 Ssssssssssssssssss... This review is courtesy of a request from Nostalgia Factor, otherwise known as the guy who crunches the numbers on the Snestrunk intro. He's been a supporter of the channel for years and years, so big thanks to him. I always enjoy when a game lives up to its title, and Phantom Fighter is just that, you're fighting phantoms, or more specifically, Kianchees or Chinese hopping vampires. And you play as a Kung Fu master that has to clear 8 different towns that are infested with these zombie-like creatures. and yeah, there's about a million games that look like this, but this one is a little different. It's actually a licensed game in Japan based on the 1985 movie Mr. Vampire, but when it was localized, it threw away any mentions of that and just became its own thing. Phantom Fighter is essentially a beat-em-up, a very simple one, but it does have its own weird charm going for it. First and foremost, what helps Phantom Fighter stand out is that it's a third-party title that did not skimp on the sprite animation. I mean, I know the enemies are just kinda awkwardly hopping around like it's part of some kind of goofy dance craze or something, but the way your character moves is surprisingly smooth. It is kinda slow. Don't go charging into this game like you're playing Mario, or you're gonna have a bad time. This is one of those games that you gotta play by its own pace, for better or for worse. B punches and A kicks to jump you press up on the D-pad, and when you crouch, you can't attack at first. You have to find a scroll that unlocks that ability, but in the meantime, you just crouch to dodge. You get one health meter, and Unlimited continues to rid eight different towns of these bouncing dead weirdos, and there is a password system here, so you can take your time with this one, and you'll want to because this is a really long game for what it is. The idea here is to collect three crystal orbs in each town, and to get those, you fight Phantoms, lots and lots of Phantoms. The name of the game here is very simple pattern recognition. You just sit and watch each phantom's behavior, make sure to distance yourself accordingly, then punch and kick them in the old bread basket. Phantoms differ in how far they reach out with their arms, the size of their sprite, how high and how long they jump, and note how it's one of those games where you can overlap with the enemy. If their outstretched hands come in contact with you, you take damage. Eventually, you'll be taking on more than one phantom at once, or crazy enemies like this guy here, and collecting scrolls which unlock new attacks which do more damage. There's four other items you can collect, a mirror that stuns an enemy for a short while, a talisman that freezes multiple enemies, a bell that speeds up the game a bit, and a sword that's pretty much useless since it doesn't do much damage and it breaks very easily. It extends your range a bit, but unfortunately it's not much of a power-up. The way to use items is kind of strange. You have to try and leave the room you're in, and your assistant pokes his head in to prompt a menu screen to open up. The game kind of sort of barely offers some variety by providing some story segments here and there, which ultimately boil down to someone saying, hey, there's a bunch of freaky vampire people jumping around my house. How about a little help over here? And then there's this guy who says the secret to life is to play video games during breakfast, or this guard who won't let you pass until you answer a trivia question. Like, how many stars are there in the American flag, and what's the name of George Bush's dog, and who was the third baseman for the 1985 Seattle Mariners? Okay, I made that last one up, but the answer is Jim Presley, in case you happen to be wondering. But anyway, yeah, Phantom Fighter is one of those games that's not quite good enough to be listed as a hidden gem or anything like that. It's a pretty limited game that's probably not really for everyone. But I appreciate that it's a bit of a change of pace, especially for the NES, where there's about three dozen action platformers that I get mixed up all the time, and not very many good beat-em-ups to choose from. Phantom Fighter is memorable. It's weird, goofy, and simple, but it's something different that you can zone out to while playing. It's rare to see a leisurely-paced beat-em-up like this. I'd recommend checking this one out to see if it's your speed. It's never been remade or re-released, so it's another game that you're gonna want to play any way you can. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.