Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer Review (Neo Geo, 1995)

The Neo Geo was, and still is, one of the best places to find 2D fighting games. No one in their right mind will question that, and while quality varied generally you’ll find some of the best forgotten gems on this console. If you weed through the Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and King of Fighters games you’ll find some really obscure fighters. This is what led me to Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer. This is a game most hardcore gamers have never even heard of.

The graphics engine and themes were interesting to me so when the price was right I finally snagged myself a copy on CD. I like it, and I’m surprised to learn this one is negatively remembered by those that have played it. Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer is surprisingly underrated.

Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer tells some story about a fighting tournament in the future. Honestly, there’s very little exposition. What you need to know about this game is there’s a rampant superhero theme in place here. Most of the characters appear as normal humans but at the start of a match go through a transformation animation into their flamboyant super hero designs. This is kind of neat. It’s unique at least. There’s a short anime OVA series but I couldn’t be bothered to watch it.

This is a traditional fighting game art heart. You begin play by selecting a character from a roster of ten combatants, and also select the opponent you want to face. When a match begins you and your foe punch, kick, throw and perform special moves against one another to reduce your foe’s life bar to nothing. The overall winner is determined by the best of three matches. It’s very traditional with just one unique element but I’ll get to that bit a little later.

The character roster is over-the-top. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing to be honest. The star of the game, Gowcaizer, dons full body armor and uses the power of lightning. Then you have the mega-star Captain Atlantis (you can probably figure out who he’s a spoof of), a robot mech with machine guns, two scantily clad female fighters, the typical old man martial arts master, a modern day samurai, a bat based fighter complete with wings, and more. There’s nothing terribly original here. I guess the fact that everyone is colorful and overly designed makes them stand out, but not in a particularly good way if you ask me. There wasn’t anyone I particularly liked based on art style.

I have no problems with the fighting engine. Sure, it’s a little slower than other games of the time, but I feel like we were stuck in a rut with turbo modes and what not. The speed is perfect in Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer. In typical Neo Geo fashion the game makes heavy use of zooming the camera both in and out based on how close you are to your opponent. I’ve always been impressed by this graphical feature and that’s no different in this case. You have both heavy and light kicks/punches as well as an assortment of special moves that depend on the character with which you’re using.

Special moves are pretty much by the books here. You have typical uppercuts, projectiles and more. It’s very much based on Street Fighter II but if it’s not broken why fix it? Speaking specifically of projectiles the system here is based more on range than in other fighting games. Not everyone has a fireball they can shoot that will reach the end of the screen. Sometimes it’s just a few feet in front of them. I found that range plays a bigger part here than in most other fighting games. This is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it can be tough to counter a foe from far away, but on the other short range projectiles lend themselves better to performing impressive combination attacks.

Your special attacks are performed in typical fashion with sweeps on the joystick and holding directions. The highlight is in the super moves. These drain significant portions of your foe’s life bar, but here they’re based entirely on opportunity. The super moves can only be performed when you and your opponent are low on life. It won’t completely sway the tides of a fight, but can be used when you’re neck and neck to clench the win. These require intense button inputs and are no easy feat.

The only really unique aspect of this game is that after defeating a foe you can choose to learn a specific move in their arsenal. The thing is you can only have one of these learned moves at a time, but the game does give you a choice of either sticking with what you have or changing to the new one. It’s a unique element of the game which I haven’t seen replicated in anything else. It’s limited but you could say it’s the one innovation the game brings to the table.

Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer has the unfortunate fate of being released after 32-bit consoles were on the scene. This means that, while the graphics are very competent, it had already been surpassed on the other systems. There’s no real Neo Geo advantage here like in the early days of the system. The characters animate wonderfully and there are a lot of sprites which allows for a lot of detail. The art style is hit or miss. You’re either going to love or hate the flamboyantly Japanese super hero theme. The artists definitely went all out here. The soundtrack is just as dividing. There’s a lot of electronic themes that harkens to the anime motif. I liked it. One interesting thing to note is the CD and arcade versions feature different music. Both are decent but I give the edge to the compact disc version.

It’s easy to see why this one was lost in the mix. Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer isn’t particularly inventive, nor does it have enough in the aesthetics department to make it stand above the rest. It’s largely a Street Fighter clone with a flamboyant theme, memorable characters, and one unique element. If you’re okay with that, and keep expectations in check, then you might enjoy what this package has to offer. This is one of the few Neo Geo games I recommend getting on CD instead of cartridge. The loading times aren’t bad by any means and the upgraded soundtrack is pretty good.