Burning Fight | ….& Eye Love

[00:00:00] Aaron, have you ever punched someone so hard that your fist caught on fire? Fuck, I wish I'd punched my sister that hard. This is Neo Geo Go! Listeners, I did not beat the shit out of my... So, fun Aaron story time. Okay, tell us.

[00:00:28] Okay, so you know those like the book it things that you get for like reading the books and then you get like a free pan pizza and Pizza Hut? um, so I had one of those as a kid because I read a lot of books and my sister she took one of she took one of my fucking book it things and she fucking ripped it up right in front of my face because I did something. I don't know. I was like eight and I gave her like a good old-fashioned like Mario fucking uppercut to the jaw one time and like Holy shit!

[00:00:58] Like how dare you fuck with my pan pizza you bitch! Oh my god, dude. I love them shits, man. The pan pizza I got. Oh, it's so good. So cool. I would have been... I would have cried. I would have been so mad if someone did that to me. I got your back. I'll uppercut your sister for you, dude. She didn't see... She's someone older than me so I would have been the little asshole to her like ripping up her shit is what I probably would have done. Um, hey, Burning Fight everybody!

[00:01:28] Yo! Released on May 20th, 1991. Hey, happy ninth birthday to me! Dog, I'd be... That's my birthday. I'd be a newborn baby still. I was born, uh, what? Twelve days ago. May 8th, 91. Oh, wow. Okay. You were just being slapped on the ass while Burning Fight was, uh... While I was at the bowling alley playing Burning Fight. Damn, man. Developed and published by SNK, of course. And, Aaron, unlike the beat-em-ups we've covered so far, like Ninja...

[00:01:57] I almost said Ninja Gaiden. Like Ninja Combat or Sengoku, Burning Fight is your classic ass final fight or like Streets of Rage style beat-em-up. Like where you're taking on thugs in the streets and criminals and shit. Like the classics, right? Ah, yes. Nothing wrong with like a little comfort food. This game is kind of like, um... It's kind of just like a chicken tendies and barbecue sauce kind of game, man. There's nothing wrong with it.

[00:02:26] It's not like reinventing the wheel, really. It's just like... Yes. It's pretty fun. Dude, I have... I think I have chicken tendies and barbecue sauce at least like once a week. Yeah. No doubt. Or honey... Any sauce doesn't matter. It's just... It's just like... It's comforting. Like there's nothing wrong with that. It's... Yeah. It's just a good old time. Yeah. And that's... And there's nothing wrong with Burning Fight. That doesn't mean that it's very super exciting, though. But there's definitely nothing wrong with it.

[00:02:54] So, you know, I will say I love that the first stage is like a boardwalk stage. You know? I love that shit. Like neon signs. It looks like very 70s New Jersey or some shit. You know what I mean? Like down at the boardwalk type of shit. It's got a lot of vending machines and shit, too. Love that. Yeah. I like the way... I like the bonus rooms. You literally go in. Again, the inn from like the Super Spy and other games that use it. The same old SNK inn with the arrow.

[00:03:25] You go in these doors and then you have like 10 seconds to like beat up some dudes or beat up their like fucking stuff and take their like gold or something or... Their gold bars and shit. Yeah. Yeah. Like there's this one room where it's like... It's a bar. So it's like here's the chandelier and here's like the big ass piano and you just beat the shit out of the piano and you get like some fucking Red Bull or I don't know what's in that... Yeah. What's in that piano, but...

[00:03:54] It's weird. Thankfully, though, the fucking... The sound effects when you hit an enemy, it sounds like a fucking whip or like lightning. It's like... It really is. It's so strong. God, the kicking feels fucking good, dude. Like the kicking in this game feels so good. Like it connects real easily and unlike, you know, rewind two episodes ago. What game was that we were talking about? Oh, it was King of the... No. King of the Monsters. King of the Monsters. Yeah. There was...

[00:04:22] This game, Burning Fight, has plenty of leeway. When you're trying to line up an attack with an enemy, you could be like... Yeah. Kicking is fucking good, man. Yeah. I think my problem, though, with Burning Fight is that the punching does not feel very solid to me. Yeah. It feels kind of watery. It doesn't have that whip snappy, which you were talking about. Like the kicks. I feel like the enemies could use some more hit stun or like... Oh, fuck yeah.

[00:04:52] Some other animations or maybe some better sound effects. Like you said, we do have the whip. That is good. Right? But like... I don't know, man. It doesn't feel like the punches really count for much. And it sucks because this is obviously the most critical aspect of a beat-em-up. And it's not complete mush. It's not trash like a Konami beat-em-up, like a Turtles game or like the X-Men game or something. Right? But like... It's not great either. It's definitely not Final Fight or its peers.

[00:05:23] Yeah. Yeah. And going back to how you can't really like, I guess, stun lock enemies or hit lock enemies. Enemies can stun lock you so fucking easily. Oh my god, dude. The fat dudes and the fat bald dudes and the overalls. And they would just like headbutt you. Like they would knock me down, wait for me to get up, fucking plow me down again and just repeat that same fucking cycle until I die. Like there was literally no way for me to like...

[00:05:52] Because you can't like, you know, jump up out of being knocked on the ground or like roll or anything like that. You just get up exactly where you were after a few seconds. And then also Matt Dilley. There's a boss called Matt Dilley. Or no, maybe he's not a boss. I think he's like a sub-boss. Yeah. I just wrote down Matt Dilley is a bat... Or... Matt Dilley is a bastard because he did the same fucking thing. I don't know who it is, but I guess he's a bastard. Well, he is.

[00:06:21] I mean, if you felt moved enough to write that down, then he was a bastard. I believe you. Fucking asshole. Yeah. No shit. I... Yeah. I like that they had the fat dudes, the bald guys in overalls because that is a direct ripoff of Final Fight, the headbutt core. Like what are they? Bald Bull, Wong Hu, and Gia Ryber. Yeah. Like the headbutt core. That's exactly who they are. And it's just like, they just... I guess like Capcom just...

[00:06:50] Not Bald Bull. That's fucking... That's the guy from Punch-Out. Right? Bald Bull. I'm not sure there, Chief. Oh, you haven't played Punch-Out. Yeah. Who the fuck... What am I thinking of? It's not Bald Bull. Mega Man. Doesn't matter. Anyway. Yeah, man. I just... Oh, do you like how Mr. Fat Man can like roll around too? Like he's fucking Vega from Street Fighter? That dude is agile as hell.

[00:07:20] I wish I could do that. I mean, if I could... Maybe because I don't wear overalls. Maybe I should throw some on and all of a sudden I could roll with the best of them. Oh, that shit's so good. And fucking... One thing that's really cool about this game too is that you're... I figured this out completely by accident, but like your special moves... So in like Final Fight or Streets of Rage, when you do a special move, you'll consume a little bit of HP,

[00:07:49] but you'll do that like spin kick or something cool like that. In this game, it only uses up your HP when it connects with an enemy. And that shit's pretty cool, actually. Yeah, some games don't allow you to do that and some do. I don't remember if Final Fight does. It doesn't really matter. But yeah, it really depends on the game. But I feel like most games take your life, right? This just happens to be one of the games that don't. Yeah, so that is good. The three characters that you can pick, I don't remember their names.

[00:08:18] They don't feel particularly different from each other. I mean, they don't really have to, I guess. But they didn't really feel super distinct. It's not... They definitely aren't Haggar, Cody, and Guy. I'm sorry to keep comparing the Final Fight, but I just don't know what else to do here. I mean, that's exactly what they ripped off. So it's just... I don't know, man. It's the easy comparison. They're the ones who made the comparison by ripping it off, okay?

[00:08:47] It's not us. It's them. It's their fault, Aaron. I don't have any more reference points. So I was trying to look up the names of the characters in Burning Fight. And one of the first things that popped up was this comparison. It's like a frame from a YouTube video where someone was comparing Final Fight with Burning Fight. And it's like the exact same thing, basically. Yeah.

[00:09:12] By the way, the characters in Burning Fight are Duke Edwards, Ryu Saiba, and Billy King. And dude, Duke was my man. That was like the one that I played. That dude was the shit. The other ones I don't know. I used the guy in the orange gi. Was that Ryu something? Ryu Saiba. S-A-E-B-A. Yeah. I think I... Okay. You know what I really like?

[00:09:39] I really like the continue screen where it has like the three characters in like chibi form, like super deformed. And like they're holding up the word continue. I like that. That's cool. That is really cool. I can't recall if Final Fight or Streets of Rage have that, but if so, fuck them. Dude, even the music in this game is like a very big Final Fight ripoff. They're going for the exact same thing.

[00:10:05] I'm surprised they didn't just hire away Yokohimabura to just like, hey, can you just do the same thing for us? You know? Like, fuck. Did Final Fight come out before that? Final Fight came out in 89, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, Burning Fight is okay. It's nothing special to me. It's fine, I think. Do you have any other good points about this? Because I think I'm Burning Fight it out. Um...

[00:10:35] I mean, there's a pretty good amount of detail in the backgrounds and environments and stuff, but I kind of feel like that's... That's like any beat-em-up, to be honest. I'm struggling to think of, like, anything that really sets this game apart. Because, yeah, like you said, it's okay. It's not like... It's not a game I would go out of my way to play. But, uh... Yeah, it's alright. You know what? I gave this a B, but I'm going to knock it down... Eh... I'm going to give it a B- actually. Because, like... Okay. Yeah.

[00:11:05] I wrote C+, I'm going to stick with C+, personally. I think that's about all it deserves. There is a good amount of detail. Graphically, it is good. I just wish it felt better to play. And I think the bonus room idea is neat, honestly. But, you know, that doesn't make the game by itself. Anyway, okay, yeah. B- for you, C+, for me, on Burning Fight. What are we playing next time, Aaron? Next time, 8-man. Holy shit, I can't wait. See you then. It's going to be so good.

[00:11:34] I need to Neo Geo go home and eat a whole entire cheesecake. I think. I think. I think.