 Nlgißtronk! Back when I did a video about what I thought were the thirteen best beat em ups on Super Nintendo, the biggest response, other than calling me a monkey's uncle, was, hey, where's the kombatribes? Well, it's right here, in it's own video, away from that list, because while this is a pretty decent game from Technos, the same people behind the Double Dragon and Kaneo Koon series, it's not going to hold up the stuff like the Final Fight games or Night seine round, but hey, just because it's not among the best doesn't mean it's not a decent playthrough today. Combat Tribes is an arcade port, first hitting arcades in 1990 before making its way to the Super Nintendo in 1992, and yeah, it's got that early SNES feel to it, the same way Super Double Dragon does. The colors are a little bleary, the pixel art is slightly wonky, the gameplay is a little sluggish, but this game does have some things going for it. For the most part, it's typical beat'em up stuff done in the techno style with three playable characters, Y and X punches while B and A kicks, but once you knock a guy down, if you're in the right position, you just press another attack button and you can jump on the dude's back and start smashing his face into the concrete, that's great. You can also pick up prone enemies by their feet and swing them around, and if your timing is right, you can smash two enemies' heads together, you gotta love that. I also appreciate any beat'em up that allows you to run, that always speeds up the pace, and all you gotta do is press forward or back twice on the D-pad. Each of the three characters have their own running attack, Berserker has a flying knee, Bolova has a running punch, and Blitz has a flying kick that isn't very strong but it covers a good amount of ground, so it allows you to get on the other side of enemies quicker. What helps combatripes stand out as a beat'em up is the structure, instead of the typical side scrolling run to the right stuff, each level is an arena, so you pretty much just stay in the same area and eliminate all enemies before you get to a boss. The structure changes a bit the further you get into the game, like for instance when you have to take this elevator, but still, it's something a little different. There's only five total levels and one final boss fight, and you might think this would make for a really short playthrough, but this game is pretty hard. You get one life bar, and the game's defaults to three continues, lose those and it's game over. You can however, up your continues to as many as seven in the options menu, but bear in mind if you're playing with a second player, the continues are shared between both players, so that kinda sucks. One goofy aspect here is that there is a password system, but it doesn't apply to the main game, the passwords are used to unlock characters for the one-on-one versus mode. Yeah, just like Double Dragon, that's here too, and I will say it is slightly better than how Double Dragon did it since there's actual special moves you can do. Plus, it's kinda neat to play as some of the enemies, but to be honest, this mode gets a bit boring after a few minutes just because it's so limited. I appreciate the effort here, but it's not really worth your time. Of course, since this is an early Super Nintendo arcade port, there's plenty of differences between the two versions. First and foremost is how the SNES edition is heavily censored, and there's no blood whatsoever. The arcade version is also obviously much faster, more polished, and a much smoother playthrough, which includes stuff like Double Team moves. But to the SNES credit, that version added cutscenes to pad the story, which is your typical early 90's gang warfare stuff, but hey, it looks nice, and I appreciate that it's there. And also, of course, the SNES version is two-player compatible. Anyway, yeah, like I said earlier, Combat Tribes isn't gonna blow anyone away or anything, but it's a perfectly decent beat-em-up made by a company that has a lot of experience in the genre. I like that it's a short playthrough because beat-em-ups like this tend to get monotonous after a while, but keep in mind that this game is pretty dang hard, especially the final boss who is laughably overpowered. This is a case where, yeah, obviously the arcade version is better, but some people like playing stuff like this on Super Nintendo Hardware. So if you're on the lookout for a good two-player beat-em-up and you haven't played Combat Tribes, then it's worth checking out. And I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.