Arcade Appreciation - Slashout

A very long time ago, I started this blog as a way to discuss the merits of arcade games, which often go unappreciated. Even the most enlightened community has at least one person who treats these amazing games as nothing more than quarter-munchers, and it breaks my heart. The brilliance of an arcade game is in its ability to deliver intense action and dizzying complexity, often within a minute of pressing the start button. Even if I tend to lack the skill to expertly play a lot of the arcade classics that have graced this blog, I believe in my ability to recognize quality.

In-between a recent slew of random RPGs, I've been working my way through Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Naturally, one of the many adventures with Goro Majima was a visit to Honolulu's arcade. Talk about Model 3 Heaven! Virtua Fighter 3, Fighting Vipers 2, Dayton- Sega Racing Classic 2, Ocean Hunter, and SpikeOut: Final Edition; an absolute steal for the $20 or less I spent. Okay, so this was - unless you count Battle Street (I wouldn't) - my first experience with SpikeOut. It more than met my expectations. Way back in 1999, Sega / Amusement Vision delivered one of the best 3D fighters around. That's quite a statement to make about a game I only played through once, but I was seriously that impressed.

Keep reading. This isn't actually a SpikeOut review.

What makes SpikeOut so phenomenal is how it effortlessly blends multiple concepts together while avoiding the pitfalls that 3D brawlers often fall prey to. Also, it's controls and mechanics are extremely intuitive. Learning how the game works had an appreciable impact on my enjoyment. Let's start with the Shift button. While this is held, the player-character faces the same direction no matter which way they walk. The second I started using it, I noticed that my movements were faster, more responsive, and easier to plan. I could see and feel the difference, so naturally my mind became occupied by all the ways that technique could be put to use. Next was grappling. The instant I grabbed someone, and knocked down nearby foes with their thrown body, I understood the grab's value as a method of crowd control. Charge attacks are another massive part of SpikeOut. Knowing when to use the level 1 launcher, the level 2 stunner, and the level 3 super adds immense depth to this beatemup. In just a few minutes, I was taught the importance of every move, and efforts to learn felt genuinely rewarding. Despite my extremely limited experience, I could see exactly what makes this game so beloved.

Going into Slashout, I tried to keep outside impressions as muted as possible. However, something to the effect of "it wasn't as well-received" had managed to worm its way into my subconscious. Maybe it was a YouTube comment, a forum post, or I had just absorbed a stray opinion via photosynthesis. In any case, it was a thought that would instantly spring forth after my first couple of attempts at this Hack & Slash follow-up. Even though I didn't have a single clue as to why it wasn't as well-received, it wouldn't take long for me to come up with a large list of possible reasons.

Before diving into the weeds, let's take a moment to give Slashout a proper description. In a world of magic, something bad is probably happening. Choose from one of four weapon-wielding heroes to stop the forces of evil. Each of the six stages is packed with strange creatures to pummel and a large end-boss to conquer. There's actually no real story to speak of. Your selected hero will travel from a vaguely Mediterranean City to the outskirts of a Haunted Mansion, then through the rusted remnants of an Abandoned Mining Facility. Afterwards, they'll play in the Mysterious Forest, challenge the Dragon's Den, and finally battle the Great Evil in Diabolo's Shell. I don't know. Something about it all feels like a pinata that was stuffed with high-fantasy tropes and then given a mighty thwack. There's also a couple of hidden stages, though I'll tell you right now that I'm not interested in seeking them out.

Let's introduce our heroes. Slash is the all-rounder with decent reach, speed, and power. Luna, who looks like a cross between Princia Ramode (F-Zero GX/AX) and Ulala (Space Channel 5), is definitely quick, but her pitiful reach makes dealing with crowds a problem. Axle is a real "swing and want to forget" kind of guy. His huge axe has a good chance of clipping foes, even if they're not the intended target. Lastly, there's Kamui. He's a ninja. That's all I got. 

Everyone works with the same pool of moves. There's the standard attack string, which can be followed up by one of two sub-series. To put it another way, tap the attack button three times, then either attack + charge to perform a launcher, or mash charge to do a different standing combo. You can also press jump + attack to perform a hopping slash, which will knock a foe down and make them susceptible to combos. Chain these sequences together to juggle an unlucky monster to oblivion. Pressing attack + charge by itself will do a sweep attack, good for pushing something off of you. You also have a limited stock of magic for breaking out of crowds or doing big damage after a series of slashes. 

The most notable omission in everyone's repertoire is a grab. Yeah, I get this is a Fantasy Hack & Slash, but grapples were an essential part of SpikeOut. Physical contact is a consistent occurrence, so having some means to rush in and toss someone aside, maybe knock down a few others, could've gone a long way towards making crowds more manageable. Also, while charge moves are available in this game, there's hardly any reason to use them. Their area of affect is ridiculously small, and the heroes almost always get hit out of them. Unleashing a level 3 charged move should've been equal parts satisfying and devastating. Instead, it's just a meager projectile. An overabundance of effort to maybe knock down an enemy.

Each stage is filled with bizarre monsters. How bizarre? Well, off the top of my head there are floating ram heads, goofy chickens, pumpkin ghosts, ghosts with masks, killer top hats, Master Hand from Super Smash Bros, and those drillbots from the 3D Sonic games. Not Sonic Adventure but Sonic Colors or Generations or... Sheesh! I'm flying right off of the track. My point is that these goofy weirdos are out-of-place yet also overdesigned for maximum annoyance. Half of them look like they ought to be knocking some Belmonts off of moving platforms, and that's basically what they do here. They utilize their obnoxious numbers and ridiculous attacks to keep players off-center. I'd call it death by a thousand cuts if the heroes had a health meter that could actually stand up to more than a dozen.

Let's talk about a few of these assholes. In the Mining Facility, there are bomb-carrying robots. Try to combo them while they're still carrying, and you'll inevitably get exploded. That's not their worst trait, however. What they really love to do is sit just outside of your sword swings and throw dirt. Yes, dirt. Piles and piles of it at intense velocities and angles. Oh, and you're most assuredly going to get pelted from offscreen. It happens all of the time. Next are the pumpkin ghosts, who throw giant pumpkins to break up any attempt at fighting. That's not all, because they have a spin-attack with they can throw out on a whim. Almost everything in Slashout lives to annoy, and every hit adds up quickly. If a group of foes act with any degree of cooperation, there's a good chance you'll be struggling far more than any reasonable arcade-goer should have to.

Now hang on a moment, because I'm not done with these assholes. In the Dragon's Den, there are winged cats who rush from offscreen, or spit spread fire from offscreen. Pick your (offscreen) poison. There are multiple instances where they attack as a trio, and it's just no fun to deal with. I feel like the player's movement while shift button is held down should be faster to compensate for the projectile spam and fantastical attacks everything is capable of, but that's not happening. Besides looking problematic, Seppia will strafe and shoot, creating additional misery for everyone who already has a winged kitty problem. 

This all leads to one of my biggest issues with Slashout. It's got this square-peg to round-hole design philosophy. The main reason SpikeOut plays so wonderfully is because its combat mechanics and enemies were designed for each other. Both good guys and bad guys have roughly equal limitations, and it's all due to the fact that they're all humans. Since everything in Slashout is some kind of monster, it has fantastical moves and abilities available to them. A hero doesn't have to worry about something simple like getting punched, or kicked, or grabbed & tossed. No, they have to deal with projectiles, flying attacks, spinning moves, random stuff with weird properties, and so much more. In fairness, SpikeOut has one or a few bad guys with spinning moves, but there's a wind-up, a clear visual indicator, and enough signals to our brains that maybe we shouldn't go near someone that's got a pickax on spin-cycle. 

Then we get to the gatekeepers, and it's more nonsense. A handful of enemies have invincible attacks, and there's practically nothing that can be done about them. I've dodged a gatekeeper's invincible attack, assumed that I had an opportunity to counter, and was immediately made to be a stupid idiot as that foe whips up another invincible attack a second later. My memories of AV's previous 3D brawler are fading fast, but I could've sworn I was able to knock down bosses and keep their invulnerable moves from being spammed. That isn't happening here. I even tried level 3 charges on the off chance that it had the secret ability to break a monster's state of immunity. Nah. That was just a dumb moron move that got me killed.

Each stage ends with a large boss. I can see what the developer was going for, but very little clicks into place. Bosses have an assortment of attacks which they'll perform every other second. It feels like Dark Souls or something, except with stuff that's ludicrously difficult to avoid. Also, the 60 second time-limit doesn't provide many opportunities to look for a window. Players have to do an entire health-bar's worth of damage to get additional seconds on the clock, and that's a big ask when bosses seem to do whatever they want. Now, I'm somewhat certain there's a strategy to defeating everything while taking little to do damage, but the absence of tells and free time has me trapped in the constantly KOed zone. 

Predictably, the final stage is a whole new tier of badness. The first couple phases involve getting shot at by giant eyes while fighting shadows of the heroes. Pick one or the other, not both. Next up is the big bad, looking like a Frieza prototype. As Slash gets repeatedly knocked out by an endless array of projectiles, I'm wondering if I should've played a shmup instead. At least there I'd have the capacity to dodge whatever gets thrown my way. Trying to navigate meteors with a hurtbox the size of an entire body is so far from what I could ever imagine wanting from a SpikeOut successor.  

There's a bunch of other issues worth picking at. Sources of healing are limited to potions and level-ups. Neither can be considered reliable. Several stages have uneven terrain or camera-blocking objects. Since most everything has collision, getting pushed (not hit) by one monster while trying to attack another monster can cause that attack to whiff. These and many other minor problems contribute to game where success and failure are out of the player's hands. Ultimately, it creates a product that exists seemingly to chew up quarters, and that's not good.

Again, I'm sure there are 1CC videos floating around. This is just me speaking as someone who is trying and failing to see the path to that accomplishment. Slashout doesn't feel rewarding to do well in, let alone play. I'm not getting the necessary feedback that lets me know I'm making the right (or wrong) decisions. After a certain point, all I'm ever able to do is sit on the sidelines as whoever I brought into battle is obliterated. I feel bad for them. They were just a hapless shmuck who should've never picked up a weapon. I wish I could've done more, but honestly, I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing.