After checking out a bonus stage, we get to look at a factory and beat up more people.
After every stage (except for the last), there is a bonus stage, where you can play one of the five stages from the original arcade game. Since you can't replicate the action by punching your system (or TV) in the face as hard as humanly possible, Taito makes up for it by having you rotate the Control Pad and having a moving glove indicate where your first is going to go.
This makes the bonus game harder even on the easiest game, as rotating the Control Pad as much as possible to fill up the bar is the hardest thing in the world to do. The fact that you have to do this three times means that your hand will be tired by the time you reach the third attempt. Unless you have one of those fighting sticks with the arcade-style joystick, you are effed.
One of the worst things about the bonus stage is the power bar itself. If you're able to fill it up fast enough, it is possible to overfill it and empty it, powering your punch down and robbing you out of much-needed points and extra lives.
You get three chances with ten seconds each at going for the most powerful (and accurate) punch. The three chances are added up, and your grand power total indicates how many points you're going to get at the end. If your total is high, you're going to get a lot of points...about 500,000 to be exact. That's a really good total to shoot for, as it makes netting extra lives through your score a lot easier.
It appears that you get an extra life every 200,000 points. This makes doing well on the bonus stages vital to having enough lives to beat the game. You have only three continues, but it's possible to burn through all of them.
For the first game, you'll be fighting off a thug. He just stands there as you power-up your punch. You'd think he'd be smart enough to at least get away, but no. He just stands there. As you keep punching him more, the swelling on his cheeck just increases. After three punches, he slowly falls to the ground and Sonic Blast Man saves the woman the thug was mugging.
Stage 2
Environmental hazards make an appearance here! Watch out for the jets of fire shooting out of some of the pipes above you. As long as you keep an eye on those pipes, the flames shouldn't be a problem. They'll hit you if you're on the ground or in the air.
This is supposed to be a factor, but it's impossible to figure out what they make. It's even more confusing that most of the enemies you fight are martial artists. The tall guys (some with berets, some without) are easy to take care of, even though they have a standing combo as well as a ranged attack where they throw hand grenades at you which explode after a few seconds.
The women, however, are the worst as they can somersault and hit you when you don't expect them to. All you have to do is just give them the first possible chance and they will quickly rear back and lean forward with that double palm strike. Holding onto an enemy? You're gonna get smacked. Right in front of them when they land on the ground after a somersault? You're gonna get smacked. Walk right up to them with your slow self like you're at Central Park? You're gonna get smacked. (The women were changed to men in the American/European version, once again due to censorship from Nintendo. Strangely, they're still wearing women's martial arts robes due to Taito doing the bare minimum to achieve compliance with Nintendo of America censorship demands, and it looks slightly awkward.)
If you can get the women in a punching combo, do not do the punch that sends them flying backwards, as they will instantly block it. Use the uppercut with the projectile or the monkey flip throw instead.
Since it shows up here, I might as well mention (and complain about) the special attack. Pressing Y and B causes Sonic Blast Man to perform a rising spinning double lariat, much like Zangief from the Street Fighter series. When Sonic Blast Man lands back on the ground, he'll be dizzy and will kneel there stunned for a couple of seconds, and he will do this regardless of whether you hit anyone with it or not. Of all the special attacks I've seen in beat-em-ups, this is the absolute worst simply because of the stun period. Am I playing as a superhero or some run-of-the-mill sack of crap John Q. Public with a clock and a portable black-and-white TV monitor on his chest? I'm confused here.
About halfway through the stage, you'll meet another new enemy: the machine gun commandos. These guys will either shoot directly at you, throw grenades or aim at the ground and shoot at your feet if you're close enough.
You'll then come across a lift that takes you upward. You'll be fighting a lot of enemies before it reaches the top.
When you die, the enemies get knocked back as soon as Sonic Blast Man lands on the ground, much like in Streets of Rage.
The boss here is a pair of guys with sunglasses and claws, and they remind me very much of Zamza and the other clawed guys from Streets of Rage 2. Aside from the claw swipes and the jumping around, they also have that slide attack much like Zamza did. Jump kicks do the trick somewhat, but see if you put one of them into a combo and use a grab attack that hits both guys.
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