Growl.

In 1991, Taito, released Growl to the arcades. At first glance this would seem to be yet another of the 90's Final Fight clones but this one has a little something special going for it. What is it? It is guaranteed to make you laugh yourself silly as you play it.

Now I have never seen Growl in the arcades and I wouldn't have known about it if not for the Playstation 2's release of the Taito Legends 2 collection. I think using the word legends in the title is stretching it a bit.

In the game you can select from four different rangers, Burn, Gen, Khan, and Jack. Of course each one has their own stats making them suitable for particular levels. For the most part this game is pretty forgiving and doesn't become a 'quarter eater' until the boss fights, I cannot see how you could defeat these guys with just one player, luckily on the PS2 you can constantly insert credits to continue.

As you start the game your bar is bombed by the evil poachers and you pick yourself up and start throwing punches and kicks to lay low the poachers. These just aren't your typical jungle poachers, oh no, these bad guys are dressed in all kinds of interesting garb. Their are assassins that looks as if they just reported in off the Cairo set of Raiders of the Lost Ark, their are women in 90's business clothes that throw grenades, street punks from New York, and of course fat men with fez hats. I will say this for Growl, there are more enemies on screen at any given time than any of the other 90's fight games.

Translation from Japanese to English seems to have been a problem though, with such text lines as "Get out of here, you wisp!" to "Money am better!".

Of course this game also holds the greatest rescue ever in an arcade game. While the animals you free from being tortured or caged will aid you in some way, such as attacking enemies and weakening them to outright crushing them when you free the Elephant, there is a moment where on screen there are at least fifty bad guys. Luckily for you a herd of Gazelle run through the screen and wipe them out for you.

That's not the strangest bit you'll see in the game though. After fighting end bosses such as Viking Guy, Sack Head, and Puddy Face you will get to the evil leader of the poachers. A guy with a Kabuki face, top hat, and iron claws. He is in the top most picture if you want to get a better look. Besides throwing a tank at you a couple of times he removes his head and top hat to reveal a rocket launcher. Upon defeating him his body starts to jerk and crawl on the ground and then...an enormous worm erupts from his back and the fight is on again. I used about fifteen continues to bring that thing down. After defeating the worm you free all the captured animals and they rush out to cheer you for your victory.