This week's Arcade Archives release is... Growl / Runawk (Taito, 1990)
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Both the English (Growl) and Japanese (Runark) versions are included, and you can set the maximum number of players via dipswitches, either two-player or four-player.
In the early part of the 20th Century, the natural world was under threat, with many animals being hunted by evil poachers to the brink of extinection. However, the wicked poachers didn't count on the Ranger Corps, a group of four brave men willing to fight for the lovable animals. They'll go to any lengths and use anything they can get their hands on to restore the balance between mankind and nature, from fists to rocket launchers and everything inbetween!
Oh boy, Growl is a lot, one of the most bonkers arcade games Taito ever released. A scrolling brawler with support for up to four players, Growl's mechanics aren't much to write home about, as this definitely hews closer to Konami's licensed brawlers with a loose feel to combat rather than something like Final Fight. It definitely does a lot with what it has though, with a nice variety of weapons from swords to whips that hit behind you and the rocket launchers you start the game with, plus it really captures the feel of a chaotic brawl as dozens of enemies fill the screen at any given moment. You can often get caught in a loop of getting hit though, so you have to be really careful not to be stuck like that. It's fine, for the most part.
However, with all its shortcomings it makes up for all of it in the presentation because Growl does not give a single solitary shit about being reasonable or level-headed, it starts the dial at 11 and just keeps pushing it. The first scene has yor ranger corps dudes being attacked by poachers who blow up your HQ with a grenade, so what do you do? Grab the conveniently-placed rocket launchers and blow those poachers up into bloodied chunks of bones and skulls. The animals you rescue also join in on the carnage with birds harassing poachers, a stampede of deer making short work of them and even an elephant stomping about, squelching them into pulp and later destroying a tank for you as a remixed reprise of the triumphant main theme, Rune & Ark, starts to play. It's beautiful. There is a bit of a lull in the middle, and the platforming sequence near the end feels very out-of-place but it picks back up for the final boss which I won't spoil, but it's extremely Taito. Add in some absolutely incredible voiceclips like "YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS" and "BIG BUCKS FOR ME" and you have a special video game indeed. Gather a group of four friends and save the animals together!
A couple of notes on the development of the game- according to a Famitsu interview about the Taito Egret II Mini translated by gosokkyu (who is also here on cohost, go follow), the original concept for the game was the player would be fighting animals instead of rescuing them, but Taito of America told them this was a really bad idea, so they changed it to fighting evil poachers instead. The Hamster stream, linked above, also showed a lot of development materials including a list of proposed titles for the Japanese release- Growl was fine for the rest of the world but encountered legal issues in Japan so plenty of alternate names were created and shown around the 1:24:00 mark. Some of my favourites include RADICAL ARMS, NICE GUYS and TREGEND, a portmanteau of Treasure and Legend. Excellent.
