drella's P.O.W. Prisoners of War review

I always really liked this when I put money into in the day. That's because it's too hard and cheap for you to get far enough - when it's costing you your pocket money to play - to realise how repetitively (and cheaply) difficult it is. This still doesn't worry me. I enjoy firing this up on MAME and just not playing very far. The way the guys hunch and punch is a way cool visual. I also love the music.

I'd have to agree. The first five minutes I played P.O.W. I didn't think it was that bad -- pretty much the same as any other pre-Final Fight beat 'em up. So at sporadic five minute intervals, it understandably can be kind of fun.

But I think this is true of almost every beat 'em up, barring poor physics and collision detection (so count out Mug Smashers, The Combatribes and a few others). Punching guys in the face those first few minutes will always be the same amount of fun. A few beginning over-the-top scenarios like in The Punisher or C&D stand out, but really each initial level one impression feels the same a lot of times. If I had to choose between five minutes of this or Double Dragon, it'd be close to a draw.

What usually defines the cult classics from the trash -- or at least, the way Fix and I always viewed the genre, which may or may not be correct -- is how much the developers mail it in the rest of the way. Are they still trying? Is this still somewhat beatable and are they still trying to avoid repetition and keep it fun? And the answers here seemed flatly "no." So it's understandable to get some fun out of this title, but you could probably get that same amount out of anything in the genre (and potentially a lot more). That's why I usually just throw away my "is it fun for a quick play" impression. There's no definition there.

Yes, that is an excellent point about the lack of distinction. For gameplay it's all true. Especially for POW's gameplay. All I can say is that I still like the first 5 mins of POW more than a lot of other beat em ups, heh. It's funny, I never liked Double Dragon, just on an overall aeshetic call. I took one look at the way the people moved and punch and stuff and it didn't draw me to drop my 20 cents in there.

I think TMNT is probably one of the best arcade beatemups for consistently being interesting. I spent a fortune on Final Fight too, but lots of the bosses were total brickwalls for me. I just couldn't afford to spend that much to get to another level. Again, I'd rather replay the opening stretch.

Haha, this is a funny review, well done. It's also gotta have the distinction for most F bombs dropped in a review. ^_^ I don't remember thinking this game was as bad as you see it here, but then, I played something like five minutes of it. I've always loved Taito's Thunder Fox, which has a similar look to it. Have you played that one?

Maybe, but if I did I don't remember it too well.

I think it's like POW, only it's fun.

Thunder Fox is awesome because it's so stupid. I love how the two dudes rip their shirts off and then whip out their combat knifes to take on a whole army terrorists. One knife swipe kills 3-5 bad guys or something silly like that. And when you fire the rocket launcher and hop aboard a jeep, you drive just as fast as the rocket. Good, campy stuff.

Ha, Thunder Fox IS dumb. But it's actually playable. Gotta love being able to fly that hovercraft thing and play it like a hori shooter, or ride the jetski thing and dodge spiked mines and divers. It's a random stew, but that's a lot better than POW's neverending stream of predictability.