Friday, February 17, 2023

Live-a-Live Remastered, Pt 5 - God Bless The Ring

 

We had a Kung-Fu movie chapter, a Tarantino movie chapter, and now a fighting game chapter. It's the shortest chapter in the game. Starring TV's Mickey Rourke.


This one's quick and to the point. Masaru is a pro wrestler who wants to be the strongest legit fighter in the world.

This requires fighting a bunch of the best fighters from around the world, of course.

This takes us to a fighter select where you choose who you're gonna take on first. We've got Dhalsim, Muay-Thai terror of Southeast Asia. Then we've got a Mexican skull-mask luchadore who MIGHT be based on Great Muta. Then we've got this killer Russian assassin guy. Then an old Shang Tsung esque martial arts master. And finally pro wrestling powerhouse Not Hulk Hogan. Oh yeah, and Bray Wyatt is lurking at the end.

Not Hulk Hogan is actually the fearsome Max Morgan, scourge of the pro wrestling ring. He finishes his opponents with the devastating Max Bomber.

Masaru is pretty much this blank Tabula Rasa of a character who looks like he couldn't actually beat any of these guys. Max Morgan is all "BROTHER BROTHER"

We battle it out in the ring! His symbol is a Captain America shield for some reason. These new remake graphics look GOOOOD.

The key thing here is that win or lose, you learn any key moves that the bosses use on you and can then use them against the other bosses. So Masaru gets much stronger as this scenario goes on, despite not gaining any actual levels.

The match is over!

"Well flub me sideways what a match!"

Next I fly over to Japan to take on Seishi Moribe. This guy is one of the tougher foes, but he has Fleetfoot. While it isn't Masaru's strongest attack by a longshot, it stuns most of the opponent in this chapter and trivializes their fights.

It's another traditional battle. None of these Masaru fights play like a fighting game or anything, and it'd be cool if they did. Nope, just regular Live-a-Live battles.

Next is Tula Han, this deadly MMA guy. A good cross heel hold can totally mess up somebody's knees.

His whole thing is submissions.

This fight takes place in some kind of Russian gulag.

I learn his Armlock and immediately turn it against him!

Masaru: "Yeah! Yeah!"

Here's Bray Wyatt, no relation to Prince Iaukea. I thought there might be but I'm pretty sure he wasn't even a twinkle in pro wrestling's eye when this game came out on the Super Famicom. He's the master of Worldbreaker's Wrath, the strongest attack Masaru can learn.

He still dislikes Japanese, like Dodongo dislikes smoke. "I'll squash all those little buggers!" he belches.

Got the best move. I don't even think I bothered learning Fleetfoot because I wanted the fights to be more interesting than stun-spam. I'll use this, though. Devastating move.

Here's the Dhalsim-esque menace.

I like how this chapter really goes overboard to point out that the fighter from Japan is superior to everyone else.

Worldbreaker's Wrath has a large range, so you could hit several enemies with it at once.

Basically it makes things go boom.

That's as high of a damage number as you'll see in this chapter.

I swing back around and learn Fleetfoot real quick just for completion's sake, since I ended up getting everything else.

The Great Aja is actually a Japanese wrestler. He now resides in Mexico and has apparently stolen all the moves of the legendary El Rudo. Well, now I want to fight this El Rudo instead.

It's another wrestling ring, just much dirtier and apparently on someone's roof. Arena Mexico, it isn't.

After defeating all of the world's best, Masaru becomes the top fighter in the world. Only to be confronted by this muscle-head, who... calls everyone he defeated weak.

He followed Masaru's path and learned the moves of all of the top fighters as well...and then killed them off.

Are you calling Max Morgan fake, brother?

This demonic monk guy is none other than Odie O' Bright, the latest Odio reincarnation. Is he Irish?

He's got a real "fighting game final boss" portrait.

He's also the size of a house. Is Masaru supposed to beat this guy? We have weight classes in MMA for a reason.

One of the more visually impressive final bosses, actually. The evil really radiates off this guy.

Masaru wins, and the sun rises. I assume the guy is dead.

Just then, a new challenger appears. Who? So Masaru now has a target on his back and must always fight.

...this is such a strange game. Another short scenario down.


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