''Superior Soldiers'', known in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

as , is a

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

fighting Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of ...

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

developed and published by

Irem is a Japanese video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher and manufacturer of pachinkos. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Software Enginee ...

. It was created during the fighting game trend of the 1990s that began with

Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

's ''

Street Fighter II is a 1991 fighting game developed and published by Capcom for arcade game, arcades. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter (video game), Street Fighter''. Designed by Yoshiki O ...

''. Several graphic designers of this and several other Irem titles later moved to

Nazca Nazca (; sometimes spelled Nasca; possibly from ) is a city and system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru. The city of Nazca is the largest in the Nazca Province. The name is derived from the Nazca culture, which flourished in the area be ...

, and designed the graphics of the ''

Metal Slug is a Japanese multimedia franchise and run and gun video game series originally created by Nazca Corporation before merging with SNK in 1996 after the completion of the first game in the series. Spin-off games include a third-person shoo ...

'' franchise for

SNK is a Japanese video gaming and interactive entertainment company. It was founded in 1978 as by Eikichi Kawasaki and began by developing arcade games. SNK is known for its Neo Geo arcade system on which the company established many franchises ...

Characters

There are eight fighters in the game: * (known outside Japan as Starsaber, but the back of the North American arcade flyer spells his name as Star Sabor) is the protagonist character of the game. * is a female fighter dressed as a scantily-clad dancer. * - a nuclear human remodeled with a built-in battery. * (known outside Japan as Cattydox) is a female strip dancer. * (known outside Japan as Busido) is an armoured male samurai. * (known outside Japan as Reptilian) is the dinosaur with a personality that isn't violent. * (known outside Japan as Satinsect) is a mutant that has been turned into a man-eating monster by corruptive force of Bydo. It sees everything as meals to be consumed. * (known in North America as Skull Reaper) is the antagonist of the game. Upon defeat, an entity emerges from its body identifying itself as Bydo, a reference to the antagonist of Irem's ''

R-Type is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Irem in 1987 and the first game in the ''R-Type'' series. The player controls a star ship, the R-9 "Arrowhead", in its efforts to destroy the Bydo, a powerful a ...

'' series.

Regional differences

Besides the names of several characters, the North American version, ''Superior Soldiers'', lacks other things that are seen in the Japanese version, ''Perfect Soldiers''. The Japanese version has an announcer shouting the name of the game at the title screen, as well as names of "who VS. who" at the VS. screens in

Engrish ''Engrish'' is a slang term for the inaccurate, poorly translated, nonsensical or ungrammatical use of the English language by native speakers of other languages. The word itself relates to Japanese speakers learning r and l, Japanese speaker ...

, but the well-known "

Winners Don't Use Drugs "Winners Don't Use Drugs" is an Recreational drug use, anti-drug slogan that was included in arcade games imported by the American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA) into North America from 1989 to 2000. The slogan appeared during an arcade gam ...

" screen and new color graphics were added to the North American version.

References

External links

*
Perfect Soldiers
' a

* *
Superior Soldiers
' at arcade-history {{R-Type series 1993 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Fighting games Irem games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Video games set in 1999