the most hardcore. That's right, it's Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S - Jougai Rantou!? Shuyaku

Soudatsusen, the Strange Anime Licensed 2D fighter that's the best thing since Ranma

½ Chougi Ranbu Hen, and only slightly more annoying to pronounce. The full cast of various

sailors take the field in a game that, to be honest, kinda caught me off-guard. I wasn't

expecting anything nearly this good, or nearly this customizable.

So before there was Arcana Heart or Skullgirls or even Dead or Alive, there was the cast

of Sailor Moon beatin' each other up for fun and profit. And... well, it's by no means

what you'd expect out of a modern fighter, but for 1994 this is still pretty boss. You've

got back-dashing, desperation attacks, and fair level of combo complexity. Everything

runs off quarter- and half-circles, like most games today, so it'll be exceptionally easy

for your average player to pick it up and jump right in. That's the good news. The bad

news is that, for whatever reason, the story mode completely hamstrings your character

of choice... or, more accurately, buffs the hell out of your opponents by giving them

120% health and ridiculous defense, compared to the wet tissue paper you call a body. That

is, until you figure out - in my case, a week later - that by hitting Select during the

controller configuration screen, you can actually tweak each character's parameters on the fly.

And that's awesome.

By doing this, the game goes from "Massive uphill climb" to "very flexible, if a bit

easy." But I'm gonna go out on a limb and presume that you're not in it to show your

hard macho buffness to the world, you just want to have a good time with a 2D fighter

that might include Jupiter putting Mars here in a giant swing and doing a pile of damage,

or Chibi-moon latching onto an opponent's head and wreaking havoc. There's a good bit

of gameplay diversity between the characters, which is good, because let's face it they're

all teenage girls in very similar outfits. You need a scorecard that differentiates between

hair color to keep 'em straight.

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon S - Jougai Rantou!? Shuyaku Soudatsusen (man, just saying the

title of this thing is eating into my time) might not've set the world on fire like the

Mortal Kombats or Street Fighters of its day, but it's good to see licensed games that can

actually take the whole 2D fighting idea and do it right. Heck, it took Ranma three tries

to be playable, and Sailor Moon did it in one. Our thanks go out to Tony at Games Unlimited

in Delaware, Ohio... wait a second. Is it Delaware or Ohio? Or is it like Indiana, Pennsylvania?

**** IT, WE'LL DO IT LIVE