''Superior Soldiers'', known in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as , is a

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

fighting Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

developed and published by

Irem is a Japanese video game console developer and publisher, and formerly a developer and manufacturer of arcade games as well. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Softwar ...

. It was created during the fighting game trend of the 1990s that began with

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

's ''

Street Fighter II is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Syst ...

''. Several graphic designers of this and several other Irem titles later moved to

Nazca Nazca (; sometimes spelled Nasca; qu, Naska) is a city and system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru. It is also the name of the largest existing town in the Nazca Province. The name is derived from the Nazca culture, which flourished in ...

, and designed the graphics of the ''

Metal Slug is a Japanese Shoot 'em up#Scrolling shooters, run and gun video game series originally created by Nazca Corporation before merging with SNK Playmore, SNK in 1996 after the completion of the Metal Slug (1996 video game), first game in the seri ...

'' franchises for

SNK is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...

Characters

There are eight fighters in the game. * (known outside Japan as Starsaber; however the back of the North American arcade flyer spells his name as Star Sabor.) - The protagonist character of the game. * - A female fighter dressed as a scantily-clad dancer. * - A nuclear human remodeled with a built-in battery. * (known outside Japan as Cattydox) - A female strip dancer. * (known outside Japan as Busido) - An armoured male samurai. * (known outside Japan as Reptilian) - The dinosaur with a personality that isn't violent. * (known outside Japan as Satinsect) - A mutant that has been turned into a human-consuming demon. * (known in North America as Skull Reaper) - The antagonist of the game. Upon defeat, an entity emerges from its body identifying itself as Bydo, a reference to the antagonist of Irem's ''

R-Type is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Irem in 1987 and the first game in the ''R-Type'' series. The player controls a star ship, the R-9 "Arrowhead", in its efforts to destroy the Bydo, a powerful a ...

series.

Regional differences

Besides the names of several characters, the North American version, ''Superior Soldiers'' lacks other things that are seen in the Japanese version, ''Perfect Soldiers''. The Japanese version has an announcer shouting the name of the game at the title screen, as well as names of "who VS. who" at the VS. screens in

Engrish ''Engrish'' is a slang term for the inaccurate, nonsensical or ungrammatical use of the English language by native speakers of Japanese, as well as Chinese and other Asian languages. The word itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to s ...

. However, the well-known "

Winners Don't Use Drugs "Winners Don't Use Drugs" is an anti-drug slogan that was included in arcade games imported by the American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA) into North America from 1989 to 2000. The slogan appeared during an arcade game's attract mode. Th ...

" screen and new color graphics were added to the North American version.

References

External links

*
Perfect Soldiers
' a

* *
Superior Soldiers
' at arcade-history {{R-Type series 1993 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Fighting games Irem games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Video games set in 1999