 Soon as strike! Another week, another 16-bit one-on-one fighting game, although this one is at least something a little bit different. Yeah, the temptation is to lump every fighting game into one of two categories, one being a novelty fighter like Primal Rage or Clay Fighter, and I would even throw Mortal Kombat in there as well, and the other category is Street Fighter II and All It's Clones, ranging from stuff like World Heroes in Ninja Turtles Fighting Edition all the way down to crap like Street Combat and Power Moves. But thankfully, Battle Tycoon Flash Hider's SFX, which was only released in Japan for the Super Famicom, adds a lot of wrinkles to the traditional game format, like an experience system you'd normally see in an RPG, as well as a gambling minigame. This is actually a sequel to a PC Engine CD game, simply called Flash Hider's, released in 1993, and it's made by the same development team called Right Stuff. Man, you know this game has got to be hanging tough with a name like that. They took it step by step, and, uh, yeah, that's all the new kids on the block songs I know, but this is the only game they made for the Super Famicom, and they did not half-ass it. The visuals are great, the sound design is fantastic, and the combat is solid with consistent hit detection and reliable controls. I mean, it's definitely a step above the generic thrown-together crap we got a lot of in the U.S., so from a pure combat standpoint, this game works well. For game modes, you've got your regular one-on-one fighting versus the computer or a second player, but then you've got what's called advance mode, and that's where this game stands out big time. Once you select your fighter from 10 playable characters, you're taken to a map where you can select a few different locations. There's the arena, there's a shop where you can buy items and gear, and there's kind of a back area where you fight to earn money and experience. The whole idea here is to build your character up from scratch, upgrading your gear and building up your skill level, and eventually earning your way into the fighting arena. You'll notice that before each fight there's a point allocation system, so you can set your character however you'd like, but with more experience comes more points. In addition to that, there's a day-night cycle in effect. The game gives you nine days to build up your character with enough money and experience so you can fight the final boss in the arena, so yeah, there is a lot going on here, considering this comes across as just a regular old fighting game. You've probably noticed the text here is all in Japanese, and yeah, unfortunately there is no English patch for this game, at least not yet, but it's not that hard to figure out how to make your way around. If you ever run into an issue, there's a fantastic guide on Game Facts, written by RUZARV way back in 2001, and it tells you absolutely everything you need to know when it comes to navigating your way through menus and such. It definitely comes in handy when you're looking for which items you want in the shop. And it also comes in handy with the third aspect of the gameplay here, gambling. Yup, that's right, you get to gamble on fighters where the computer fights itself. I really appreciate this because it can be tough to grind your way through to get better equipment, but this can help you skip ahead. The rules are pretty self-explanatory. For example, if the menu reads X02 for the next battle, and you bet 1,000 gold, you win 2,000 if the fighter you chose wins. And yes, you seriously just sit there and watch a simulated fight. Now, if you're like me, you're probably thinking the computer's gonna cheat. It knows who you picked, it's gonna screw you over just to make the game harder. Now, I can only speak for my own experience, but that didn't really seem to be the case. And if anything, I won maybe like 60% of the time, whereas I was expecting to lose a lot. So yeah, if you get sick of grinding with the normal fighting, you can always bet on fights here, win money, and buy better gear that way. Like I said, there's 10 playable fighters, and you got your usual quicker fighters, your all-rounders, your tanks, a woman with a sword. All in all, they're all pretty well balanced, and easy enough to get the hang of. It's the usual controls here, Y and B are weak attacks while X and A are strong attacks, with the added bonus of using the shoulder buttons to dash left or right. Each fighter has at least five or six special moves with one super, and of course, the super is like nine inputs you have to put in the span of one second. But most of the other moves are about what you'd expect. It's not quite the typical Street Fighter quarter-roll attack button stuff, but each fighter's attacks are easy enough to learn and get the hang of. Just as an aside, what I really like is that in advance mode, each character has their own gear unique to them. So if you pick Otto, for example, you get everything from iron claws to gatling arms to laser cannons and stuff, whereas if you pick Cal-Narsa, you get a stun rod, a plasma coil, it's really cool. I should point out, if you're wondering what all those extra meters are on the screen, they stand for attack, guard, and speed in that order, the same as your point allocation that I mentioned earlier. If you take damage, your attack meter will go down, but if you're able to back off while holding X and Y at the same time, you'll be able to replenish a little bit at a time. The guard meter decreases the more you block, and if that runs out, you'll be dazed for a while, and the speed meter works the same way as the attack meter, only you have to hold A or B to do a taunt, and that meter will eventually allow you to jump higher and move a bit faster. So yeah, Battle Tycoon, Flash Hider's SFX is a bit of a goofy name, but it is an ambitious game, especially for a fighting game, made in 1995 for Super Famicom. This one's been on my radar for a while, but by the time I came around to making this video, I saw Retro Drew had already beaten me to it just last week, so go check out his video as well. This game is definitely worth checking out, though, especially if you're into fighting games. There's a lot you can do in this game that I didn't even cover because it would be too long to describe in detail, like using your Advance Mode character in Versus Mode, or fighting against someone else's created character in Advance Mode. There's a ton of cool stuff here, just check out the fact I listed in the description. And as always, since this game wasn't re-released or remade, this is another game that you've 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!