Shadow Force review [Arcade] - SNESdrunk

Fun and innovative beat-em-up from Technos Japan, one reason I love reviewing arcade games
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[@chrisjags]

Traditional mythological Tengu do have Pinocchio noses, so that would be the reason :P

[@ChargeQM]

Yep, going all the way back to Sarutahiko, who was a god with a long nose who got the goddess of beauty interested by basically saying 'hey nice boobs.' He was a little more poetic about it, but the content of his words were basically that.

[@goatbone]

​@wnc817 I don't think that theory is widely accepted.

[@goatbone]

@wnc817 I think you are on your own there.

[@clarafedde8674]

You forgot crow wings, but yeah. Clogs and the leaf fan too.

[@johndawson9689]

Racial and religious caricatures are still a bit of a thing in japan, rather popular well up to the end when of the 20th century. And with a pictorial written language visual rather than verbal or phonetic written allusions have a really big place in their culture compared to western cultures. A big part of why manga is so big, they make a lot of written pictorial depictions vs. writing things out compared to the west. Add in shintoism which is an animistic religion as a major background characteristic of literal depictions for some cultural context.

[@whosaidthat84]

Throughout the years I've seen tons and tons of arcade compilation videos and not once have I come across this game until now! Looks awesome!

[@billyfarrington374]

Me either. It's like Final Fight had a child with Kirby, and I never knew.

[@whosaidthat84]

@@billyfarrington374 a combo I gladly welcome.

[@rustydowd879]

"Tengu" are a sort of shape-shifting wizard/demi-god/demon character from old Japanese folklore. Their iconic look is the red face with a long nose. In Japan they are a recognizable cultural image.

[@whosaidthat84]

Was looking for this comment. I wish he would brush up on his basic yokai. I've seen him raise an eyebrow at so many things like a wanyudo in Actraiser.

[@raphaelfp]

Worth to mention Takuma Sakazaki uses a Tengu mask in his Mr. Karate attire (as the Art of Fighting final boss) Moreover, this is another arcade game I've never heard before and for sure I'd spend a few bucks on it. Fortunately it doesn't take that much nowadays to play it

[@thelegendaryzoltan9628]

@@whosaidthat84 I don't think Wanyudo is a BASIC youkai.

[@whosaidthat84]

@@thelegendaryzoltan9628 I guess, but it is a youkai that's popped up here and there.

[@thelegendaryzoltan9628]

@@whosaidthat84 It's fine. He doesn't need to know about that kind of stuff if he's not interested in it.

[@jessicastoker8932]

Tengu, in Japanese mythology, were part-bird demon men who were some of the most imposing of Ninjas. And traditionally, they are depicted as having very long noses and red skin... hence Tengu in this game having all red skin and a long nose. Tengu masks are popular during festivals in Japan, and appear as, you might have guessed, red masks with very long noses.

[@snowowl4506]

Technos actually trickled out a few more arcade games after this one, including Super Dodge Ball, Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer (a game they bet particularly much for) and Double Dragon, all for the Neo Geo hardware.

[@youremakingprogress144]

Great review! This game looks awesome. In Japanese mythology, a tengu is a kind of demon that has a long nose (similar to how vampires always have fangs). I'm guessing that the character Tengu in this game was patterned after them.

[@DFloyd84]

Also, the long-nosed tengu (hanatakatengu) are considered a separate group to the bird tengu (karasutengu), and are said to be the spirits of Buddhists who were not virtuous enough to enter Heaven.

[@kri249]

I think one of the greatest novelties of arcade beat em ups are the locations where each level is. Kicking the crap out of bad guys in the oddest of places just adds to the fun.

[@JohnnyFiction]

I remember playing this with my brother in Vegas at the casinos back when they had arcades, and it stuck with me forever. Found it a few years ago and still think it's one of the most innovative beat em ups ever made

[@arostwocents]

It does look very cool

[@wileyschmitt]

To quote Werewolf: "This is absolutely fascinating."

[@baratacom]

Oh dang, I played this game once at an arcade when I was a kid and had mostly forgotten about it up until now Also, tengu is the name of a Japanese mythical being, one of the depictions being a monk with a red face (sometimes mask) with a big ol nose

[@TexasHollowEarth]

This seems like a sequel to the arcade Ninja Gaiden beatemup..... aka Shadow Warriors in Europe.

[@icytower38]

I’m relatively new to subscribing to your channel. I just want to say how much I appreciate the short & quick, yet informative video format you do.

[@mikesilva3868]

Agreed 😊

[@bes03c]

You have an amazing backlog to work through. Enjoy it!

[@TheMightyMcClaw]

One of my oldest and foggiest memories is of seeing this game in an arcade - for a long time I thought I had fever dreamed it, until I was able to track it down much later as an adult.

[@hotpileofgarbage]

Played this game like twice at Mazzio's Pizza in Griffin, GA in the very late 80s. Its character designs and spritework looked absolutely off-the-chain cool, and it got me doodling my best seven-year-old attempts at cyborg ninjas and science beasts. By the next time I visited my grandmother, they'd rotated their arcade machines. In the pre-internet age, that meant it was essentially gone forever, even eventually from your memory because other things arrest your attention and life goes on. And then along came KZbin, with its channels like SNES Drunk and World of Longplays, and if you remember for just a split second, you can hook that memory like a fish and relive it right in front of your eyeballs.

[@danielsanchez6235]

Used to play this one so much in Arcades. Love it so much

[@mattoubatou]

I'm currently developing a beat em up for the Playdate handheld console and your channel has revealed some true gems on my journey to play every beat em up in existence... for "research" of course. I just wanted to say that I am getting a ton of value from your channel and look forward to your videos popping up in my recommendations.

[@LegendaryMochi]

Tengu is also a shopkeeper NPC is River City Girls 2! The whole game is full of Technos References!

[@doha057]

Tengu is a Japanese demon/Yo Kai I think, the mask design is ancient, way more than Pinocchio

[@Egganopolis82]

someone finally found this gem. Played this in 93' and man was it different. 6 button beat em-up was fun af.

[@billcook4768]

Looks awesome. Can’t wait to play it any way I can.

[@jackbaxter-williams8059]

I always appreciate you saying "I hope you have a great rest of your day" thanks dude. You too!

[@zerwif]

Tengus are bird like creatures, with the long nose being like a beak. Some scholars believe Tengus are a Japanese derivative of Garuda, who would have been mentioned in ancient Buddish texts from Indian and China.

[@whosaidthat84]

I love tanukis and tengus. So many cool yokai out there.

[@Mankey619]

Taking the form of an enemy is indeed one of the coolest mechanic for a beat em up game. Who doesn’t want to take the form of a cheap enemy to fight against their level of cheapness.

[@TheJevonjames]

I love your channel, your videos are what I fall asleep to. Thank you for your chill vibes

[@kornsin]

One of my fav brawler/beat 'em ups ever. It's stupidly deep in the controls and combos area. I first played it at a mall where I did a focus group for MTV Sports (I am old).

[@warrendesenberg]

Love this game! The arcade room at my local bowling alley had this game, played it a ton back in the day. Now it is on iiRcade, so I get to play it again!

[@sebastianfernandez837]

Hola mucho gusto, soy de habla española concretamente chileno y te quería agradecer ya que los snes relaxing me acompañan tanto en trabajos de la universidad, camino a ella o de fondo para jugar algún videojuego estilo minecraft. Además toco piano por lo que saco melodías acorde a lo que escucho en los 3 snes relaxing, bueno eso un gusto y gracias amigo por este material!!

[@congratsyouarethemoonmaster]

One of my favourite arcade beat em up. A little stiff but really cool. Always fun taking over other enemies to see what their abilities are.

[@avivmizrachi4382]

Thank you Mr Drunk, for pumping out more arcade gems, I amd many others love this direction / genre. When I think of video game reviews, I immediately hear "and have a great rest of your day". Yes I will!

[@mikedonnell86]

Sounds a bit like a beat'em-up version of Avenging Spirit!

[@akafacts]

A tengu is a long nosed mythical creature in shintoism - so rather neat that they added that in :)

[@mattb6522]

Good review! I've never heard of this one, but I do love beat 'em ups, so I'm definitely going to try this one out! It looks really nice and the mechanic of morphing into your enemy seems really awesome! I'm glad some of these more obscure arcade games are getting the spotlight. There are some real hidden gems!

[@DanJackson1977]

How did you run down Technos and not name check the Kunio Kun series? That series literally gave birth to this whole beat em up genre...that's why Kunio is in their logo here 😅 also, hes in all of Technos sports games.

[@goatbone]

True crime.

[@DigitalWolverine]

Lol, I think he’s done River City Ransom before and just didn’t connect the dots.

[@marccaselle8108]

Loved the techos sports games and the wrestling games.

[@clarafedde8674]

They are now called arc system works. *Looks at list of games developed. Nothing to big... guilty gears, BlazBlue and Dragonball FighterZ.

[@Gatorade69]

@@clarafedde8674 Wait, Technos turned into Arc System works ? I never knew that. Thanks for the info. I love Technos and Arc. Edit : Looking it up it would seem Arc just acquired the rights to all of Technos' properties. Still, I think they're in good hands with Arc System works.

[@angelriverasantana7755]

Fun Shadow Force fact! There are 2 versions of the game! One with 3 buttons, as seen here, and a better, more easy to control version that makes use of SIX, count em, SIX buttons! 2 punches, 2 kicks, a jump and the body takeover

[@celacanto]

Great stuff. I was lucky enough to play this game in the arcade when I was Kid. and it was really outstanding from the rest

[@julienneaves790]

This one looks really cool and unique. I may track it down and play it any way I can.

[@francescosmith7859]

Really cool. I've never heard of this one before and it definitely looks unique and fun enough that it's worth trying.

[@FNHot]

Tengu has a big pinoochio nose, because he's a tengu. Look them up, they're part of japanese myth, and are in a lot of japanese games, KOF, and DOA come to mind. Very interesting, worth a look.

[@dagray0524]

Thank you for doing this episode and reviewing this game. I remember playing this game when I was a child back in the day. It drove me nuts because I was never able to remember the title of it. Again, thank you for reviewing it. ❤

[@Sabretooth-gz7pp]

It's always a Good Day, after watching your videos 😁

[@stinkypinkeee5085]

SNES Drunk is, to me, like his Friend's Dad and the Game Boy: Great Toilet Time Videos...

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

Tengu has a "big Pinocchio nose" because _he's a tengu_ (or at least, wearing a tengu mask), whose most iconic features apart from their wings was their long pointy noses.

[@masterrserch3971]

0:58 "Oh no. SNES Drunk...you is a warwilf." 😂😂 one my fav MST3K episodes 😅😅

[@FostersHomeFG]

"Anyway you can." Ahhhhh I see what you did there.🤣

[@dragonlibrarian7982]

One of my favorite beat em ups, I always had a hard time going back to Final Fight or Double Dragon after playing this game and the Capcom D&D brawlers.

[@rocko7711]

I love the MST3K reference

[@markcooperartcomofficial]

This game looks awesome. I know there's another arcade game from the early 90's that no one has posted on you tube. I wish I could remember what it was called. I've looked at everything hoping i would find it. No luck. There's more than just one, but there's one in particular that is one of the best games i've ever played. Its a beat em up game where you can pick up different weapons to hit characters. One of them puts a chain around you and holds you so the others can do their thing. The characters were big on the screen. Not the typical small double dragon or final fight sized characters. It had a very unique look. There was various bosses you'd fight one at a time and a crowd would be cheering them on.

[@The_Conundrum_Crew]

1:15 That reminds me of Magician Lord which I liked playing as a teen.

[@The_Conundrum_Crew]

Whaaaat, Amazon Prime is offering Magician Lord for free now to prime members. That's awesome.

[@mattm7798]

Wow, an actual deep move set AND you can turn into your enemies. This game was way ahead of it's time. Shame it's the last Technos made. Thanks for the review!

[@cmedtheuniverseofcmed8775]

If it's one thing, the arcade platform is a treasure trove of hidden gems. Going to add this one to the list. :)

[@BlackViperGX]

Tengu made a cameo in River City Girls 2 as a owner of one of the shops.

[@LanEXHikari]

Really interesting game mechanics, it surely brings replayability to the table. I should look up some speedruns, thanks for the video SDrunk!

[@chamchamtrigger]

2500 people didn't come out to tell you what a Tengu is? I'm very proud of your audience.

[@dieinfire920]

Never played until the emulation era, and it’s one of Technos’ finest. I hope from here you go into other technos almost lost good games like the neo geo Super Dodgeball, or voltage fighter gowcaizer. Btw the tengu (Pinocchio nose lol) are creature/demons/spirits living in the mountains in Japanese folklore, some were evil (kidnapping kids) some were waiting for challengers to reach them their techniques, and there’s normally two type of them: with the king nose or with a beak like a hawk. They have many shrines dedicated to them. Mr.Karate wears a Tengu mask, and you can play as a Tengu on Sengoku 2 (another beat’em up).

[@Liquidcadmus]

Technos made some amazing games back in the day

[@rocko7711]

I love this channel

[@freddyvidz]

I would’ve loved to play this in the 90’s

[@arcoliatiggett1869]

Thanks for this. Great memories of this game back in the day.

[@dustinspencer9278]

😂 thanks for the MST3K reference. I love that episode.

[@AL_Talks]

Looks cool, I literally though of the Ninja Warriors right when you said it 🤣

[@PaleHorseShabuShabu]

Somewhere in the 90s, Joe Estevez saw that third playable character and said, “yetiglanchi!”

[@guepardgames]

Looks awesome! SNES DRUNK, the only channel able to surprise you with non conventional games

[@listerofsmeg884]

The enemy switching reminds me of the capture ball system in G-Darius

[@gnardawgyt]

Thanks for the video!

[@chickensandwich9977]

The transformation mechanic looks awesome

[@Avalon64]

oh yeah! I was wondering what game he was from lol...but Tengu of this game makes a cameo in Rivercity Girls 2, running a ramen shop lol

[@parrishharris3008]

Wow i own this game for a while and played this particular twice but never paid attention to the character swap mechanic so thanks for this video 👍.

[@sergentboucherie]

That looks like a nice game, I never saw it at the arcades though. I miss going to the arcades, I think the last time I went to one was in the very early 2000’s, there used to be 5 or 6 near where I live but they have been gone for a very long time.

[@elliottryan13]

Damn! This looks pretty sweet!

[@lhfirex]

Looks pretty awesome. Not too surprising it's by the same people who did Double Dragon and all of the Kunio-kun games.

[@WhispyWoods.]

Awesome game. I miss the arcade.

[@baskogitlog7276]

one of my favorite game

[@TheBlur182]

The blue character gives me Sly Cooper vibes

[@finnhaverkamp]

Oh I played this on Antstream! Super good.

[@alkristopher]

I was wondering where oh where was my warwilf!

[@nozoto]

The soundtrack is great! I'd love to see snes remixers have a take on its tracks, too =)

[@DerkDastardly]

Wow. I remember playing this at a grocery store back in the day. Always wondered what it was called.

[@darklonermage1]

Ooooooo! This looks sooo fun!

[@Broseftoast]

Love your content bro keep it up!

[@mikesilva3868]

Excellent 😊

[@TheRealJPhillips]

It's wild technos diddnt develope double dragon 3 for the arcade but they did develope double dragon 3 for the NES.

[@jaymethysell5111]

This one is pretty good. I don't think I took advantage of copying the enemies that much though. I might need to revisit it.

[@anon_y_mousse]

Heh, "bug... I mean werewolf". So true, it looked like a bug.

[@arostwocents]

Simpsons is probably the only beat em up I've played without arcade cheapness. You can easily get through sections damageless once you rely on jump kicks and understand the enemies etc.

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

I've had this rom fir years but never bothered with it as I thought it was just another beat em up... had no idea it was so deep and the ability to clone your enemies. So thanks snes drunk. That's my evening sorted now.

[@Archedgar]

This actually looks pretty good.

[@mondomoleno.3404]

This one was fun, but I always have a hard time grasping the controls of these games. The basics are easy enough, but the more subtle inputs are always a little tricky for me to get down. I've probably played Violent Storm a dozen times now, but I can't figure out how to consistently get Wade's uppercut to work, for example

[@tiagocosmos]

petition for you to make an ARCADrunk intro.

[@clarafedde8674]

So somebody took the gimmick from avenging spirits\phantasm and added to a beat em up.....oh definitely got to play this.

[@sonicsega1699]

those are beautiful graphics and i love the sound fx. its nice getting a break from the typical, capcom/konami games once in a while. and technos (now arc system works) is the best fighting game developer to date. blazblue, guilty gear...do they still have any beat em ups recently?

[@therealquinnzack1819]

This game looks fucking awesome I GOTTA play it!! Thanks Snesdrunk; I’m shocked I’ve never heard of it before :0

[@lordeowstheking]

Alot of these old arcade games has been ported to the switch. I'm hoping this one gets the treatment. It's definitely a banger

[@jdiluigi]

I miss my MAME setup more and more every day.

[@talondarkfire]

I was going to be all surprised that this is where Tengu comes from, a shop keeper in River City Girls 2, however reading the comments I see that Technos is/was responsible for the Kunio Kun / River City Ransom series.

[@drwilyecoyote5357]

1:00 i mean game recognizes game sentient coyote recognizes coyote.

[@buzzy-ears]

At one of the arcades where I grew up, this machine would let two players play on one token, which felt like Jesus opened the heavens and reached down to pat us on the head. But it was a pirated machine and it only had three buttons, which felt like a priest took us to the back room to give us a "private lesson". Anyway, great game. Amen.

[@Fluoride_Jones]

I've never even heard of this one, but it looks exactly as you described it! I'll have to see if it's on my Pawky Box, because it looks like a good time. BTW, SNES drunk, I know you live in Minnesota, as you've mentioned it multiple times throughout the years. Were you aware that Rosedale Mall has an awesome retro video game arcade? I'm not sure how far you live from there, but it's worth a trip, in my opinion. I've been there three times since my first visit last March.

[@SNESdrunk]

I was born and raised there but I haven't lived in Minnesota for almost 10 years, but I think I know what you're referring to. Is it in that Crossroads complex? I remember seeing Being John Malkovich there the day it opened

[@Fluoride_Jones]

@@SNESdrunk I believe you're referring to Crossroads Center in St. Cloud. The arcade I'm referring to is called Starcade, at Rosedale Mall, in Roseville. Whereabouts did you live before you moved, just out of curiosity?

[@Davtwan]

Fighting-game-style inputs? Sounds hard but sign me up.

[@GizmoFantasyCrew]

Thanks you for showing me about new arcade games I've never heard of

[@sidneyvandykeii3169]

I actually think the company name on the Billboard should be expanded on. It would be a nice way to See all the pre-game credits instead of a bunch of white text showing up during the cinematic cut scenes. Somebody must of done this already though...right?

[@BBakira1031]

Thank you! I am loading up my steamdeck with a bunch of arcade games and I completely forgot about this one

[@vsoco4921]

Woah, this game looks awesome