Cyborg Justice

The Good
Cyborg Justice has great fighting gameplay with the perfect combination of depth and difficulty. The basic moves are easy and yet effective. For example, quick jump kicks and flips can pulverize most enemies in the first few levels. The trickier moves take very precise timing to pull-off, but can be very rewarding. Latching onto an opponent's torso and stealing their energy while beating them down is highly enjoyable. Pulling your enemies' arm out of their socket is both devastating and can give you new weapons. The challenge curves up high toward the end like most beat-'em-ups of that era, but multiple difficulty settings in the options menu allow new players time to practice as well as provide more challenge after beating the normal mode.

The Bad
The controls may be hard to get used to at first. Unlike contemporary beat-'em-ups there is no simple 'punch' or 'kick' button. This game got the most out of the older 3-button Genesis pad by assigning multiple actions to each button depending on if a direction was also pressed, as well as the timing of tapping and holding. This coupled with the sheer number of moves can be overwhelming or confusing to new players. The difficulty can sometimes be inconsistent. Most fights involve trading blows or maneuvering to line up a weapon attack, but there are some moves which can destroy a player or enemy almost instantly. This works to a player's advantage if they can master them, but most bosses will use these moves on unsuspecting players. The final boss encounter is also quite different than all of the rest of the game and requires frustrating memorization of patterns.

The Bottom Line
Any fan of Genesis fighting games should check this out. Hardcore fighter/beat-'em-up fans should give it a chance too. Despite it's age it offers a lot, including elements that have not been duplicated since. Tearing your opponent's arm out and then throwing it back into their face is priceless.