Game: "Urban Champion"
System: Nintendo Entertainment System
Genre: Action
Published by: Nintendo

Reviewer: -RoG-
Posted: 7/6/2008

Review: Now here's a true NES classic. Urban Champion was one of the earliest "action series" titles ever released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and their first 2D fighting game. As you might expect, with it being such an early game, there's not a whole hell of a lot to it.

The game takes place on the streets of a city where two fighters, urban fighters, duke it out for their claim to fame. As you fight your opponent, you have a huge assortment of moves to choose from. Ok, not really. Sad fact is, you have a whopping 2 punches to choose from: hard punch and soft punch. With this incredible fisty arsenal at your disposal, your objective is to punch your opponent onto the next screen. Once you've done this three times, you'll knock him into a manhole, win the match and get showered with confetti from an overly excited lady. And that, my friends, is practically all there is to the game. Choose where you want to punch your opponent, block his attacks and try to knock him into a manhole. Hell of a game concept eh?

Nintendo did add in a few distractions to try beefing up the game a bit more, but they really come off as pointless. First off, every 30 seconds, a police car will drive on by and it will send you and your opponent into opposite corners of the screen. There, the two of you will look up at the sky and whistle all innocently so the cops don't realize you're involved in a big street brawl. Once the cops are gone, your fight resumes. There's also an angry old man with a blue mustache who drops flower pots from his window during your fight. Should one of these pots land on your head, you'll be stunned briefly and your opponent can then knock you on your ass.

The scenery from screen to screen doesn't help make the game much more exciting either. The buildings are almost exact replicas of one another, aside from a few color swaps and different names. Superbly creative names such as Book Store, Snack Bar and Barber Shop. With retail establishment designations like that, it's no wonder Nintendo included this game as a part of their original action series. Everything about this game just screams action!

Urban Champion will always be one of those classic titles that Nintendo fans will revisit every once in a while for no other reason than the nostalgia of the experience. It's not a great game by any stretch, but 2-player mode can provide for some decent button-mashing entertainment. If you're playing against the computer, however, I guarantee you'll be tired of it within 5 minutes tops. For those of you without an NES, I should note that it was also later released as a card on the e-Reader for the Gameboy Advance and on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual console.

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)