''Beast Busters'' is a
rail shooter
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a Video game genre, sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certai ...
horror game
A horror game is a video game genre centered on horror fiction and typically designed to scare the player. Unlike most other video game genres, which are classified by their gameplay, horror games are nearly always based on narrative or visual ...
released by
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 ...
for
arcades in 1989. It was the first three-player
light gun shooter
Light gun shooter, also called light gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game genre in which the primary design element is to simulate a shooting gallery by having the player aiming and discharging a gun-shaped controller at a sc ...
video game.
Ports were released for the
Amiga and
Atari ST in 1990.
Gameplay
In the game, players control one of three militiamen named Johnny Justice, Paul Patriot and Sammy Stately, who must shoot their way out of a city that has been invaded by the
undead
The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if alive. Most commonly the term refers to corporeal forms of formerly-alive humans, such as mummies, vampires, and zombies, who have been reanimated by supe ...
. The original arcade machine allows for up to three players to play the game at the same time.
Guns are mounted to the machine and look like machine guns. Players can earn a number of
power-ups through the course of each stage to aid them in battle such as
rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
s,
grenades, armor, health packs, and ammo.
The game has seven sections for players to shoot their way through. In between stages players are shown
cutscene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward th ...
s explaining the events of the
zombie
A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...
infestation that has overtaken the city. Each stage has a sub boss as well as an
end boss
In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...
to defeat, all of which have 2 forms to defeat. The game was known for having unusual
bosses, such as a zombie punk who mutates into a
dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
, or a
jeep which starts coming to life. One stage ends with the militiamen having to rescue a female
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
agent from that stage's boss.
Reception
In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Beast Busters'' on their January 15, 1990 issue as being the most-successful upright arcade unit of the month. It went on to become Japan's fifth highest-grossing dedicated
arcade game of 1990 and ninth highest-grossing dedicated
arcade game of 1991.
In North America, the game became the second top-earning arcade game in early 1990, below ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers (named after It ...
''.
The game drew comparisons to ''
Operation Thunderbolt'', ''
Line of Fire
Line most often refers to:
* Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity
* Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system
Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to:
Art ...
'' and SNK's own ''
Mechanized Attack''. ''
ACE
An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...
'' rated it 4 out of 5 and reacted positively to the game's horror theme and story, calling it ''
Operation Wolf'' meets ''
Splatterhouse
is a beat 'em up arcade game developed and published by Namco. It was the first in a series of games released in home console and personal computer formats. This cult classic would later spawn the parody '' Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti'', the ...
''.
According to
Paul Theroux,
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
owned a ''Beast Busters'' arcade machine and frequently took it with him on tour via
cargo plane
A cargo aircraft (also known as freight aircraft, freighter, airlifter or cargo jet) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers. Such aircraft usually do not incorporate passenger a ...
.
Legacy
A sequel entitled ''Beast Busters: Second Nightmare'' was released in
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
on the
Hyper Neo Geo 64
The Hyper Neo Geo 64 is an arcade system created by SNK, and released in September 1997, as the successor of the Neo Geo MVS, within the Neo Geo family.
It is the first and only SNK hardware set capable of rendering in 3D, and was meant to ...
.
A handheld spin-off called ''
Dark Arms: Beast Buster'' was released in 1999 for the
Neo Geo Pocket Color
The is a 16-bit color handheld video game console manufactured by SNK. It is a successor to SNK's monochrome Neo Geo Pocket handheld which debuted in 1998 in Japan, with the Color being fully backward compatible. The Neo Geo Pocket Color wa ...
in the form of an
Action RPG
An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre.
Definition
The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...
.
''Beast Busters featuring KOF'' was released in December 2014 for iOS and Android devices, but it ended its service in August 2015.
See also
* ''
Laser Ghost''
References
External links
''Beast Busters''at Hall of Light Amiga database
*{{moby game, id=/beast-busters, name=''Beast Busters''
1989 video games
Activision games
Amiga games
Arcade video games
Atari ST games
Light gun games
SNK franchises
SNK games
Video games about zombies
Video games scored by Masahiko Hataya
Video games scored by Matthew Simmonds
U.S. Gold games
Cooperative video games
Video games developed in Japan