My Hero
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Coreland/Sega 1986
Sega Master System
A very good translation of an obscure Sega arcade title. It's a basic side scrolling, single plane beat'em up in the same vein as Kung-Fu or Vigilante, and true to 8-bit beat'em up rules it has the exact same plot. Some bad guy (with a mohawk, because this was the 80s, remember?) shows up and snakes your girlfriend, thus you have to walk left to right and get her back. Actually, that's really all the plot you need if you think about it. Who cares what deeper motivations there may be, who needs characters who like, actually learn and grow and stuff? These games appeal to the caveman in me - "That son of a bitch took my woman, HE'S GOING DOWN!"
Your little dude wears a sky blue leisure suit with the sleeves rolled up, like on Miami Vice or something. You walk left to right and knock out wave after wave of bad guys with three different moves, a punch, low kick, or flying jump kick. You can also use various environmental items to your advantage, such as when a thug drops a bottle on your head you can punch it and send it flying across the screen whereupon it will take out a whole row of dirtbags on your behalf.
Don't be fooled about how cute the game looks, because it's hard as shit. Seriously one misstep equals instant death for your little Don Johnson dude. What makes it hard is that this is one of those games where the bad guys regenerate and keep coming, at just the right intervals where you have less than a second to kill one and spin around to kill another before he gets you, and all it takes is one guy running into you to ruin your day. I know this was designed to be a quarter muncher and all, but still...
In the end it's a very good translation of a slightly above average arcade game. Simplistic, cartoonish visuals may lull you into a false sense of security and leave you unprepared for the insane level of grueling difficulty that awaits.
Graphics: Cute, almost childlike renditions of bad guys armed with knives and guns trying to kill you. Everything is sort of blocky looking but done so on purpose, like it's a world full of Play-school people or something.
Sound: Happy hero music abounds, along with a little "Skplungk!" when you hit someone and a sad little ditty when you (invariably) bite the dust. Get used to hearing that tune.
Gameplay: Extremely hard, so much that many people will run away screaming like a baby stuck pig.