Ultraman
System: SNES
Release Date: October 19, 1991
Developer: BEC
Publisher: Bandai
Genre: Fighting
Become the ultimate warrior and protector of peace in Ultraman! For eons, Ultraman has been fighting the Gudis virus, which seeks to snuff out all life. Now the Earth has been infected and giant kaiju are now carrying out the destruction orders. In order to defend the earth, Ultraman has become part of regular human, Jack Shindo. The catch? Ultraman can only battle on Earth for three minutes before he must become human again. Can you go through all nine opponents to save the planet?
I was expecting a beat ‘em up, but this is a straight forward fighting game. You are Ultraman and you have to fight a series of giant strange beasts. You have three main attacks: a kick with the A Button, a punch with the B Button, and throw by clinching and pressing the A Button. These all have short ranges, so you have to be right up against your opponent to do any damage. You can also jump with the X Button.
Jump attacks were my go to, as I settled into jump kicks as those seemed to have the best win rate. All face buttons can be modified by holding up and pressing them. The best part of this is the super jump, which is used for avoiding enemy charges, but you can also get a shield by pressing up and the Y Button. The Y Button is also important because it launches a special attack.
The bottom of the screen has a counter ticking up and four levels of attacks. These attacks all do decent damage, but the kaiju all have a chance at ducking them. When you drain their life, you’re given the instruction to finish them, but the only way you can do this is by connecting with a level 4 attack. Your timing has to be good, because enemy health recharges, taking that finish away. And if you use your level 4 attack, you have to wait nearly a minute for it to charge again.
Enemies all fight in patterns, so once you get the hang of them, you should be able to walk through the fights without much problem. Unless the sluggish response to button presses get you. As long as you have lives, you can lose a fight and come back with your opponent having the same amount of strength as they killed you with. The manual says that there are different endings for the three difficulty levels. I won on normal and expert, and the ending was barely different, so don’t waste your time.
Graphics: 2.5
I think the best way I can put it is that it looks boring. It’s not bad, but the looks didn’t excite me.
Sound: 2.5
The music and sounds are decent, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to keep the volume up.
Gameplay: 1.5
There’s too little that Ultraman can do and it comes down to pattern recognition, which becomes boring.
Difficulty: 2.0
There’s cheapness until you learn the patterns, then there’s not a huge point to continue.
Fun Factor: 1.0
It didn’t take too long to get through all nine stages, and I wanted to check the endings. The fact they weren’t much different took a lot of enjoyment away.
Overall Rating: 1.9
Ultraman earns a C. This is a terrible fighting game and I certainly don’t recommend it.