Eight Man
Developer(s)Pallas
Publisher(s)SNK
Director(s)Seigo Ito
Producer(s)Eikichi Kawasaki
Programmer(s)Nishidon
Shinchan
Writer(s)Kazumasa Hirai
Composer(s)Yoshihiko Kitamura
Yoko Osaka
Makiko
Series8 Man
Platform(s)Arcade, Neo Geo AES
ReleaseArcade
  • WW: 7 June 1991
Neo Geo AES
  • JP: 20 November 1991
  • NA: 20 November 1991
  • EU: 20 November 1991
Genre(s)Beat 'em up
Mode(s)
Arcade systemNeo Geo MVS

Eight Man[a] is a side-scrolling beat 'em up arcade video game developed by Pallas and published internationally by SNK for both the Neo Geo MVS (arcade) and Neo Geo AES (home) platforms in 1991.[1] It is based on Kazumasa Hirai's 1963 manga and anime superhero of the same name, who is considered one of the earliest cyborg superhero characters from Japan.[2][3] Staying true to its concept of a crime-fighting super-robot, players take the role of 8 Man and his robo-comrade 9 Man respectively in a fight against an invading evil robot army.

Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot

Eight Man is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game where players control the cyborg superhero 8 Man (P1) and his former rival comrade 9 Man (P2), across ten stages that take place in a futuristic setting where a bio-computer system called Cyber is threatening mankind with his army of robots.[4] During gameplay, players can only move between left and right in the levels, while enemies are fought with either the A or C button (which activates the character's special attack), in addition of the B button that serves for jumping and pressing it when holding the joystick down, the characters perform a slide movement. The levels are broken into different phases and some of them involves the players chasing a vehicle, while enemies are coming out to attack. Power-ups are also scattered along the way to be collected that will enhance the player's attacks, as well as granting screen-clearing bombs that damages all enemies in sight. After reaching the end of a level, a boss must be fought in order to progress onto the next stage.

If a memory card is present, the player is allowed to save their progress and resume into the last stage the game saved at.[4]

Release

Eight Man was initially launched for arcades on June 7, 1991, and later during the same period for the Neo Geo AES in November 1991[5][6][7][8]

Reception

RePlay reported Eight Man to be the fourth most-popular arcade game at the time.[16] Eight Man received mixed to positive reception since its initial release in arcades and Neo Geo AES.[17][18]

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: 8マン, Hepburn: Eitoman

References

  1. ^ "VG: エイトマン". Beep! Mega Drive (in Japanese). No. 25. SoftBank Creative. October 1991. p. 124.
  2. ^ Sol, Bruno (August 1996). "Manga Zone - Eight Man". Japanmania (in Spanish). No. 4. Grupo Zeta. pp. 20–21.
  3. ^ Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade. A-Net Digital LLC. 5 November 2010. ISBN 9780984593750. Retrieved 2019-05-18 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ a b Eight Man user's manual (Neo Geo AES, US)
  5. ^ "Neo Geo オールカタログ". Gēsen Tengoku (supplement) (in Japanese). Vol. 1. Tokuma Shoten. September 25, 1993. p. 50.
  6. ^ "Oh! Neo Geo Vol. 10 - 8マン". Beep! Mega Drive (in Japanese). No. 45. SoftBank Creative. June 1993. p. 158.
  7. ^ "NEO GEO Soft > 1991-1992" (in Japanese). GAME Data Room. Archived from the original on 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  8. ^ Alomair, Badr (May 7, 2019). "100 Days of MEGASHOCK! #19 Eight Man". 100 Days Of MEGASHOCK!. WordPress.com. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  9. ^ Biondich, Paul (1998). "Eightman (Arcade) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 2014-11-16. Retrieved 2019-05-18.
  10. ^ Halverson, Dave; Sgt. Gamer; Stratton, Tom; Cockburn, Andrew (July 1993). "Viewpoint - Neo Geo - Super Eightman". GameFan. Vol. 1, no. 8. DieHard Gamers Club. p. 11.
  11. ^ Gideon (January 1992). "Neo Geo For Real! - Eightman". GamePro. No. 30. IDG. p. 101.
  12. ^ Demoly, Jean-Marc; Steph (January 1992). "Test - Neo Geo - Eightman". Joypad (in French). No. 4. Yellow Media. pp. 72–73.
  13. ^ Noak, Philipp; Hellert, Stefan (August 1993). "Special - Neo Geo - Eightman". Mega Fun (in German). No. 11. CT Computec Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. pp. 28–30. Archived from the original on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2019-05-18.
  14. ^ Yanma; Itabashi (July 1992). "Super Soft 大特集 - 今、『NEO・GEO』がおもしろい！: 8マン". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 121. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. p. 209.
  15. ^ Drevet, Cyril (February 1992). "Tests De Jeux - Neo Geo - Eight Man". Player One (in French). No. 17. Média Système Édition. pp. 60–61.
  16. ^ "The Player's Choice - Top Games Now in Operation, Based on Earnings-Opinion Poll of Operators: Best Software". RePlay. Vol. 17, no. 2. RePlay Publishing, Inc. November 1991. p. 4.
  17. ^ Knauf, Andreas (February 1992). "News - Neo Geo - Eightman". Video Games (in German). No. 6. Future-Verlag. pp. 12–13. Retrieved 2019-05-18.
  18. ^ R.I.P. (February 1996). "The Final Word game review - Eightman -- Pallas/SNK Corp". Game Zero Magazine. Game Zero. Retrieved 2019-10-02.

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