When it comes to fighting games, Nintendo is mainly associated with Smash Bros aside from other attempts to break into the genre with Arms and Pokken. These games did well sales wise and Arms has seen a return to popularity with the recent announcement of a guest appearance in Smash Bros, but Nintendo’s history with the fighting genre goes back even further than many realize. Back in the 8 bit era, Nintendo released a unique fighting game called Joy Mech Fight. This was a Japan-only Famicom game that took a lot of influence from other fighting games like Capcom’s Street Fighter series but also non fighting games like Capcom’s Mega Man series. The plot involved 2 scientists who made robots, with one of the scientists going evil and reprograming all the robots except one. What separates this from Mega Man though is that instead of Sukapon gaining the abilities of the other robots, they would instead become playable characters for you to control and use, similar to story mode unlocks in modern fighting games.
For the time, the graphics and music in Joy Mech Fight were very impressive, considering the developers had to fight against the limitations of the Famicom system to achieve more. The game had the largest roster for a fighting game, with 36 characters., and held the record until the King of Fighters 98 came out and had 38 characters to choose from. The catch in this case however, was that many were pallete swap versions of existing characters. The characters that were unique though, were fun to play as, and all had their own specialties. The matches in the game were also well done and put their own spin on the round system by doing a variation of the double life bar system where you had to defeat three life bar’s of an opponent, and upon each time you won a round, you got a bit of life back.
,Joy Mech Fight has aged far better than many 16 bit arcade and console fighting games, by knowing its limitations and working around them.. The controls were simple but did allow you to do some fun things, and the characters that weren’t just pallete swaps did have a unique playstyle. It was cool to check out each character and I cannot figure out why Nintendo hasn’t done more with this IP. It is a genuinely well done experience and one they should bring back For those curious about the game, it can be played today by anyone with a Nintendo Switch online account. Because you can access the Japanese store and Famicom classics app, you can play the game that way.
Nintendo has something with this game that should not be passed up on. It could be revived today as an excellent fighting game in a variety of styles. It could be an arena fighting similar to the Gundam Versus series, remain a 2D fighting game, become a platform fighter, or become a 3D fighter like Tekken or Virtua fighter. Nintendo has worked with many amazing developers who have a history in fighting game development like Bandai Namco or Arika for example. and they would be an excellent fit to make a revival of Joy Mech Fight a success. Keep the original characters, and make some news ones and there will be a market for this game in the modern era. Nintendo likes to do something different with their games and not just put out traditional fighting games, and Joy Mech Fight is a perfect fit for that. It would be a different take on the fighting game genre, and if Nintendo has a good partner, this could be a major hit for them.
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