Arcade Game Review : Waku Waku 7 (Sunsoft, 1996)

Waku Waku 7
Published by : Sunsoft (1996)
Re-releases : Sega Saturn

Waku Waku 7 is yet another Street Fighter clone, and it's on a platform jam-packed with similar games, but it's comic tone and somewhat different feel makes it worth a look even if you're a bit burnt out on one-on-one fighters.

Seven goofy fighters go on a quest to collect the seven "Waku Waku" balls and become The Guy or something. Arina and Rai are typical anime teenagers and sort of the main characters of the cast. Dandy-J is a whip-wielding bounty hunter, Mauru is a giant rabbit with a little girl clinging to it, Politank-Z is some heavy police robot tank, Slash is your typical bishy elf, and Tesse is a robot maid. Obviously, with such atypical characters you also get all sorts of atypical moves and techniques, but the game actually plays surprisingly close to Capcom and SNK fighting games on the whole, with many characters mirroring popular protagonists from other games.