The Peace Keepers (1994)

Beat as Flynn. There were no difficulty settings in the options, so this was a bit easier than usual. That hurts replayability though. I found the enemies fairly tough; they had cheap moves and pretty good AI to take advantage of your mistakes. The squash enemies (big heavy guys with masks) were the most annoying due to sometimes being able to grab you. The general strategy I found the best was to go for grabs and then suplex or throw the enemies, preferable into each other. Even for the squash and the few times they did their own suplex or kick to the face, the damage done by enemies was not enough to offset the regular healing items. Dash attacks were occasionally good for a cheap knockdown but the damage was terrible. Jump attacks were not really useful either. The regular punch combo was pretty much useless because it took longer and was more risky than a grab with no better damage for trade off. I also found it extremely difficult to do the grab combo as like 90% of the time it would go straight to the suplex or throw. The block was ok for getting out of enemy combos. The bosses were very tough with relentless in your face attacks. I found the best tactic for them was the health draining special, since health was restored after each stage. Flynn's special was amazing, making him invulnerable and inflicting massive damage. It completely wrecked bosses, though the duo bosses were much more challenging; the wrestler duo was probably the hardest boss for me because of their tendency to grab. The final boss was not bad, being vulnerable to grabs. I hated his super electric attack because it did massive unavoidable damage and caused me to use 2 or 3 continues, though according to a walkthrough it could be blocked with correct timing, as the block only lasts for a second rather than being a hold. I did try out the other characters but I could not get Al's bazooka to work despite looking up the move list; I would have liked ranged. Since the game was very short, I played through again as Echo using walkthrough knowledge. I didn't bother to use her double jump and used mostly the same strategy as Flynn. Her higher movement speed and higher damage dash attack were good. Her flip special was not as good but I still used it for bosses, and used it to destroy the computers within the time limit. Her regular attack combo sucked because it was slower than Flynn's. I seen a few new stages and bosses this time but still missed the ship and Japan stages.

I did not like the mechanics of this game as much as other beat em ups because each move was not good in its own tactical way. Instead it was all about grabs, and the inputs felt too sensitive (why I think I couldn't reliably perform the grab combo). I did appreciate the health draining special being useful for a change. Weapons sucked because of how slow they swung and how difficult it was to hit enemies; they needed to be on the exact same plane as you and you needed to start the attack before the enemy was close enough to hit. I don't know if the stronger characters get faster weapon use but I found them not really worth using over grabs; at best time it to hit them right as they get up from a grab. I liked the limited ability to backtrack and carry items, though it was hilarious that Echo's animation for using healing items looked like she was giving herself an enima. I got the good endings for both characters, and it was interesting that there were even different endings and paths. There were some decent effects on some of the stages, and hazards to use against enemies. I especially liked the ability to switch character between stages, making it feel more like a team effort. Some of the dialogue was nonsense, especially the Shakespeare quoting main villain; so cringeworthy. A well made game and one of the better beat em ups, though there was some lost potential.

8.0/10