Brutal: Above the Claw (32X)

My first Sega 32x screen, and it looks quite nice. It's a definite step up from standard Mega Drive/Genesis graphics, though nothing incredible. There's a similar number of colours on screen to a good looking SNES title, though it seems to have more subtle variations of colour.

A cat with attitude posing by the logo, probably not a great sign.

This character select is stylish and everything (I like the little animated character behind the text in the background doing martial arts), but it is a pain in the ass because of how long it takes to flip between characters. They probably should have scrapped the little animations and just put all the characters's portraits on one screen, like every decent fighting game does.

Wait... she's a U.N. Executive? I find that a little hard to take seriously.

I'm the rabbit, and I'm fighting a dog. There's no way this is going to end well for me.

This is a pretty miserable location to start off in a cartoony over the top fighting game. Okay, this is should be reasonably straightforward. Apparently I need to unlock the special moves as I go, so the first fight will just be old fashioned ass kicking.

What the f... what just happened? Did I just lose? And what the fuck's up with that guy's head.

I think I need to try a different approach here, maybe play defensively and slow things down so I can figure out what I'm doing.

I'm hoping that's a taunt. I'm actually keeping level with him this time. If I keep blocking and only attacking when it's safe I should be able to slowly chip away his health.

What the fuck? I haven't moved my bunny at all since that last screenshot, the game is moving my character around by itself as my opponent jumps over me. He's not even pushing me, I just slide around on my own.


LATER.

And now I'm over here again. Okay, the block strategy isn't working either. He's had that same amount of health forever, no matter how many times I manage to get a hit in.

Either single attacks don't do much damage, he's instantly blocking everything I do, or his health is recharging slightly. But if I'm sure if I just jumped at him and got a few good hits in a row I could finish this right now.

Well at least the dog's head makes more sense to me now. Screw this game, I'm done with it. I wouldn't say it's the worst fighting game I've played recently, and it's far from the ugliest, but it's a long way from being any good.