Bravoman

~ BRAVOMAN ~

Namco / NEC

HuCard

1990

After giving Bravoman a few quick tries years ago, I decided that it was a goofy-but-enjoyable romp undeserving of its bad reputation. Having actually experienced the adventure in full by this point, I now know better; and I wonder what the hell I was thinking in the first place. This is awful stuff.

Most of the enjoyment to be had here comes from beating up on Bravo's allies and reading the funny talk-bubble bits:

And then there are the bosses with their scary threats:

The one technical merit the game has going for it is parallax scrolling. Sadly, the same few backgrounds are used ad nauseam as you "stretch fight" your way through a ridiculously high number of stages. The enemy sprites are dirty, ugly, and oddly small compared to Bravo himself, who is obviously one stinker of a "superhero," as he bullies around tiny toy tanks, dwarfish ninjas, and other such munchkins who stand barely one-half his height.

Not content with mere multi-scrolling backgrounds as their trump card, the Bravoman design team tried to go the extra mile yet again by tossing sidescrolling shooter levels into the mix. Unfortunately, Bravo's hit box is huge, the controls feel clunky, and all of the strips look the same.

In fact, repetition is what ultimately deals the deathblow to Bravoman. It may seem like an acceptable game early on because of the amusing cheesiness and the parallax-graced backdrops, but there comes a point when it's absolutely sickening to be dealing with the same old background visuals, the same old bosses, and the same shitty sprites (not to mention the hero's infamous, irrepressible shouts of "Bravo!"). And as all of this recycling occurs, the stages themselves become more maze like and restrictive, and the bosses, more aggressive, making the inadequacy of the controls not only evident but unforgivable.