"Urban Champion" - NES/Famicom

----- Introduction -----

Oh boy! Urban Champion! I used to play this as a kid.

This one was developed by Nintendo R&D 1, with Miyamoto as producer and our now good friend "Chip" Tanaka on the music.

Wikipedia claims that the game is a reimagining of the Game & Watch game Boxing, which after looking at it I can pretty much believe. They both seem to involve punching guys. Close enough for me. They look equally as fun as one another to be honest.

I used to love this game as a kid, but I'm uncertain that it will really stand up. Let's give it a shot and see:

Woah! This title-screen is FANCY!

----- Playthrough -----

Urban Champion gives us a Game A, and a Game B, as is customary to my people. Except in this case, it's really just 1 player and 2 player, and so I can't play Game B because I'm a 25 year old hobo with no friends (I might make my friends play some of these games with me at some point just to try the two player modes... smash that like and subscribe button if you want to see a multiplayer mode review of anything).

The general gameplay loop of Urban Champion is walking up to the other guy and hitting either the A or B button to punch him in the face or stomach. The A button delivers sharp, short punches, that cause them to sometimes take a small step back. The B button delivers haymaker style punches, that take longer to charge up, but knock the opponent backwards in a roll.

Taste my special: "Slightly-harder-than-the-alternative-punch!"

You can also block the opponent by pressing up and down to hold your hands in different positions, while pressing nothing. Ideally some combination of all these talents is to be used in order to gain the advantage over your opponent.

Really though, your AI opponent seems to just kind of randomly move his arms up and down when he feels like it, and throw punches at random times. It's not a complicated AI, and for the most part I thwarted it continuously by just punching, taking two steps, and punching again. Usually if my punch didn't land (because his arms were in the same position as mine) he would throw another punch at the same level, which I'd automatically block and then counter with another punch.

There's a series of open manholes with corpses lying in them down the street.

The other mixups the game will throw at you sometimes are that occasionally an angry guy will pop out of the top windows and throw a flower-pot at you because he's annoyed you're fighting in-front of his store (I guess), and at some point the game will start giving you a (Game Over producing) manhole to fall in at every single street.

The cops will also occasionally roll by, causing your guys to step back and pretend they're confused and don't know what's going on, much as is the general response to police officers in real life.

Huh? What? Fighting? As a discount-loving law-abiding citizen I would hate to witness such brutality.

Using the fairly simple strategy of walking two steps and punching, I was able to climb all the way to round 36, where I eventually lost my will to continue and allowed Green Bob to punch me into a manhole and end my Sisyphean-torment of an existence.

"Wooooo! Yeaaaahhh! Blood sports are back in style, woooo!"

----- Review -----

Innovation: Yes!

Does the game show anything not yet seen on this system/ever before?

It's not that complicated, but it is a fighting game. It reminds me a little of Nidhogg now, which is an excellent version of a similar concept-- holding your defensive position at various levels and trying to outwit your opponent into letting you hit him with a well-timed/placed blow.

Spitting Rage: No

Does the game make you want to tear your own organs out of your body?

It's a little painfully slow in retrospect at times, but the game was fairly easy to go up the rounds in for me. I only lost because I pretty much chose to, to make it stop so I could play something else.

Intuitive Design: Yep

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

It's hard to misunderstand the point of this game. You only have two buttons to punch with, and your opponent will make clear to you how to block even if you're fairly unobservant.

Satisfying Gameplay: Okay

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

It feels pretty good to land a big hit when you've got the other person on the edge. I imagine it would feel a lot better if they were a real person and there was a significant struggle, but the AI is a bit too dumb for that.

Game Depth: Ankle deep

How deep/long is the game?

It's just punching and blocking, mostly. I could see some psychological games here, maybe with stopping short in the walk up or something to bait a punch, but that would only be against other human players.

Sound Design: Pretty good

How's the sound?

"Chip" Tanaka has made some fun tunes again. I love the BWWWOOOOM and BwwuuuuuUUUUuuu types of Famicom sounds that are just so characteristic of its sound chip. It's not really anything write home about, though.

Graphics: Pretty good, too

How's it look?

The sprites are big and nice and fairly expressive. There's not a lot to the game but it's cool how you can see the expressions on the character's faces instead of them just being super pixelated little guys. For some reason the style of the faces reminds me a little of Lupin the IIIrd (which, by the way has a Famicom game we'll be getting to...).

I like how the policeman's head just shoots out
of the windshield like the car is his snail shell.

Personal Chord: A little

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

I like the music, and it's a nostalgic game for me from my childhood. I'd probably wear it on a t-shirt.

Should You Play: Probably not

Is there a reason to even bother with this one?

This is a very early experimentation into the fledgling genre of fighting games. I think it might be fun to play with another person, but since you don't have any friends who want to play Famicom games, I would recommend something with a little more of a single-player experience.

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