dluxx7 plays...Hangzo (1992, Arcade) Full Play through.

Continuing my tradition of doing a full play through of a short and random (usually always arcade) game after completing a project, here is a game I had never heard of before.

In keeping with my November Ninja themed video games exploration, this obscure and underrated arcade gem remained unreleased for almost 20 years, but thanks to some resourceful gaming enthusiasts, was found and released to the wider arcade gaming community via MAME. .

Hangzo is a one or two player co-op side scrolling action beat em up game. Details about who developed the game are unclear, although many believe it was a joint venture between Data East and Hot-B. Rumors are abound that a falling out between the two developers resulted in the game getting shelved and forgotten, hence why it remained unreleased for so long.

Game play wise, many have compared this to games like Ninja Warriors and Techmo's Shadow Force. You select from one of three players; a sword wielding ninja, a double blade kunoichi fighter and a claw wearing martial artist. The game has an array of different moves from standard moves; attack, jump, character specific moves; like pressing up and attack lets the kuniochi do a flip kick attack, and special super moves; where pressing both the attack and jump buttons together do powerful enemy screen clearing attacks. Through out the stages, special power ups can be gained like extra lives, full health and extra special moves. One of the fun features of the game is being able to summon a golden lion which the characters can ride on to cause extra damage to enemies (think Golden Axe ride on dragon mounts. The game is very short with there being five stages to complete.

In terms of plot, much remains unclear, as the opening text is in Japanese. However, some have interpreted it as set in the year of 200X, an evil corporation, headed by the mysterious "President K" is planning world domination. So, three ninjas band together to assault the headquarters of the evil corporation and stop President K ambitions...

Here, I do a full play through of this game from start to finish. I use a lot of continues here, but I am playing this game for fun and posterity sake.

An underrated and enjoyable game, especially in co op mode. Fans of beat em up games should definitely give this a try.

(All rights and credit to game devs Data East Corporation and Hot-B, 1992).