Definitely showing the intro here, since the LP doesn't begin with it. This is the intro for the English version. It should be noted that "Take that!" was added during the translation and localization process, as was the rest of the sampled speech that makes up Sonic Blast Man's dialogue.
Why couldn't the woman roll out of the way? It's not like the ropes were tied to the tracks? And did Sonic Blast Man really have to punch the train all the way back until it got crushed like a can off-screen and ultimately destroyed? Super powers aside, I think Sonic Blast Man is an absolute jerk.
Yes, the game came over to the West. So why am I showing the Super Famicom version? Because censorship issues and the fact that I love how I somehow found a SFC version playthrough out of dumb luck. That's why.
Believe it or not, the original arcade version was actually a game where you put on a pair of gloves connected to the machine and punched at the target as you could, and the screen showed a couple of scenarios such as punching out a giant monster crab or stopping a meteorite in space...all with your own two fists. The arcade version serves as the basis for the mini-games between stages.
The game was eventually recalled in the States because players would injure their hands trying to get the best possible scores, and because Taito never put so much as a warning sticker telling people of the risk of injury on the machine. (I'm guessing they underestimated the stupidity of man.) There was an arcade sequel to this version of Sonic Blast Man, but it only showed up in Japan, probably because of what happened in America.
Stage 1
The game begins downtown in some unnamed city, where Sonic Blast Man has to defeat the bad guys (or in the English version's case, the "villians").
The first thing you're going to notice as soon as the game starts is that Sonic Blast Man is one of the slowest characters in a beat-'em-up ever. Even Adam Hunter from Streets of Rage (or better yet, Max Thunder from SOR2) moves faster than Sonic Blast Man. Only one playable character, and we get this slowpoke? C'mon, Taito.
The only time you'll fight bad guys is when the screen stops as you're moving to the right. Since there's almost no hazards between enemy fight points save for certain parts of the game, you can just jump to the right until the screen stops and you can fight enemies. Jumping to the side is strange, as you cannot control what direction you're traveling in mid-jump and it covers a lot of the screen in seconds. That's nice, but I'm just trying to avoid an enemy, not teleport myself across the screen. That's pretty contradictory, in a way. In the air, he's almost Samus Aran from the Metroid series. On the ground, he moves around as slowly as some guy with debilitating athlete's foot.
Fighting enemies is pretty interesting. You can grab enemies and perform one of two moves: shaking them before throwing them in the opposite direction, or hitting them with a multi-jab combo. You can also punch enemies in the face a couple of times instead of grabbing them, and when you do that, that's when the real fun begins. After a couple of punches, you'll grab your opponent and have even more options than before. Y does the multi-jab and Back+Y does the shake and throw, but Up+Y does an uppercut that knocks your opponent into the air while shooting a projectile forward that attacks any other enemies around your target. Forward+Y shoots your target forward with a mighty punch and mows down enemies in his path, while Down+Y lets you voraciously throw an enemy backwards and hit someone unsuspecting enough to be near the target when it drops down.
When you do enough damage to your enemies, they will eventually be kneeling down after they getting up and will be stunned. When that happens, you can walk up to them, grab them, and put them in a throw where you swing them around a little bit before tossing them in the direction you were facing, knocking other enemies around you back in the meantime.
Fighting enemies is done decently, but trying not to take damage from them feels...weird. It's like an exercise in "What did I do to deserve this bullshit? Oh, wait. That." Every time you get attacked, it's always at the most convenient time and you can't help but think you just walked into a knife stab or a open-handed palm slap to the chest. It doesn't help that you can get hit again a couple of seconds after the first time and still feel like you somehow walked into it, regardless of whether it was intentional or not. The only way to minimize damage is to fight efficiently, and you'll have to be able to make decisions on the fly as to which throw you should use when and what strategy to use to take out all the bad guys.
Hitting two enemies at the same time is rather interesting. There are three ways to have your standing combo broken: get whacked, miss a punch or fight two opponents at once. You can alternate between sides and punch two guys at once just by using the Control Pad with the Y button as you punch repeatedly, but if they're both overlapping with each other, you can just press Y indefinitely and keep punching both of them until you're able to automatically grab one of the guys, which usually happens after you finish one of them off (or get extremely lucky). Useful strategies if you're in a situation that let's you take advantage of them.
Enemies here include punks with knives, fat guys that will hit you with either a palm shove or a belly flop and girls who will back up and jump kick forwards once they line themselves up with you. The girls were replaced with African-American guys that just hop around as they move. Like the girls, they stop moving before the forward jump kick.
Sometimes enemies will drop items at random in between barrels and crates that also carry items inside. Picking these up takes a little bet of getting used to, but not much. You have to press Down and Y to pick up items. Even worse, when an item shows up, you have to pick it up as quickly as possible or else it will disappear after several seconds. Why would they have made this any more inconvenient than just the whole Down+Y thing that I've never been a big fan of?
Items are random. You may get apples, cookies and chickens that restore your health (apples and cookies are partial, chickens are full). You may also get Sonic Blast Man helmets that act as 1-Ups, or blue punch gloves that act as super attacks (or "Bomb Punches" as the game calls them).
At certain points in the game, Sonic Blast Man will automatically move to the right and go further into the level automatically. You won't have control over him again until he stops moving.
The first boss is a bigger thug than the ones you've recently seen. He'll jump up and hit you out of the air if you jump, so jump kicks are automatically out. You'll have to be able to throw enemies into him or somehow manage to get him next to you without getting clobbered in the side of the face and punching him until you can put him in a combo. Avoiding his punch is harder than it should be, as it has more range than it appears to have and knocks you down instantly. If he's close enough to you when and if he knocks you down, he'll pick you up and throw you for even more damage. You'll have to play keepaway, avoid using jump kicks, and use the range of your punches to get the jump on the guy, since you'll eventually run out of flunkies to throw at him and fight him indirectly with.
You may have to use a Bomb Punch to attack everything on screen if you're low on health. To do that, press L or R and Sonic Blast Man while flash white. While he's flashing, press Y and he'll use the Bomb Punch. The screen freezes and enemies stop moving as he does it, but it's a bit on the slow side. C'mon, just punch the screen already. (I can understand how long the Super attacks from Streets of Rage, but it was actually pretty cool and I didn't mind waiting.) Now, keep in mind that the reason it seems slow is that you're probably playing the version that came out in America/Europe and had the Anglicized dialogue. He just says take that and you're waiting an extra second for him to punch the ground. In the Super Famicom version, he stops speaking just before he punches the ground, so the wait isn't that bad.
When you beat the boss, you'll beat the stage.
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