Eight Man (video game)

Eight Man[lower-alpha 1] 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. The game received mixed reception from both critics and reviewers alike since its initial release, who widely panned the gameplay for being tedious and relying too much on the gimmick of its speed-running effect.

Eight Man
Developer(s)Pallas
Publisher(s)SNK
Director(s)Deru-Deru
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

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]

Development and release

Eight Man was initially launched for arcades on June 7, 1991 and later during the same period for the Neo Geo AES on November 1991.[5][6][7][8][9]

Reception

RePlay reported Eight Man to be the fourth most-popular arcade game at the time.[17] Eight Man received mixed reception from both critics and reviewers since its initial release in arcades and Neo Geo AES.[18][19]

Notes
  1. Japanese: 8マン, Hepburn: Eitoman

References
  1. "VG: エイトマン". Beep! MegaDrive (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. Retrieved 2019-05-18 – via Google Books.
  4. Eight Man user's manual (Neo Geo AES, US)
  5. "Eightman [Model NGM-025] (MVS)". arcade-history.com. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  6. "Eightman [Model NGH-025] (AES)". arcade-history.com. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  7. "Oh! Neo Geo Vol. 10 - 8マン". Beep! MegaDrive (in Japanese). No. 45. SoftBank Creative. June 1993. p. 158.
  8. "NEO GEO Soft > 1991-1992" (in Japanese). GAME Data Room. Archived from the original on 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  9. Alomair, Badr (May 7, 2019). "100 Days of MEGASHOCK! #19 Eight Man". 100 Days Of MEGASHOCK!. WordPress.com. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
  10. Biondich, Paul (1998). "Eightman (Arcade) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 2014-11-16. Retrieved 2019-05-18.
  11. 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.
  12. Gideon (January 1992). "Neo Geo For Real! - Eightman". GamePro. No. 30. IDG. p. 101.
  13. Demoly, Jean-Marc; Steph (January 1992). "Test - Neo Geo - Eightman". Joypad (in French). No. 4. Yellow Media. pp. 72–73.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. Drevet, Cyril (February 1992). "Tests De Jeux - Neo Geo - Eight Man". Player One (in French). No. 17. Média Système Édition. pp. 60–61.
  17. "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.
  18. Knauf, Andreas (February 1992). "News - Neo Geo - Eightman". Video Games (in German). No. 6. Future-Verlag. pp. 12–13. Retrieved 2019-05-18.
  19. 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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