Matrimelee/Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku Toukon (Power Instinct Series)

A Wacky Fighting Game from a very Wacky Fighting game series.

Sometimes, there are games that are interesting, unique, and experimental at times. Then you have games that are almost as wacky as Cho Aniki. This might possibly be one of those wacky games that just catch your attention due to how funny or strange some of the characters in Power Instinct are. Power Instinct first started off as a game that had a few generic themes to it, before the next games strayed further and further away from being the same old generic Street Fighter or King of Fighters. Matrimelee is a fighting game complete with fighters whose moves speak more than their generic appearances, old people getting their fight on, a human/dog hybrid, a crossover with ’ Rage of the Dragons’ characters, and a mega cheap boss who is a little girl…(as well as a bride to your male character)

Though it may be a new guest in the house, the fighting game has its small flaws, turn offs, and overwhelming difficulty at normal levels. Regardless, this title remains a MUST PLAY to all fighting gamers out there for its uniqueness and creativity.

depth 7:

To start off, the game is pretty interesting for its more unique characters out of the cast of its original 16 characters. Already, you’ll notice there are three elderly characters, a dog human of sorts, a magical girl, and a suited man with shades who looks like an agent. Of these characters, their fighting styles are as interesting as their looks, not to mention, a few of which are pretty funny. However, when you look at the other characters, they all seem like the usual fighters you would see in any fighting game. For example, Reiji really is the Ryu of the game with his similar shoto fighting style, however, there are few different within his attacks that make him original in a few ways. Some of the characters simply don’t stand out, but their moves could be flashier than ever! This actually brings a little more life to the strange fighting game, as well as a chance for the gamer to experiment with different characters to find which one suits their cup of tea. Aside from the original characters, there are 4 cross over characters from Rage of the Dragons, an SNK Double Dragon fighting game. The four characters fit in nicely fits in nicely with the cast as well as make appearances in bonus fights in the normal single player mode.

Now aside from characters making the game interesting to play, the battle system itself also brings a few twists to the usual fight game. The first thing I noticed was how your super meter charges. The only way to gain levels with your super meter is to attack a defending opponent, take damage, or taunt (which increases the gauge by 1/3). There is no way to fill the gauge up to its maximum 3 levels by attacking a non-defending opponent. In a way, it almost acts like the revenge gauge in “Street Fighter 4” with the only difference being that it fills when attacking a defending opponent or by taunting the opponent successfully. Yes…Taunts are actually USEFUL IN THIS FIGHTING GAME! There is a second use to taunting in which if the other opponent taunts; you will engage in a duel where the players must press a corresponding attack button that appears on a small television screen to deal damage each time. This creates a way for players to land free damage, stop their opponent from filling their super gauge, or even put themselves at risk by failing to their opponent.

Other little twists to the battle system are its basic battle features that build upon normal SNK games and Capcom games almost. With double jumps, dashing attacks, dashing special moves, knockdown and launch attacks, invincibility during back dashes, block counters, and referee abuse. All these features create the need to learn more advance tactics to beat your opponent down as well as create new combos as well. For example, with dash attacks, you can link them into dashing special moves which are enhanced version of that attack, similar an EX move from Street Fighter 3 and 4. Referee abuse on the other hand uses the referee (similar to Samurai Shodown’s referee) to toss the helpless guy at your opponent or use him as a shield against an opponent’s attacks. Some of these features could also make the game a little cheap at times, the block counter being one of them in which blocking an attack gives you enough time to literally land an attack as a counter on your opponent…if you react fast enough to do so. With the possibility of launch attacks, you can expect there will be air and juggle combos as well, but at times can be hard to pull off since the game pulls more basics from SNK.

addictiveness 4, difficulty 10:

Unfortunately, the game leaves more to be desired at times. It’s a hard feeling to explain when playing the game, but, it certainly isn’t Street Fighter 3 or Fatal Fury Mark of the Wolves. However, it does well to be its own unique game that can be fun for a good amount of time as well as a few laughs for its references, strange special attacks, and wacky characters. I found the game pretty entertaining and at times was at the edge of my seat in battles against the computer.

The only thing that may stop you from staying addicted to the game could be its lack of stages, good music (not to mention, a small amount of tracks too), its challenging difficulty even on level 3, and the final boss…Sissy. Of most SNK fighting games I’ve played, I found the final bosses to be the most challenging task possible in any fighting game. But I’ve never complained about fighting the final boss of, say for instance, King of Fighters, Goenitz or God Rugal. Sissy…is from another world though. She is a simple girl who is the bride to be in the game if you beat her, but fighting her is another thing. YOU CAN HARDLY TOUCH THIS LITTLE GIRL WHO YOU WANT TO BE THE SNOT OUT OF! I never usually use caps in such a rude way on a review, but, I’m serious when I talk about Sissy. If you think projectiles can even touch her, you have another thing coming at you. Her one technique she abuses to death in which she summons a large man from her treasure chest to hit you twice, the second knocking you across the entire screen, renders her INVINCIBLE for pretty much the whole period! Sure, there were cheap things in other SNK games, but this is an annoying little girl we are talking about. One, who summons slow traveling frogs to annoy you, creates drills and buzz saws of her legs, carries hidden weapons, turn you into a frog, and render herself invincible with an attack you can hardly escape even if you dodged. The only way to defeat her would be to get in as close as possible, then dodge when she summons the large man so you end up behind her, attack her, let her use the attack again, dodge behind, and repeat. Even using that tactic is a pain to initiate sadly. Did I mention she is cheap and as difficult as a level 8 computer no matter what setting you choose? Fighting her was insane to me, and after 50 tries (no joke. 50 tries!) I gave up. Fighting level 8 computers is better than fighting her.

The difficulty on the other hand even at level-4 can become unbearable to those new to fighters, or those who can’t adapt quickly to learning not just the uses of the battle system, but when to actually use certain moves. The opponents can at times be very cheap depending on who exactly you are fighting, resulting to using certain techniques that are inescapable at certain points. Though, this only seems to happen more towards the middle to end of the game especially with a “Rage of the Dragons” crossover character. Of course, they are nowhere near as cheap as Sissy in which you actually stand a chance. However, for those who are experienced, playing at higher levels can be pretty fun at times until you run into an annoying character

The stages and music on the other hand as I said can literally stop you from playing the game. Naturally, when you first start playing, you won’t pay attention to these things as much at first. Around 10 rounds or so, you’ll start to notice that you probably heard the same song repeat on the last 3 stages, or you saw the same exact stage background with only a change of a main cast who stands closer to the fighters. I’ve only seen about 5, maybe 6 backgrounds in the entire game, and around 4-5 songs possibly. This can become extremely annoying because the stages are pretty generic and are no where as creative as its predecessors. This does not mean that the game is just meant for game play, it means the developers were LAZY! Not to mention, music themes aren’t based on the characters, but the stages itself pretty much…so, be prepared to hear the same song play a few times in a row.

graphics 7: The graphics aren’t bad, and in fact have to be pretty good considering the kind of characters there are in the game. With funny moves and colorful characters and effects, you can say the developers did a good job. Though, the game lacks in where it is generic. Stages seem a little boring and dull compared to the characters themselves almost, but that’s how the character designs are brought out to the eyes. So this in fact could be a good thing, especially when fighting each other in battle and staying focused. But it still doesn’t make up for being lazy from previous games. You’ll find the people in the background more interesting than the stage itself in fact. For example, at a singing café/restaurant, you’ll notice that the male and female singer would be attacking each other rather than singing. You’ll also notice a change to the stadium’s cast in the foreground in which there may be aliens, or even a band of only obese singers and fans, bringing some interest to once again, character design rather than stage design.

sound 3: I don’t have much to say about the music…because it’s nothing interesting. If you look into the Power Instinct games before Matrimelee, you’ll find the music to be pleasant and interesting to listen to. The songs in this game literally have no life to them…except one. Sadly, this song is the boss’s song which means you will hear it plenty of times before you either triumph or quit playing. This song is the Royal Wedding March, remixed for your fighting game pleasure. The remix does a nice job of being excitable and interesting and might as well be the best song out of the few songs it has. At least Street Fighter Alpha 3 had more themes for its greater amount of stages thus making the game less of a turn off. I seriously have never stopped playing a game because of the music, but in this case, the lack of good tunes bored me before I even got to the final boss, Sissy, but that’s just me after all.

Aside from music you’ll get tired of hearing, the character voices are pretty fun. Such as Poochy (Dog/Human character) who sounds like a dog disregarding the tall muscular human appearance he bears. There is even a Hokuto no Ken/Fist of the North Star reference in Shintaro’s fast punching technique, like Kenshiro’s Hyakuretsu Ken (the one that goes ATATATATATATA). Other than the fine character voices, everything but the music is ok in the game.

What About the Story?:

Why didn't I mention the story now? Well...The only thing I know from looking at a few endings in the game is that the characters can marry a prince or princess at the end of the tournament...but, that's unexplained in the beginning and only reveals this at the end of the game. So, that's why I didn't bother to rate the story. It's barely present. Probably in other Power Instinct games that are console based, the story is very present.

In the End:

I feel this game deserves a 7.7 since the gameplay overshadows most of the little flaws in the game, but the music and stage design can actually become a bore somehow. If you can look past it, I'm sure you'll enjoy the game. This game is certainly a must play if you want to look into the Power Instinct series, or if you just like fighting games.

Thanks for reviewing this game. I approve of any attention drawn to it as I REALLY love it.

I'd have to disagree with you on a couple of points though...

First is the difficulty. I didn't find the game to be difficult at all. But then again, I've been playing NeoGeo fighters for like 10 years now... so maybe that's why it's easy for me to figure out how to out-do the AI in this. I'll admit that Sissy can be very difficult... but other than that, opponents are pretty simple to beat. And even Sissy isn't anything compared to a KoF boss or worse yet, Rage of the Dragons *shudder*

Also, I didn't find the sound to be that bad at all. I imagine you were listening to the North American track though. Those songs are uninspired, boring, and repetitive. The Japanese track is full of zany lyric songs that are really fun to listen to. If you've never heard it, I recommend looking up some of the songs. Some of my favorites include "Kanenaija", "Tokimeki Overclock", and "Let's Go Onmyoji!"

Crazy Li : Ah, so the Japanese soundtracks do make an appearance in the game (if only I knew how to access them). I know of them which is why I mentioned other soundtracks were very creative and aspiring. The default music is the North American which is really an ear sore and it's what everyone will hear if they don't access the BIOS. I had to consider what other people would go through if they were in such a situation.

As for the difficulty. Wow, is all I have to say. That's an amazing feat to play NeoGeo fighters for 10 years. I tired of them after awhile when I found the little twists each one of them shared, but I can't help but love games that try new ideas, or improve on them. I like Art of Fighting 3 I must say, and I can't wait to review that one, but I must finish my Tekken 2 review.

But with the difficulty in this game, I found it to be rather annoying in comparison to other NeoGeo games on the MVS setting. I actually had fun getting my butt whooped and figuring out ways to overcome my opponents in the unforgiving Arcade Fatal Fury Special. But the feel of the difficulty in the game for me was more of an annoyance in which the enemy felt in some way unintelligent to other fighting games and at the same time would use attack patterns meant to annoy the player rather than make them think, "Oh wow, that's an interesting way to fight." I had not trouble with other opponents that weren't from Rage of the Dragons because they gave me that King of Fighters experience that I get when both me and the computer are one hit away from a K.O. At times, I felt like the computer was a little cheap by poking me almost every stop, so that caused me to turtle much of the time to bring out openings, which instead I'd rather play balanced.

And KoF bosses are so much more fun than Sissy who plays like a kid who uses a cheap character and one move to beat their friend to a pulp. It's a cruel fate, unlike getting stepped all over by a KoF boss with finesse and perfection. Can you understand my pain? The agony! hahaha. Difficulty doesn't make a game bad though, because if it did, this game would have a down right 7 out of 10. I gave it 7.7 because of the difficulty.

I didn't find Sissy to be so bad but it might just be my playing style. I mean... it took me maybe about 5 tries my first time to figure out how to beat her... but now I can do so reliably.

To this day, I still can't beat Igniz reliably. I've beaten him, yes... but I don't know how... I think I got lucky plus I used the continue service of him starting with 1/4 life or something since it's impossible to beat him at full health. PIM doesn't have the option, but I don't need it because Sissy is beatable at full health.

I also found Zero to be harder than Sissy... the mid-boss from Rage of the Dragons was more difficult of a fight than her even... and Johan, I can't beat even WITH the 1/4 life continue help. I pretty much can't land a single hit on the guy no matter how hard I try. It stopped being fun after like the 10th time he beat me.

But anyway, I've always liked the Power Instinct series and this game especially. I used to play it online with friends whenever I could (but it's hard because nobody knows about it). It's always fun times.

Crazy Li : Yeah, I used the continue service myself when I even found teching and throw looping useless against those good ol' bosses, but at least they I wasn't getting beaten by some little girl. I don't have anything about getting beaten by little girls, but her in particular would be one of the first to piss me off! One day, I'll be those KoF bosses with Power Meter help rather than 1/4th. I'll find a way with Andy Bogard and Ryo Sakazaki.

I'll play Power Instinct with you. It's been awhile since I've played the old one too since not many play fighting games due to their SNES problems. You just wait till MAME goes online. I'm gonna show you the way of the Hakugen Koppouken Ryu!

I was curious if I mis-remembered the difficulty of the game since it's been so long. I decided to record a playthrough here at Vizzed. It... was a little harder than I remembered but that could partially be due to rust. If you're interested, you can view it here: http://youtu.be/xqkAkjCGxW4

EDIT: link removed... seems the upload to youtube through Viz cut the video prematurely so it's no good.

EDIT 2: link replaced. This one hopefully will be a good upload