Once upon a time Bomberman was practically an institution in Japan. The games were extremely popular and released at a yearly clip for every platform. In America the series had its fans but nowhere near the extent it did overseas. While many popular titles spawn legions of clones in the case of Bomberman the west didn’t receive those titles. Super Tekkyu Fight is one of the more interesting spins on the genre. It stars familiar characters and even has a few unique ideas. But its execution isn’t there, leaving it a frustrating adventure.
Super Tekkyuu Fight stars Bandai’s Compati Heroes: Fighter Roa, Gundam RX-78, Kamen Rider Black, and Ultraman. While it may look similar to Super Bomberman Super Tekkyu Fight differs in its focus on melee combat. Each character is armed with a short ball and chain. Extremely weak at first once you’ve collected a few power-ups it opens up. These include a longer chain, the gold ball and chain, which destroys multiple blocks in one swing, and the rare double chain. Like its inspiration these power-ups stack and are pretty much mandatory as the default is so weak.
Another significant difference is the ability to jump. You can jump over one square but need to be careful as you can easily fall into the abyss. Landing on an occupied space will bounce you around, of which you can control the direction. This is an underrated skill which comes into play in short order throughout the game. It sounds simple but the ability to jump really adds another dimension to the game, one that it exploits wholeheartedly.
Structurally Super Tekkyuu Fight is near identical to Super Bomberman. There are six worlds, each with 8 levels culminating in a boss battle. Even the map design looks similar to an extent. But where Super Bomberman was straightforward (at least in the initial games) this is different. Super Tekkyu Fight makes expert use of its mechanics to challenge players in creative ways. After the first two levels of each world each subsequent stage is essentially a puzzle. The map layouts challenge you to figure out how to reach the enemies. Otherwise detrimental effects like being thrown around by jumping on blocks become critical skills for progression. Even a simple square is hectic thanks to the pairing of enemies. While I do think the single player becomes tedious due to its length the developers have at least varied it up enough that it is a personal hang-up on my part.
Where Super Tekkyu Fight falters is in a few of its design decisions. The most damning is power-up degradation. Taking a hit loses the last power-up collected, eventually bringing you to square one. The default ball and chain is near useless as it is short and requires four hits to kill every enemy. Super Tekkyu Fight is full of aggressive enemies, many of whom attack from long range. This is insanely frustrating and turns what should be an otherwise fun game into a slog. The item loss also makes the already difficult boss battles even harder.
Speaking of difficulty, this is not an easy one. The main reason seems to be that every enemy is more capable than you are. The whip wielding Zeon soldiers are the worst; their reach covers a good distance and they are aggressive. Once you’ve taken a few hits it basically becomes a suicide run to end each level as fast as possible since items are limited. Sure it’s an effective tactic but I’m not sure most players want to resort to that every other level. The boss battles are the epitome of this. It ruins what should be one of the most exciting parts of the game.
You’ll be surprised to learn that the multiplayer mode is merely decent considering the game it is patterned after. A few new items are introduced like the double chain and the four-way chain. These are insanely cool. You can jump on player heads to stun them or flip tiles to do the same. There are some smart rules as well. Once hit your last power-up is goes back to the field, preventing an imbalance. If playing against bots once you die the level tiles fall one by one to end the match faster. I love this feature.
Multiplayer has weak map design, which is disappointing. The maps are very simple and look similar to one another. They lack the novelty of Bomberman’s more creative maps such as the Light Zone or Warp Zone. Considering Super Tekkyu Fight saw release in 1995 they had years to study Hudson’s game. Super Bomberman 3 released that same year and brought a wealth of vs. options that make this look light in comparison.
In Closing
While I am slightly disappointed with Super Tekkyu Fight it is still a solid game. My disappointment is more because it had the potential to be great rather than simply good. This is an interesting spin on the Bomberman formula that could have used just a little more work.
