Night Slashers: Remake Review on Xbox
Night Slashers: Remake is the remake of the original pulse-pounding, horror-themed beat 'em up game, in a nightmarish world filled with bloodthirsty creatures and unspeakable horrors.
The premise is you play as 4 very different fighters, who are not just fighting for survival, but battling to save the world from a supernatural apocalypse. Join the fight, experience the adrenaline, and embrace the horror. Your darkest nightmares await….
The game boasts local multiplayer, a new character from the original 3 on offer, different move sets per character, screen-clearing attacks, visual options and an additional custom mode.
Accessibility
With regards to accessibility, there is a limited number of options available. Button remapping, and subtitle is only available. So should you have hearing, motor or visual issues, this may not be the game for you.
Gameplay
Night Slashers, is a classic arcade game originally developed by DATA EAST in 1993, and still stands as one of their best titles in the beat 'em up genre to this day. The gameplay consisted of seven distinct stages, each subdivided into multiple sections, which you advanced by navigating from left to right within each stage, combating waves of enemies to progress.
Fans of the original have been requested a remake of this game for awhile, and newer fans will get to play the best version from the beginning. They also provide more than the original releases number of characters, which were cyborg Jake Hunter, vampire Christopher Smith, martial artist Hong Hua Zhao. The new combatant is Liu Feilin from the 1994, Fighters History game. Rumours are also about that the list of characters maybe expanding further in the future, which if true will only make this game even more fun!
Night Slayers is a simple side scrolling beat-em with the idea to choose a character, and follow a linear path whilst facing several undead and demonic beings, before you face a boss at the end. The remake hasn’t deviated from this premise and sticks to the original formula, however with the odd extras to ensure this isn’t just a one to one conversion.
Each character has an attack using the A button that combined with the d-pad will perform a small selection of move variations, similar to that of Streets of Rage. They also have their own unique patent attack, and special attack to utilise. Patents are close quarters heavy attacks using the A & B, that often will push enemies away allowing for the player to have a breather. There is also charged attacks which can be done on the ground and air and can be combined with all other moves to provide some devastating combos.
The special attacks often take out all the enemies on the screen and can take a nice chunk of health away from the bosses too. In fact, each character has two unique specials which vary depending on location they were in when using said special. The ground special is different to the air special in terms of the visual effects, but similar in terms of damage. There is a caveat though when using said special attacks, so you can’t just spam them. It also take ¼ of your health away, ensuring that the player has to be careful when using said special attacks.
Each character is more than well equipped to handle the on screen enemies regardless of their evil variations, but sometimes you can get help from weapons laying about. However the combinations of knives and rocks are really the only choice, and they do little damage when using them, so that I often ignored them altogether. Smashing your way through the numerous monsters thrown at you is enjoyable, and if you have more than one player, the fun ramps up enormously.
Like the original, another fun feature are two small bonus rounds to rack up points in between the games stages. The first one is a “whack a mole” type round where the idea is to kick off the heads of zombies that are already grounded in a short time. The second one has you hit the attack button repeatedly to charge a bar and hit an enemy across a field on to a horde.
The games control system was a bit hit n miss for me with the analog sticks as, there seemed to be some serious input delay when moving. This just got patched prior to the review going out and I can say that this is now tight and responsive. Regardless, I thankfully had the d-pad to use, which was tight and responsive in terms of movement, so I mostly used that to move around the arena and attack the waves of monsters.
I did find my time with the game very enjoyable, if not a tad short experience, which is perfect for those working parents if they need something to play in between day to day jobs. The game does provide local multiplayer, which is superb and a much more fun experience, with even online multiplayer potentially In the works, fingers crossed.
Graphics
The visuals of the game are of a bright comic colourful hand-drawn comic style, that will be marmite to some fans. For me I liked the crisp visuals, but they do seem very flat, like a cardboard cut-out compared to the originals 3d pixel style for some reason. This is more apparent when you are trying to navigate your way to an enemy and its hard to gauge where they actually are on the level due to this lack of 3d referencing. There was also some issue with enemies hit ai as it would often ignore you unless you moved closer to them, which can easily be taken advantaged of.
There is filter options which makes the game ‘’look’’ retro rather than play the original with the new combat mechanics, which I do hope they can somehow add in later. Characters also unlock new colour skins as you complete the story with each character so that its easier to distinguish from each person should you and a team-mate choose the same person. There is also a custom game mode which allows a variety of mutators that adds a variety of things like exploding corpses and stronger enemies.
Enemies are nicely varied and include all sorts of monsters of zombies, werewolves and demonic spirits. Bosses range from mummies, possessed armoured knights to vampire lords. Waves of enemies on the screen can make things hectic and abit difficult, which is why two, three or four players can help produce a better experience. The bosses, like all side scrolling beat-em ups are the strongest enemies to encounter, and will include a large health bar to cut down before you can progress.
Like the main games comic visual style, the games level environments and background visuals are crisp and dynamic, and each has some background looped animations rather than static images. The levels are varied and enjoyable from planes, mansions, cemeteries and hospital suites, to ensure that you are always engaged no matter the location.
I enjoyed every moment of this game and was plenty surprised about what the developers had done to refresh such a unique franchise.
Sound
The game has limited voice work focused on in game soundbites, similar to that of the original. Which provides some great laughs over the hilariously bad voice acting. Cut scenes however, like the original are told through text and not sound.
The general music does provides high-quality haunting soundtracks, that ooze the perfect blend of beat vs orchestic sounds. You can also choose between the classic OST to feed your nostalgia or the newly-arranged music for a modern-day experience. In game sounds are also well done with hits and attacks sounding meaty with each connection to your enemy.
My recommendation here would be a quality headset to enjoy the smooth battle sounds and music to its fullest.
Verdict
This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Night Slashers: Remake is a "great purchase’’.
Whilst the game does a decent enough job of replicating the original and modernising some elements, I do feel that some of the issues it presents takes away from a more polished performance for it’s price. This can be easily resolved with more patches and if the extra content rumours is true, will take this to a ‘’must own’’ recommendation when they appear.
The game is currently priced on Xbox at £8.39 or approx. $10 and depending on skill and patience would give you well over 3+ hours worth of gameplay. Combine this with doing the ending for all character, and general multiplayer fun, you can easily add another 5+ to the mix.
For a fan of the originals, this is a good remake that hits the nostalgia feels whilst providing something new, however, there are some elements that really do need patching to make it truly the best experience possible. For new gamers, this provides the ideal time to engage with this iconic franchise from yester year.