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I guess when you are crazy & f*cked up enough to put this on your car, it can be whatever the hell you want it to be.
Unknown
Regarded as one of the worst Nintendo 64 games ever produced, and by others worse than that, Dual Heroes undoubtedly has problems. You select from a group of Japanese Sentai-inspired super heroes who wear power suits that crimp more than just their style (think about it), and one of them is named Hoe. His occupation lists him as a millionaire, effectively making him the richest “Hoe” in all of mankind’s history. Enemy AI is programmed to run in the opposing direction, even pulling a Lemming by dropping off the sides of the stage inadvertently.
So no, Dual Heroes isn’t up for much in terms of its respect, but it also doesn’t deserve a heartless bashing either. The game sits in the center of a miniscule N64 3D fighting selection whose top tier title (Fighter’s Destiny) barely qualifies as average elsewhere.
Those who will gripe about its wonky sense of design are missing the inspiration, an entire culture’s worth of TV super heroes that in Japan, all make sense. Comparisons to Power Rangers are misinformed at best considering that Saban’s show in and of itself was a knock-off, merely smartly marketed. In other words, is Dual Heroes a rip-off or a homage to Eastern television the designers likely grew up with?
Once in the ring, and certainly without an AI counterpart to stare down, Hudson/Electrobrain’s brawler is mountains ahead of duds like Konami’s Deadly Arts. Flashy and brazen, Dual Heroes tries to impress with its menagerie of flip kicks, spins, and sliding dashes. Dual Heroes never stops moving, a kinetic fireball of energy that seems fueled by an entire bag of raw sugar. It’s impossible not to sit up and take notice of this neon-laden, JPEG-backed world.
All of those attempts at flash create a wildly imprecise fighter, although one with at least a sense of flow and fluidity. For as difficult as the material can be to take seriously, as a goofy button masher, this futuristic combat run provides. There’s nothing inherently technical about it, fighters grazing blows and forging ahead with a flimsy special move system. There’s also the ability to charge into a metallic form, mirroring the T-1000 from the Terminator series, and increasing attack power. That’s as close as this one will come to requiring any legitimate spacing. The rest is squarely focused on face-to-face brawling.
There’s a time waster here worth some attention, more so if you were never swept up in the great Dual Heroes rebellion of the late ’90s. Err, well, at least if you avoided the media coverage. With a fresh, open mind and some semblance of understanding for why the designs are what they are, this is an undervalued, kooky charmer. You have a unique training mode against a robot who learns your play style, some evil dude named Zorr trying to take over future Earth, and people donning the style of future.
Because yes, after the great Gaiathyst war, it’s more important to add frills to your power suit than it is to wear something that allows for full body motion in the middle of a fight.
Deadly Arts isn’t so much deadly as it is “softly tapping an opponent and hoping not to hurt them too much.” Konami’s fighting engine begrudgingly works, almost admitting in motion that it’s barely functional. Punches feel more like slaps, and foot sweeps hardly seem to register. Maybe the ring is padded too.
Of course, it’s actually hard to see the ring half the time, this 3D brawler unable to keep itself visible amidst arenas designed more for their ability to place random, unidentifiable objects than clear lines of sight. Fences obscure combatants, boxes are obnoxiously situated, and the camera seems programmed to show the wonder of their mushy texture than a side view of the fisticuffs.
Clearly, Deadly Arts is conflicted in its design, 3D movement restricted to keep the sluggish, unresponsive characters on a single plane. Peppy jump kicks, even without crucial transition animation, have the speed of a traditional 2D fighter, this despite coming from the era of anti-gravity Virtua Fighter. In the end, objects just exist to box in and corner trap, a strategy with more weight than finesse or precision.
Special moves are also presented with circular motions. Done right, said movement can add a genuine grace and flow to a polygonal melee. Done like Deadly Arts, you wonder if the controller is functional. In the open, registration of movement works, pieced together on-screen motion and all. In close, it’s as if the cart can’t handle the collision as its told, so the wonky, dorky fighters stand there until a decision is made internally. That, or nothing happens at all.
There’s no excitement quotient because Deadly Arts only works about half the time. With its stunted visual exterior, Konami’s limiting N64 combat sim comes across as a bold reinterpretation of Pit-Fighter. Despite lacking digitized visuals, Arts’ routines require a return to a basic stance after each move, causing a dreadful delay in motion and timed acuity. That’s why Pit-Fighter always felt so crunched in its controls, and who knew anyone would try to replicate such a system?
This is an almost comically missed opportunity, the design swerving so far from its base ideals that it’s staggering that it ever found release. If a console is starved enough, people will take any piece of meat they can get, so if nothing else, Deadly Arts was snappy with its opportunistic shelf hogging.
It’s a game that tries a little of everything, from a dopey create-a-fighter to tag team and multi-fighter battle modes. (It sounds great on the box art) Regardless, you’re stuck with this unappealing roster which veers deep into the absurd. Even with the provided tools, you’re not creating anything more quirky than what’s available in the stock roster. They’re clearly designed different for the sake of it, never considering a clown or a failed knock-off from Jet Grind Radio don’t carry much of a presence.
Maybe these guys (and gals of course) found a home after all. Deadly Arts is perfect for them, a misfit of a fighting game with a misfit cast.
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