SWAT Kats SNES game!

From: David Minter <mintedb_at_ndlc.occ.uky.edu>
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 1995 15:14:34 -0500 (CDT)

     A Waxworks in my area ( Owensboro, Ky ) has gotten the SWAT Kats
SNES video game for rent! It doesn't break any new ground, but it's
GREAT for a platform game! Razor is a tad off in term of graphics, but
other than they're great. The ending should make any Kat fan laugh.
It's not that difficult, although at first you're weak as a kitten,
excuse the pun. The Glovatrixes don't fire very far, oddly enough. A
nice touch would have been if the gloves had a bionic arm attachment ala
Bionic Commando. Once you get used to the way the Kats jump from walls
( This could have been improved vastly! )


     There's a nice inside joke in the Metallikats stage! In a subway,
there are various posters along the walls. One has what looks like Razor
from the H-B "We are Cartoons!" still dressed up in a trench coat and
fedora. Written on it is, "THE MOVIE" Another nice touch is at Level Up
when your given character uses his trademark phrase ( "BINGO!" or
"GOTCHA!" ). The game uses the voices of Charlie Adler and that guy from
"Archie Bunker's Place" ( Barry Gordon? ) or voice clips thereof.


     Apparently, the programmers are either viewers or watched the show
to get ideas for the monsters. There's the Pastmaster's dragon and
cyclopses, the robot Metallikat guards from "A Bright and Shiny Future,"
Creeplings, mini Madkats, giant Bacteria, Creeplings galore, and a cameo by
Hardrive as an inbetween boss in Dark Kat's liar! Just before fighting the
bosses ( Dr. Viper, Madkat, the Metallikats, the Pastmaster, and Dark Kat
), the game displays those grid bios seen at the end of the episodes. A
nice nostalgic touch.


     The Turbokat is intigrated into the game mechanics nicely. You must
use it to defeat the Giant Bacteria by first dodging or destroying
insectoids and then flying into its gullet and attacking a multi-eyed
heart firing some sort of bacteriological agents at you. It is also used
against the gigantic worm in the Callista episode in the same way as the
Giant Bacteria and finally to gain access to a gigantic version of Dark
Kat's plane from "The Wrath of Dark Kat," dodging a whole slew of
targeting missles!


     So, all in all, if you can't afford the game, at least rent it.
It's a nice jaunt through soon to be gone memories of Kats gone by, and
it isn't too frustrating. I got to Dark Kat ( Himself, and not just his
stage. ) before my first "Game Over." on the hard difficulty setting.
I'm somewhat strapped for cash at the moment, so I'll wait until it goes
on sale at Waxworks; sadly, I don't think it will rent that much,
although it was checked out the first time I saw it on the shelf on Friday.


          Keep those Kat claws sharp!

             David Minter
Received on Sat Aug 19 1995 - 16:36:49 PDT