss fight. He like to block your attack a lot. He swiftly breaks from your grab. Then there’s this move where he twirls his lance around. He’s completely invulnerable when doing this.
I try hit him from behind but his weird giant snail quickly pukes the oil snail at me. Their master also gets hit by the oil. Taste your own medicine, jerk! Heavy_revenge03.wav
In the end I can defeat him with the Sky Capture move over and over again. I even finish the boss fight with Rank B. The diving grab move is so damn useful. Anyway, he no longer has the disk. But he lets out so many information regarding the disk whereabout. Scout_thanks02.wav
So now we’re in Neo Andes Mountain where Shiva system and the disk supposed to be. Barbara is back and she brought her colleagues to fight. By her colleagues, I mean her friends with same exact body but different uniform and hair color. I think they’re triplet.
Unlike the trio biker gal. This league of big ladies has significant different. Barbara, the original who wear red uniform, can shoot energy blast from her hand. Sandra, the one who wear yellow uniform, can do Chun Li’s Spinning Bird kick either horizontally or vertically. Asura, the one who wear black unicorn, can summon lightning strike around her. I also want to show you how cheerful Pola being able to lift Sandra up. There’s grab specifically for downed enemies but not many of them can be lifted up like this. Moreover, enemies are fast to get up so the opportunity to lift them while downed is very small unlike another Capcom Beat em up Game: The Punisher.
We found an underground passage that leads to Shiva System. However, Dr. Saturn is tailing us and we have to fight him along with the Octopus Mark III! You don’t have to defeat Dr. Saturn and his creation tag team. Just focus on Dr. Saturn. Once he’s defeated Octopus Mark III destroyed for some reason. Dr. Saturn has new ability! He can summon his minibots. These clockwork robots are suicide bomber so watch out for them!
Now we’re moving on to these weird platforms: decorative plate that’s moved by mechanical aardvark. At this point, you should know that the setting for this game is super bizarre. Pola manages to lift her opponent again. I think she’s ready for Fighting Master as new cast. However, she still needs Pink Ostrich for strong footing, you know
Eventually, we encounter Pluto the big boss of Delete Gang. He’s portly chap with unproportionally big hand and weird weapon that I can best describe as pneumatic drill with snake head on top of it. Hey! That’s my buff ability, you cheater! Soldier_sf13_magic_reac03.wav
Now that’s Cyber Blue’s BDL ability. So, yeah. Pluto can use any of bounty hunter BDL ability. Even the Alien Green’s one which is heal! So, there’s a chance that the boss fight will drag unnecessary long. As for his moveset. His weird snake weapon can shoot fireballs and bite you. He can butt stomp and small meteors fall from above. He can do spinning kick with his weapon as rotating mast. He also can teleport uppercut like Sektor from Mortal Kombat 3! I guess I was lucky to pick Pink Ostrich for this occasion because Death Blow buff doesn’t do much against us. It’s the less useful BDL buff for me and Pluto.
Defeating Pluto may not the
end of the game. It depends on how you well you play the game and which option
you choose in this sequence. I think to bring this sequence you have to amass
score of at least 2,500,000 points, bought all the upgrades, having full BDL units at the end of the battle, and consistent
playing as 1 character. You may correct for the prerequisites here. The keys to
fulfilling them are: 1) Using mug move intensively so you have enough coins to
buy all the upgrade. I think Pink is the best at it with her aerial chicken
clawing move. That’s why she’s my main. 2) Finishing the boss level as fast as
possible. No D rank allowed. I fail to trigger the sequence most likely because
I rely more on the mug move instead of normal combo which deals slightly more
damage. You can choose to destroy the machine and end the game right now. But
for me, I have to choose the first option that leads to true final boss. I have
come this far so I don’t hold back.
The master program is Genie from Aladdin if he’s designed by DC comic and evil. Dr. Saturn comes to the scene only get frozen by the master program. Then this whole place get levitated to very high in the sky.
Thus, the true final battle ensues. Master Program likes to be in mid-air much like Genocide/Scumocide from Captain Commando but much harder and has more complex moveset. Funny thing is Genocide is the name of the final defense system that about to establish by the Master Program or so he said. Don’t be fooled with his health bar that has the same top layer (which is pink) as Pluto! Although he has the same amount of health as the not true final boss, he’s much harder opponent. Especially when he likes to float around thus making him harder target to hit.
When his lower half is blue dragon, the dragon can push you back very far with the force of his wing’s flap. He also can shoot ice breath that can freeze you. However, the real danger comes when his lower half is red dragon where he can shoot very long fire breath from top to bottom plane or vice versa and the fire breath is highly damaging your health when hit. Pink’s flying ability can dodge this tremendous attack but not by much as the flying’s duration is not long.
So how you hit him? Flying kick is the general solution. Charging shoot attack can work well. Usually, I don’t like how long it takes to charge my attack to produce powerful shoot move because I become defenseless against incoming enemies when I’m charging my attack. You can mitigate it by playing the game with other players. However, I think you can charge your attack as long as you can against Master Program because his moveset has relatively fixed pattern. Just don’t do that while he does the fire breath attack.
Once his health bar loses 1 or 2 layers, his moveset expands however that makes him more vulnerable because he’s less frequent in lower-half-dragon form. One of his moves is dancing along with his copies. I accidentally getting hit by him and I also dancing! Soldier_sf12_badmagic12.wav
Oh, wow! Capcom make the game saucy. First the topless biker girl. Now Master Program’s cloud/dust/whatever turns into naked girls. There’s even a certain sprite where the girls show their nipples although the sprite move so fast you can barely see them. Besides becomes naked girls, the cloud thingy can turn into ice dragon, fire dragon, and purple octopus where Master Program will run you over like overly sized spinning top. Other moves are: he does elbow drop with punch in the end and he summons golden cubes from above in rather random spots.
Eventually, I defeat him. Lucky his cloud thingy covers his junk. Seeing his naked butt is already bad. I don’t want to see something worse than that. I finish this true final boss fight in rank C. I don’t think I have done it faster than that before. Heavy_award02.wav
Pink along with Dr. Saturn drop through the office ceiling presumably from Shiva System above. Harry doesn’t look happy about it. What are you talking about, Pink?
Now, Harry puts happy face...while looking at Pink Ostrich’s backside. That’s so damn creepy! If you pick male bounty hunter and defeat Master Program, he will go to vacation in Caribbean but only in talk. But if you don’t defeat Master Program, he will deny Harry’s offer to vacation in Caribbean and ask for more work. Anyway, happy end!
But the excitement doesn’t stop there. The credit roll has something interesting going on. Dr. Saturn throw a bomb at the bounty hunters and they turn into penguins! Spy_sf13_magic_reac04.wav
But Dr. Saturn gets what he deserves. Harry along with Capcom trademark fall on him. Demoman_goodjob01
The other benefit of defeating besides big score and vaguely true ending, your character will be given a ride by Master Program and then drops you on top score. Sounds not worth it? I probably agree.
Capcom’s Battle Circuit
(1997) is probably the best Capcom’s beat em up game but sadly also the last
beat em up game made by them. Even so, I still prefer Warriors of Fate
because it has slower pace so I can see what’s enemies are up to and whatnot. I
consider WoF my comfort game. On the other hand, BC is much
faster or I should say: too fast for my liking. It’s very often I get hit by
something that so fast that I can’t tell what it is until my life is spent.
Even the weakest and clumsiest grunt: the lizardmen can be dangerous if not
properly checked. I know some people prefer faster game pace like this one,
over slower one like WoF and I can understand that. I’m very impressed
with how vast the control is with only 2 action buttons, probably rival to Gunmaster.
The cast is well diverse and each has its own specialty and gameplay. Strangely,
not everyone has general moveset. Like Pink Ostrich don’t have forward attack
move (forward + attack) and quarter circle forward move. The color on each
bounty hunter is intended so you can easily distinct your character apart from
enemies or your fellow player. The color also applied to buff that related to
the owner. Like Pink Ostrich will make everyone blink pink color while her BDL
buff still active. I will tell more the detail at character stat analysis
section. For now, all I can say that the bounty hunters have expanded moveset
but same thing goes to for the enemies. The enemy who has the smallest moveset
is Gunbuster of any type. They either shoot continuous flame or shoot lobbing bomb.
On top of having expanded moveset, The enemies also aggressive. Probably the
least aggressive is the lizardmen that usually clumsy. I saw one of them
juggling a grenade for very long time before either actually throw it or
explode at their hand. As for the bosses, most of them can bring hectic fight.
Johnny like to jump around. Barbara with her alien jellyfishes. Octopus Mark II
with its bomb-laying routine or firing missiles. Doc & Jennifer with their
cloning move. Zipang with his lance twirling move and orbiting small beads.
Pluto with his BDL buff and butt stomp that produces meteors. Lastly, there’s
Master Program with almost everything he does. The game lasts 7 levels (+ true
final boss fight), which I feel like enough amount of level. Then there’s coin
currency to give you more feel of progression. The BDL buff are useful in the
heat of combat although I think Pink’s is the least useful. There’s one special
feature when you play the game with more than 1 player: you can do
screen-clearing bomb move if all of you manage to activate desperation attack
at the same time! Here’s the example:
Last year, I played the game with someone name TheGameWanderer_ and somehow, we manage to pull off the combined desperation attack. Each combination from different bounty hunters generates different visual effect. I’m not sure why the combined desperation attack by Iris Yellow and Alien Green, yields 5 tornadoes. Don’t get me wrong! The result looks not bad and I’m very happy that we pulled that off. If you’re curious our full playthrough on Battle Circuit and other Capcom beat em up game. Here’s the VOD link.
Sadly, weaponry is absent in this game. I can’t even pick up barrel as impromptu projectile against my enemies. But the wide moveset makes up for the weapon absence. The sound effect is pretty wonderful. The music is fairly great. My personal favorite is OST from the first fight with Dr. Saturn. The graphic is fantastic but beware that the game flashing a lot. So be careful to those who have symptom of photosensitivity epilepsy.
In conclusion Battle Circuit (1997) is fun and zany beat em up game. The gameplay is superb and fun. The setting is super whack and crazy. I don’t think I ever see other beat em up game with antagonist with Dick Dastardly’s personality other than Dr. Saturn. He’s comic relief with bad luck and wackiness but also, he’s villain. Sadly, I don’t get to know further about his slime assistant which looks wiser than the evil doctor himself. The slime also cute. The game is more fun with multiplayer for sure. It even supports 4 players! The more, the merrier, the crazier! Anyway, here’s second opinion from TheGameWanderer_:
Battle Circuit was interesting in such a way that while also had the benefit of being the newest among the games in the Capcom Beat em Up collection. It started to introduce more varied mechanics when it came to move sets and abilities which I think made the game more dynamic. |
Once again, I thank you so much for reading my blogger. It has been 8 years of me writing all these barely serious articles. I guess I will keep doing this. Anyway, following is the stat character analysis section:
Cyber Blue (with real name: Brian Bruno) is supposed to be balanced fighter, according to his biodata. Thus, his main stat is Dexterity at 3/5. He has ability to give attack power buff temporarily. In my opinion, his fighting technique lacks of finesse and more toward brute force. So, his other main stat is Strength at 3/5. Cyber Blue probably the best for new player because all of purchasable are just upgraded version of his initial move. On the other hand, you can’t unlock new moves thus not expand his moveset. Except Cyber Cannon which is 2nd stage of his charged attack that unleash big laser! His moveset doesn’t have quarter circle forward move. You can’t go wrong with someone that can give players temporary attack power buff. His desperation attack has electric property. His mug move is his anti-air move: hyper tornado.
Captain Silver (with real name: Andrey Mischuchin) is the technical character. I’m not sure what the game describes as Technical. Probably, it means he has lots of attack moves that do multiple hits. Thus, he probably can gather coin easily. Technical means his main stat is Dexterity at 4/5. Right? His BDL buff give defense power temporarily. On top of that, you gain “armor” property which mean your move can’t be interrupted by any attack but still takes damage. It’s useful buff for offense, I reckon. When Pluto has the same BDL buff, not only he takes less damage but also has faster recovery when being thrown. His moveset involves lots of moves that do multiple hits when they’re upgraded at the shop. He’s the only one with 3 stages charged attack. He doesn’t have throw finish during combo which is big flaw in my opinion. Although his throw is where he turns into small cannon and fire the grabbed enemy away. Which is pretty funny form of throw. He’s probably based on Mister Fantastic (AKA Richard Reed) from fantastic four because Captain Silver can change his body to any kind of form. His desperation attack has ice property and can freeze enemies. His mug move is basically any of his special move. But I think the main mug move is his running attack: silver wind, because it’s the cheapest move to upgrade.
Yellow Iris (with real name: Diana Martines) is the speedy character. If you think she’s not fast enough, she can use her BDL buff which boost all player’s attack and move speed temporarily. So, her agility is 4.5/5. She has side job as fashion model. So, she’s another fashion model in beat em up game besides Julia Jefferson from Crisis Beat. Her partner is a fox named Fin which can turn into ground projectile as her charged attack. She doesn’t have quarter circle forward move. Her desperation attack makes enemies around them dancing like in Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker. Her mug move is her forward attack: whip rush.
Pink Ostrich’s fighting style is probably the most unique. She can fly to dodge most enemy’s attack and ambush them with either aerial claw or sky capture move. This flying trick works wonderfully against bosses. If anyone else dare to fly, Pink will deny them with either anti-air move or air throw. Her BDL buff give player temporary critical strike buff of that can instantly kill lesser enemies with player’s attack. Maybe the reason why Pink is given this critical strike BDL is: because her flying trick wastes lots of time, she need the instant kill blow to make the combat faster to counteract her disadvantage with the flying trick. Her moveset lacks of forward attack and quarter circle forward move. Her desperation attack is simply spinning but you can move her around while doing so. As you probably knew, her mug move is the aerial clawing.
Alien green is the weirdest of the bunch. His design is pretty much abstract and creepy. His eyeball is in his torso instead on his head. Then there’s sharp looking chameleon perched on his neck. Maybe it’s his pet or something. Maybe you wonder how he can drive the vehicle in the bonus stage. He can do that with no problem, trust me. Maybe, he is relative of Dio’s from Fighting Master. He’s the strong character which means his main stat is Strength at 4/5. His BDL ability is not buff. It’s all heal. With how relentless Battle Circuit is, his BDL ability seems the most useful besides Bruno’s. His healing ability doesn’t stop there. He has grapple move called “Alien Magic” where he swallows a whole unfortunate enemy and release them as cocoon. If the enemy dies with that weird grapple move the cocoon spawns food item. I’m not sure if you want to eat food coming out from alien plant’s excrement but hey you have to do anything if you want to survive in this game. He’s pretty much grappler and close-range fighter. Although, he can make limited-range tornado by swinging his fist. His forward attack is vine shoot if connected to an enemy, they will be pulled to him and grabbed which predates Nero from Devil May Cry 4 for decades. Although slow and the hitbox is small, the vine shoot is useful to grab enemy easier. Naturally, he’s the only one who has jumping slam move, sort like Mike “Metro City Ex-Mayor” Haggar. Another interesting thing on his moveset is his running uppercut. Green can juggle enemy in mid-air almost indefinitely (if not for walls) with the running uppercut. His moveset lacks quarter circle forward move and anti-air attack. But with giant uppercut he does with his running attack, he doesn’t need anti-air move. His desperation attack probably the blandest in function because it doesn’t have any special trait. Although it looks unique where he jittering and release plant oil(?). His mug move is repeated slam left and right.