 Ssssssssss Let's drink. If you know anything about this channel, you know I can't resist an early 90's beat em up, especially if it's made by Capcom or Konami, and here we have violent storm from Konami and it checks off all the boxes. It's silly, it's hilarious, it looks great, it's up to three player compatible, it's got your stereotypical beat em up story of having your girlfriend get kidnapped. It's just big, dumb fun. Oh, and it happens to play really well too. Okay, let's see what we have here. the simple double dragon style setup, only the guy that takes your lady friend appears to be Blanca if he were borrowing Gile's hair for the day. Then we've got our three characters to choose from, Wade, Boris, and Kyle. Wait, Boris? Yeah, I'm sorry. When I think of a dude named Boris, I think of the dude from GoldenEye, not someone decked out in traffic cone orange with hair to match. However, I will say it's nice to see the name Wade get some respect here. This guy sits right alongside other underrated wades like former Vikings quarterback Wade Wilson and Wade Duck from US Acres. But yeah, Boris is your big strong overpowered guy who can pick up anyone. Wade is the balanced guy, and Kyle is almost like a final fight version of Lancelot from Knights of the Round. He's really quick, but his attacks are pretty weak overall. So you start the game and oh my god this music. Was that David Lee Roth? I can't help but love the tunes here, they're so aggressively cheerful. Oh man, there's lyrics? Okay, I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed, I was hoping they'd just be singing the name of the game over and over like the Ninja Turtles theme. Oh but wait, when you get to level 3, you get the next best thing, you get a rap about what you're doing in the game. That is just perfect. There's a seemingly endless amount of stuff in this game that sounds ridiculous when you describe it, but when you see it or hear it, well yeah, it's still just as ridiculous as it would sound. You can throw a football at someone, complete with a cartoony boing sound effect, then later on you pick up piglets and they turn into footballs? What the hell is that? And what the hell is this guy on the left doing? This game is just chock full of weird funny stuff, like this dude actually falls out of the train if you don't touch him. Oops, or this guy who's running a fruit stand or something. Oh man, you could smash it apart, that is awesome! The enemy facial expressions here when they're getting the crap kicked out of them are just perfect. It's almost like the world this game takes place in is some kind of parallel dimension to the Ninja Turtles world. This game just has that kind of vibe to it, like how these guys get squashed. Now that's straight out of Turtles in time. Oh and of course it wouldn't be a proper 90s arcade beat em up without some hilariously bad voice acting. So good lord, this boss theme, it's like I'm being attacked by synth brass. The gameplay is pretty funny in its own right because this plays so much like Final Fight. Don't get me wrong, this is definitely an above average beat em up, but it's just interesting to me how Konami always had to make fun of stuff. Gradius has Perodius, Castlevania has Kid Dracula, and Final Fight, while it's a Capcom game, has Violent Storm, and no doubt about it this game fits in right along with the other absurd Konami stuff, like Metamorphic Force and Monster Maulers. But despite all the silliness, there's still enough substance here to make this a good game, especially with the second or third player. There's a ton of stuff you can destroy in every stage like these benches here. You can throw chairs and break tables, or the aforementioned fruit stand guy, man you gotta love that. But yeah, this game definitely takes quite a bit from Final Fight. From the moveset each character has, to these rolling barrels here, to the weapons you use like the typical knife and the leb pipe, and gee does this stage look familiar to anyone? Or the way the final boss' mansion looks? To be fair, some of the settings here are pretty inspired, like fighting your way through this restaurant all the way back to the kitchen, or this park area where there's cats and dogs frolicking around in the background. Some of the enemy designs are pretty funny too, like whatever this guy's got going on. And, okay, that's clearly Hawk or Animal from the Road Warriors, that's a straight up rip off. Of course, since this is an arcade game, I have to point out the one really annoying thing about this game, the boss fights. You get them down to just a tiny bit of life, then all of a sudden your attacks barely do any damage. Yeah, that's some classic arcade gameplay cheesing right there, deliberately designed to eat your quarters. Also, this game stretches on and on and on, and while I appreciate the game's quicker pace and the feeling that you never know what's around the corner, I just feel like this game is a little bit too long. It's tough for a beat-em-up to get the right balance when it comes to pacing and length and all that, but I feel like they could have trimmed a bit off of this one. And, as if this game weren't long enough, once you beat it, the game introduces Violent Round, which cranks up the difficulty and puts twice as many enemies on screen. But yeah, Violent Storm is still a really fun time. I don't think it's quite as good as some of Konami's other efforts at the time, like Metamorphic Forest or Turtles in Time. But still, I mean, this kind of game is right up my alley. It's full of 90s ridiculousness, hilarious voice acting, expressive sprites, and tons of laughs. This might be the most cheerful beat-em-up I've ever played, if that makes sense. And again, no home console release of this one, so this is another game you gotta play any way you can. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.