35. Panzer Bandit (Fill-in-Cafe, Playstation (PS3), 1997)

I played this game for the first time less than 24 hours after playing (game #33) The Ninja Saviors, and maybe I've just been in a good mood because these are the 2 best beat 'em up type games I've ever played.

Panzer Bandit was developed by Fill-in-Cafe, who previously developed the excellent but relatively unknown fighting game series Asuka 120%. I love Asuka 120% because it's fairly easy to get into, and all of the attacks feel really good to use, the developer has a real knack for a bombastic sense of impact. While I am big fan of this fighting game, a fighting game is ultimately only fun if you have people to play it with, and this is where Panzer Bandit really excels over Asuka 120% for me.

Panzer Bandit takes the basic fighting game framework of Asuka 120% and plops it into a beat 'em up. There are 4 characters to choose from, and the two I used were very different. The main character, Kou, had a moveset fairly similar to Ryu from Street Fighter: lots of fireballs and punches. I chose to play on easy, and I'm glad I did because it was the perfect difficulty to get used to the game while having fun.

The way the game works, your character is extremely mobile, so the focus is on movement tech and juggling enemies in the air. Combined with a combo counter, (and especially on easy mode), this gives the game a similar feeling to the best parts of a fighting game's practice mode: trying to perfect a combo even better than your last (I managed a 51 hit combo, which felt amazing). I love a game that encourages expression through play, and there is so much of that here. This is the best time I've ever had in the lab, it makes me feel like I've gotten pretty good at a fighting game without really trying.

After switching to the heaver robot character, Ein, I was able to output way more damage and breeze through the game. The levels are broken up into planes that you can hop between, which is another way of solving "Where is My Character?" (aka "The Beat 'em Up Problem") that I explained in my The Ninja Saviors post. While the enemies and stages don't have much variety, just the act of figuring out how many punches you can land or when to activate your super move feels so good, I can't give Panzer Bandit anything but top marks.

5/5, it gives me huge Gunstar Heroes vibes, and that's ultra high praise from me.