Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle (SNES)

Yeah, I know. I'm doing another anime fighting game. But unlike the Sailor Moon arcade game, this isn't a side-scrolling beat-'em-up. Rather, Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle is your typical SNES-era Street Fighter clone.

Now, I like my Street Fighter clones. One of my favorite fighting games of all time, TMNT: Tournament Fighters, is very much a rip-off and it rocks. Ranma, however, is a little less adept at making something cool out of an overused concept. Unfortunately, since this was the only Ranma game released domestically, we have to deal with it.

If you're not familiar with Ranma 1/2, you should watch it (or preferably, read it). In any case, the game does a good job keeping the source material's spirit: the sprites are well-drawn and animated, and the music is reminiscent of the anime soundtrack. The best part, however, is the game's plot, which is appropriately wacky depending on the character: Ranma, desperate to get out of his homework, takes on his principal's challenge to defeat eight fighters (who are, of course, other characters). Akane wants to stop getting asked out on dates, Shampoo wants to prove herself for Ranma, and so on. There's dialogue between fighters before and after a match, and it's actually pretty funny.

However, that's kind of when the honeymoon is over. The actual gameplay is lacking compared to most fighters, which is really a shame since the Ranma universe is perfectly tailored to this genre. On the plus side, if you're new to fighting games and daunted by all the super duper combos, most special moves like that are very easy to execute in Ranma. But on the down side, if you're a veteran player, there might not be enough of a challenge. There are a few broken characters on top of it, which only adds to the already low difficulty if you choose to fight as them. I found the game's pace pretty sluggish as well, but that might just be a product of me playing on turbo too much in other games.

However, you can fight as a panda.

Ranma vs. Genma at the cursed hot springs.
Well.
Yup, there's a villain named Pantyhose.