72. Runark (Taito, Arcade (PS2), 1990)

Runark (released as Growl in North America) is a 4 player beat-'em-up where you play as a group of tough dudes who go around freeing various animals from poachers. It differentiates itself from other similar titles by having a comic book kind of styling with actions words popping up on the screen when there is an explosion. It also supports huge numbers of enemies at one time for a game from 1990.

Several times throughout the game you rescue an animal, only for it to come back and assist you: a rescued antelope brings back a stampede of others to help deal with a crowd of enemies, or an elephant headbutts a tank, blowing it up. Every time this happens it feels really cool. I chose the fastest, highest jumping character, and the rate of speed that you can punch is just crazy. It felt like Fist of the North Star, and it was super easy to just lock enemies in a stun from my flurry of punches. There are a bunch of items to pick up (whips, pipes, rocket launchers) and this really gives it a Die Hard Arcade feel, and that's one of my favorite beat-'em-ups.

As fun as the game is at times, it can be equally frustrating. As easy as it is to stun lock enemies, it's exactly as easy for them to stun lock you, so crowds can become quickly overwhelming. As in many games of this type, your jump kick is extremely powerful for dealing with groups of enemies, but that means dealing with crowds often just turns into a constant stream of jump kicking to stay alive. While the game is no 2-button masterpiece, there are a lot of moves that are enemy-position dependent, so the combat stay fairly fresh over the games' short playtime.

Also, the final boss is some kind of giant mind-controlling worm, so that's something.

4/5, everything I want in a beat-em-up, except for deep controls