Character select:
0:00 - Starsaber / Star Savior
0:04 - Arabian Moon
0:14 - Meltdown
0:22 - Reptilian / Dinosaur
0:36 - Busido / Bushidoh
0:40 - Cattydox - Broadway
0:50 - Satinsect / Evil Talon
1:00 - Skull Reaper / Seleous
Notes:
1. Japanese names are given second, where applicable.
2. The final boss was selected using cheats for the Final Burn Neo emulator.
Superior Soldiers (Perfect Soldiers in Japan) is a 2D versus fighting game released in arcades by Irem in 1993. The action of the game takes place in a futuristic post-apocalyptic setting. The story of the game isn't specified, but the player must fly to the moon to defeat an antagonist powered by Bydo, a mysterious source of light from Irem's R-Type series of horizontal scrolling shooter games. The ending cutscenes for each character are all very similar, with the fighter being perplexed as the defeated Bydo flees the scene.
Superior Soldiers has noticeable similarities to Street Fighter, although I would hesitate to call it an outright Street Fighter clone. The developers made enough effort to give the game unique theming and characters.
Starsaber is a blatant rip-off of Capcom's mascot Captain Commando, who had his own beat 'em up game in 1991. Starsaber's throw even looks similar to Captain Commando's. With a name like Starsaber, it would have made more sense to copy Capcom's character Hayato Kanzaki, who wields a laser sword in the games Star Gladiator and Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein. I also found it strange that the character Busido is a traditional sword-wielding samurai despite being in a futuristic game. His off-white karate gi is reminiscent of Ryu's, and he performs a similar shoulder throw.
It's difficult to deny that Reptilian is at least inspired by Blanka, due to his green and orange palette, biting grab move, electrical ability, and a special move similar to Blanka's rolling attack.
Meltdown is one of my favourite fighting game characters that I've come across so far. He looks like a hybrid of Judge Dredd, Robocop, and Cyclops from the X-Men, with a radioactive superhero theme. He has a machine gun built into the arm of his armor suit, and can also use the bullets to power his punches like a jackhammer.
The game takes a simplistic approach to grab and throw moves. Characters typically have either just a standard throw, or a standard throw with a command throw. Command throws are performed by pressing all three punch buttons or all three kick buttons plus forward, although the game struggles to recognise this input. Reptilian has two pummeling style grab moves. While every character can initiate their standard throw whilst running, this only adds a horizontal slide to the move in the case of Arabian Moon. She is also the only character who can perform their throw in the air.
I was fairly satisfied by the selection of throws available in the game, but there is still room for improvement. Although Meltdown has some nice throws including a rolling German suplex, the game is lacking a true grappler character like Zangief. Satinsect would have worked as a grappler, given his size and strength, but he only has one command grab, which lazily recycles frames from his standard throw. It's not totally clear what Cattydox's standard throw is supposed to be. At first it appears as if she is trying to sit on her opponent's face, like Aksa in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters for SNES. However, she ends up doing something like an Osotogari (large outer reap) from Judo. It's a shame that all the characters were not given a unique running throw, since running adds a fun dimension of strategy to this game.
The AI is incredibly cheap in Superior Soldiers, blocking almost every attack from the player and spamming special moves. This seems to be a common issue with 2D versus fighting games. Nonetheless, the gameplay was fun, and the special move inputs were simple and responsive for the most part.
The game has a somewhat inconsistent art style between characters. The female fighters have a gritty and rotoscoped look, similar to the beat 'em up game D. D. Crew by SEGA. This results in Cattydox having a creepy uncanny valley style dancing stance. The final boss Skull Reaper looks similar to Robo X in Streets Of Rage 3 / Bare Knuckle 3, being a metallic skeleton with glowing red eyes. He also moves in a similar way. By contrast, characters like like Busido have a more cartoonish and pixelated appearance as you would see in Street Fighter 2.
Unlike other post-apocalyptic 2D fighting games like Tuff E Nuff / Dead Dance for SNES, Superior Soldiers avoids having dingy and unappealing graphics. Instead, the game benefits from having vibrant and beautiful level backgrounds. I particularly like the stage designs of Busido and Satinsect.
Overall, it is definitely worth trying Superior Soldiers if you're interested in arcade fighting games.
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