Werewolf: The Last Warrior ・ 超人狼戦記WARWOLF (1990)
Developed by: Data East + SAS Sakata
Published by: Data East (NA, EU), Takara (JP)
Released in: NA, EU, JP
Despite being icons of the horror genre, werewolves are rarely the stars of the show when it comes to video games. This oddly specific Wikipedia category lists a measly 35 games in the medium’s entire history that put the furballs directly in the limelight. For comparison, the Wikipedia list of games starring vampires easily doubles it. Who knew being a dog was such a thankless task?
Werewolf: The Last Warrior is one of those illustrious 35. Made by Japanese company Data East with an American market in mind, the game has a strong comic book aesthetic. One might say a little too strong, as many of the game’s characters bear striking resemblances to characters from the X-Men series. Like, lawsuit-worthy striking, but I won’t tell if you won’t.
Leaning further into the comic book influence, the game came packaged with Werewolf: The Last Warrior – Issue #1! The comic outlines the game’s backstory; a head scratching tale about a Native American dude named War Wolf who becomes a werewolf named Werewolf (?), and how he locks himself away in a cave for a solid month to complete his transformation into a full-blown furry. There’s also some evil doctor who unsealed a non-descript spiritual evil from an evil cave that was so evil that they launched the evil into space; from there, the evil seeped into the Earth’s atmosphere and evilly turned people into evil green sludge!
Luckily for humanity’s sake, War Wolf dodged all of those bad vibes because he was holed up in the aforementioned cave for four weeks. Now, he’s the only one who can stop all of this nonsense! Need I remind you that the game is called Werewolf: The LAST Warrior and not Werewolf: The Alternative Choice Just In Case The Other Warriors Fail? He’s our only hope, man.
Corny comic notwithstanding, Werewolf itself is quite narrative heavy for an NES action title. The game boasts some impressive cinematic scenes for the day, with typo-laden info dumps serving as your reward for completing levels. The games feels high quality in the graphics department in general, with the sprites in particular being big and colourful, and level backdrops being nothing to sneeze at. The music also SLAPS MY ASS, which is a very good thing considering you’ll likely only be hearing one song for the duration of the game. Tracks change depending on what form you take; you start as a human, and can upgrade to a stronger werewolf, and a mega powerful golden Super Saiyan Werewolf.
Gameplay-wise, the werewolf character controls similarly to Ninja Gaiden‘s Ryu. The fleabag can cling to walls, backflip, jump extra high, and move along ceilings using his claws. Though the move set is satisfying when it’s given time to shine, Werewolf’s level design does little to highlight them. Outside of the challenging first level, Werewolf’s stages feel as though they weren’t designed with these abilities in mind at all, which is a huge swing and a miss against the game.
Speaking of that tough first level, the difficulty doesn’t stop there; the entirety of Werewolf is tough as wolf’s nails. It relies on instakill bolts of lightning and blind leaps of faith that lead to bottomless pits to ensure the player wastes precious lives on learning about these pitfalls instead of giving them a fighting chance to deal with them from the off. With only five continues with one life a piece, there’s little room for error. Be prepared to die. A lot.
Werewolf: The Last Warrior is a frustrating beast. The makings of a memorable, fast-paced action bonanza are all present, but the final product falls just short of being a graveyard smash thanks to some careless design choices made throughout. But even with my gripes, I’d personally say that Werewolf is a good time. It’s a diamond in the rough that had to be the potential to be one of the NES greats, and is one worth sniffing out if you think tough action games are the dog’s pyjamas. Don’t think that’s how that saying goes, but I won’t tell if you won’t.
Final Rating:
NESJunk 