Nintendo isn’t really known for fighting games, outside of Smash Bros. Yes they have dabbled into the genre with games like Arms and Pokken did well, but the traditional fighters weren’t really a genre Nintendo has touched. However, Nintendo did attempt to take a look at the genre back in the 8 bit days with Joy Mech Fight, a Japan-only Famicom game, The game took a lot of influence from other fighting games like Capcom’s Street Fighter series but was also inspired by Capcom’s Mega Man series. The story 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 instead became playable characters, much like story mode unlocks in modern fighting games like Mortal Kombat
The graphics and music in Joy Mech Fight were impressive for the time, even as the developers fought against the limitations of the Famicom system to achieve more. In fact, the game had the largest roster for a fighting game, with 36 characters. This record stood until the King of Fighters 98 came out and had 38 characters to choose from. The catch in this case, was that many were pallete swap versions of existing characters. The characters that were unique though, were fun to play as and the matches had a neat version of the round system. They worked as 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 defeated a bar, you got a bit of life back.
For an NES/Famicom game,Joy Mech Fight has aged far better than many 16 bit arcade and console fighting games. It knew its limitations and worked around them and was incredibly fun. The controls were simple but did allow you to do some fun things, but 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. It may not be translated, but you will be able to easily figure out what to do. It is an excellent experience and one every Nintendo fan should try.