Bloody Wolf - IT'S TOO HOT! I'M NOT GOING TO MAKE IT.

Previously, on Bloody Wolf...

Well, SNAKE, you had a good run, buddy. Time to go down fighting!

... AND IN TURN, BLOODY WOLF IS KILLIN' IT.

... !!! That's the enemy's chopper, isn't it? Could it be...?

Seriously, was there any other way this game could end?

And amazingly, this ending KEEPS GETTING BETTER

EAGLE! You righteous bastard!

I cannot lie. The first time I saw this, I put my controller down and started pumping my fist in the air.

With our pair of Blooy Wolves reunited, they escape the base and the ending begins...

And now the game turns into a shoot-em-up.

And now the game turns into a shoot-em-up.

You know, I like to think all Data East games are in the same continuity, so that chopper's gotta be from Cobra Command, right?

Anyway, let's see what SNAKE and EAGLE make of this situation.

'Ta, me ol' mucker!'

They may be BLOODY WOLVES, but they're polite too. That's important.

The grammar here isn't great, really.

Caution: the second-best dialogue in the game is coming up.

YESSSSSSSSS

There we go. I can't think of any better way to end this game.

Just when you think Bloody Wolf's ending is done IT KEEPS GETTING BETTER.

Oh, wait, never mind- this is how you end Bloody Wolf.

The President apparently got captured while we were rescuing the man who went in to rescue the men.

I'll just assume he was kidnapped by ninjas, as I'm sure you assumed too, reader.

mad props to mr. dot-man

Now we get to do a bit of the ol' GDRI-style credits snooping! To be honest, a lot of the credits are shared with the arcade version, with some additions here and there and a new Special Thanks section. In particular, there's Yoshiaki Honda who was also the planner for Desert Assault/Thunder Zone; Takaaki Inoue who was the main programmer for Robocop 2, producer and programmer on Wolf Fang and project leader on oh my god WINDJAMMERS hell yes; Shinji Noda who did graphic and character design work for Crude Buster and Dark Seal; Souichi Akiyama, programmer on Crude Buster, Wizard Fire, Night Slashers and Desert Assault/Thunder Zone; and finally, one of my favourite credit pseudonyms, Dot Man, who also did graphic work on Bad Dudes Vs. Dragonninja. Some of this research is from Arcade-History, and some from MobyGames, so feel free to look into other names in credits on those sites!

And so, the story of Bloody Wolf, the world's greatest Rogue Combat Squad, draws to a close.

Now, as I said at the beginning, I'm an easy mark for Data East, and while Bloody Wolf isn't their defining work- I'd argue the case for games like Karnov, Edward Randy and Boogie Wings for that honour- it is very much a game brimming with what makes Data East games special. The actual game mechanics themselves are pretty decent- they do the job, for the most part. It actually feels nicer to play than its arcade equivalent, really- the difficult is slightly lower, the areas are expanded but still feel the right length, and the changes to the bosses are welcome. Probably the major issue with the game is that the collision detection is very odd. Because the game's perspective is half side-on and half-elevated, sometimes it's not very clear if something's going to hit you or not. Jumping in particular makes you far more vulnerable to bullets than you might think, and combined with some of the trickier segments, this can make the game feel a wee bit unfair. There's also the fact that losing extra health blocks can make some areas quite frustrating, especially some of the later bosses. That said, it adds enough of its own ideas, such as permanent equipment, Iron Tank-style hostage rescuing and intel (although it's not used to quite the same effect here) and a nice variety of weapons and sub-weapons that are fun and satisfying to use, that it makes the iffy collision detection a little easier to deal with.

However, the main thing is that charm. It's a bit like the arcade Splatterhouse, in a strange way- like that game, the game mechanics are good enough, but both have an extra something that make it really worth playing. Splatterhouse had its down-beat horror stylings, but Bloody Wolf has goofy charm. While this is present in the arcade release, it's really emphasised in this home port. It's the little things- the way enemy soldiers clutch their gut and make a half-hearted attempt to replicate the Platoon poster when they die, the statue soldiers who are literally grey-scale dudes that are tough as nails, the second half of the game constantly one-upping itself on how over-the-top it all gets, the KNIFE KILLER, Shotgun Man exploding for no reason, the raft ride, the fact that there's seriously an item in this game called Muscle Emphasis Tablets... If you're looking over that list of silly things in this game and nodding your head in silent approval, then you know what I mean, right? At the same time, it's not this charm that makes it the only reason to play it- as I said, the game's got a solid foundation. This is the opposite of, say, Avengers, because that game has goofy little details but the game itself isn't much fun to play. Bloody Wolf is, though- the weapons are satisfying, the bosses are inventive at times (even if they can be frustrating when you've died a lot) and so it's a case of the little details adding to an already good game to make it better.

More succinctly, I am an easy sell for Data East games

So please, play Bloody Wolf and give the enemy the hot bullets of shotgun to die!

And now, it's that time, folks!
EXTENDED PLAY!

First up, differences between the US and Japanese version of the game.

As far as I can tell, there's only two.

First, the game is obviously in Japanese, with a different name- Naruzamuno Sentou Butai/Rogue Combat Squad: Bloody Wolf.

(That translation's taken from Wikipedia- I've also seen it as Ruffian Combat Force, which is fantastic.)

(Some sites also give Naruzamuno Sentai Butai as the name, usually referring to the PCE port- I guess that's in error?)

The other is, unless you use the cheat listed below, your continues are limited in the Japanese version!

Specifically, you have five continues per stage. So if you get down to two continues in one area but clear it, you'll have five for the next stage..

The US version just gives you infinite continues wherever.

Next, the brief second life of Bloody Wolf... And if you're reading this, you're too late.

As mentioned on the first page, the PC Engine/TG-16 version of Bloody Wolf had a temporary rerelease on the Wii Virtual Console, as it was made available on the service in 2007 across all territories. As it's the Virtual Console, there's no modifications made beyond the removal of flashing images- specifically, big explosions like the bosses being destroyed are no longer screen-filling, but just certain portions of the bosses flashes. Also, unlike Magic Engine and Ootake, the submarine and helicopter bosses are emulated correctly so they don't look silly! Amusingly, the game's Wii Shop Channel page enthusiastically states that this port 'adds the never-before-told second half of the story that was left out of the arcade version'. Was it really?

Sadly, Bloody Wolf was one of several PC Engine Data East-sourced (and G-mode-owned) games on the Virtual Console to be delisted from the service in all territories in March 2012- the US and EU shops also lost Silent Debuggers and Drop Off, while the JP store lost those and Makai Hakkenden Shada, Override and Winning Shot. That's a real shame, as it was the widest release the game got (and its only proper European release). Ah, the perils of digital download services!

Now, some cheats! Obviously, these come from good ol' GameFAQs, but the Flamethrower cheat isn't quite right there!

Let's start with the in-game weapon cheats- each one plays the Item Collected tone when correctly entered:

50 Bazooka Rounds
With two health blocks left, climb up something (a fence, a tree, etc.) and press Left + I + II.
50 Shotgun Rounds
With two health blocks left, climb up something (a fence, a tree, etc.) and press Right + I + II.
10 Flash Bombs
With one health block left, jump into a barricade and press Up + Right + Run + II.
10 Powerful Grenades
With one health block left, jump into a barricade and press Down + Left + Run + II.
50 Flame Thrower Units
While parachuting at the start of Stage 2 or 5, press Up + I + II + Run.

The timing on this is super-precise- you have to press all the required buttons at exactly the same time.

Next, cheats outside the game itself:

Sound Test
On the title screen, hold Up + II and press Select.
Infinite Continues (Japanese Version Only)
On the title screen, press Up, I, Down, II, Left, I, Right, II.
Level Select
On the title screen, press II, I, I, II, I, II, II, I quickly, then hold the relevant direction and press Start:
Up for Stage 1, Up/Right for Stage 2, Right for Stage 3, Down-Right for Stage 4,
Down for Stage 5, Down-Left for Stage 6, Left for Stage 7, Up-Left for Stage 8.
After entering your name as normal, you will go to the selected stage.
If you select any stage beyond Stage 4, your captured partner uses their default name.

Two of these title screen cheats deserve more attention, though:

Fast Mode
At the title screen, Up, Down, Right, Right, I, I, II, Select.

As the name suggests, turning this on increases the speed of your character dramatically.

This is the version that just starts you at Stage 4 with like 500 lives, right?.

This is the version that just starts you at Stage 4 with like 500 lives, right?.

What's really odd is it also changes the crest on the title screen to a 2 instead. And the next one...

Hover Mode
At the title screen, Down, Up, Left, Left, II, II, I, Select.

PROTIP: In Hover Mode, jump before entering a body of water to float over it! Just don't get hit or you'll be sent back down...

PROTIP: In Hover Mode, jump before entering a body of water to float over it! Just don't get hit or you'll be sent back down...

... Is even odder. As well as being sped-up, pressing Jump now makes your character, er, hover over obstacles.

This is the version that isn't Bloody Wolf at all, just a hack of a Tiny Toons game with SNAKE and RAGLE in it instead, isn't it?

This is the version that isn't Bloody Wolf at all, just a hack of a Tiny Toons game with SNAKE and RAGLE in it instead, isn't it?

It also changes the crest on the title screen to a 3.

I'm pointing this out because they remind me of pirate Famicom games that arbitrarily add numbers to titles for existing games.

Anyone else getting that vibe? No? OK then, just wanted to point it out.

Next, some scans... But not what you're expecting.

No manual for you this time- you'll have to go to Video Game Den for that, with PDFs.

Instead... Some fairly early TG16 games came with a promotional pamphlet advertising TURBO GEAR.

One of those items, as you can see above, was a Bloody Wolf t-shirt.

You don't know how bad I want this. I want it baaaaaaaaad. Anyway, the full pamphlet is below:

(For the record, this came with my copy of Bravoamn.)

Finally, some ultra-trivia from the arcade version.

He MIGHT be 26. Honestly, nobody knows.

Of course his taste is makeup. How else would he get so damn good at his warpaint?

In the attract mode of the Japanese version only, we get some stat screens for our two heroes, as seen above.

this is the emblem of the world's greatest Rogue Combat Squad.

What a ride, eh?

Please look forward to more Data East games on this website, someday soon.

DATA EAST FOREVER!