Violent Storm (Arcade) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Konami's 1993 arcade beat 'em game, Violent Storm.

Played through as Wade on the game's default difficulty setting.

Though Violent Storm isn't formally considered part of any series, fans often regard it as the final game in an unofficial trilogy, following Crime Fighters (   • Crime Fighters (Arcade) Playthrough - Nint...   ) and Vendetta (   • Vendetta (Arcade) Playthrough - NintendoCo...   ). It was also the last beat 'em up produced by Konami in the 90s.

1993 marked Konami at the peak of their prowess in creating 2D arcade games. Alongside Metamorphic Force (   • Metamorphic Force (Arcade) Playthrough -  ...   ), Mystic Warriors (   • Mystic Warriors (Arcade) Playthrough - Nin...   ), Martial Champions (   • Martial Champion (Arcade) Playthrough - Ni...   ), and Monster Maulers (   • Monster Maulers (Arcade) Playthrough - Nin...   ), Violent Storm is an impressive production that flexes the muscles of its hardware platform.

The quality of the art and animation is miles ahead of just about anything else of its time. The characters are huge, colorful, and they all animate smoothly without slowdown, even when armies of them flood the screen, and the backdrops are full of fun little details to keep an eye out for. The praise that the soundtrack typically draws is also well deserved, with its catchy beats and the ridiculous vocals. Just listen to the William Shatner style flow of the rap in stage three!

The style is as odd as it is notable, too. I'm not even sure how to classify this .. post-apocalyptic rockabilly, I guess? Mad Max meets The Outsiders?

The gameplay feels a great deal Konami's other beat 'em ups, but now you can launch yourself across the screen for quick attacks, and each of the three characters play quite differently from one another. The game plays at a much faster pace than most games of its type, giving it an intense, unrelenting feel which makes it a fair bit harder than the usual Konami arcade fare ... not including the shmups, of course.

Konami's efforts were typically gold star quality, so it's a real shame that as the popular TV licenses dried up, so did their success in the arcades. Violent Storm is arguably a better beat 'em up than TMNT, The Simpsons, or X-Men ever were, and it's well worth trying out of you haven't yet had the pleasure.

Does that intro remind anyone else of Bayou Billy when Annabelle gets kidnapped?

And anyone else love the shout-out to the Ninja Turtles at 24:36? That's my favorite part of the game right there.

Finally, where did the woman's groceries go? She doesn't drop them when she gets snatched, and she'd be hard to hold on to if she was carrying them. I only ask because the game makes such a big display of her carrying them just to forget about it two seconds later. Hmm.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!