Battle Royale
System: TG-16
Release Date: October 1990
Developer: Incredible Technologies
Publisher: NEC
Genre: Fighting
Step into the ring to beat your opponents and chuck them over the top rope in Battle Royale! You’re a member of the Battle Royale of America Wrestling League and you want to be the best of the best. Face off against one to four opponents and attack them without mercy. Can you defeat them all?
There are five wrestlers to chose from, Mongo Khan, Sumo Master, Meat-Eater, The Executioner, and Spitfire Spike. You can get a facsimile of a promo out of them before choosing your game mode from an exhibition or a tournament. After selecting the number of players, of which there can be five humans, you go to the locker room, where up to five managers compete in a race to choose their client for the night.
Once the bell rings, it’s an all out brawl among combatants. You throw strikes by pressing combinations of Buttons I, II, and Select. These vary among high, middle, or low strikes, but I couldn’t tell if they really had any different power, though some felt like they had different reach. All wrestlers play the same, but their strikes are different. Meat-Eater’s ankle biting attack was probably the dumbest.
After enough attacks, your life is low enough, and the computer will pick you up by pressing Button I, II, and Up at the same time, then walking to the ropes and dumping you out. Escape is possible, but not likely against the relentless computer. You can also be struck out of the ring if you’re unlucky enough to be in position. After the match you get your score in cash along with some match stats.
The tournament mode puts you in a series of 15 matches against one, two, three, or all four opponents with you as their only target. You can refresh your health a few times each match by pressing Up and Select. This won’t save you, though, and at best will elongate the match for another 30 seconds or so.
Graphics: 2.0
The sprites are interesting at best. The manager portraits are kind of nice.
Sound: 1.5
The sound effects, voice samples, and music are all of below average quality.
Gameplay: 0.5
Here’s the rub, the controls are terrible and the super short match length makes one mistake feel too punishing.
Difficulty: 0.5
You are ganged up on by multiple opponents in tournament mode.
Fun Factor: 0.5
It’s entertaining for the first half of one match, then the frustration sets in.
Overall Rating: 1.0
Battle Royale earns a D. This is one game that I won’t be looking for a rematch with. Stay away.