Ah, Taito. Their legacy is unmatched when it comes to its run of arcade games. I could talk about Elevator Action and its bizarre sequel Elevator Action Returns for hours, before getting into a few rounds of On the Ball (or Cameltry) and Raystorm.
But there’s one gem that had yet to see any sort of re-release on current consoles, and that was Growl, also known in some markets as Runark. This is a 1990 beat-em-up for four players, featuring some unlikely heroes going after bad guys that want nothing more than to hurt animals. Gasp! We can’t have that.
The game’s mechanics aren’t as smooth as, say, Final Fight, but the game is highly replayable and wacky fun. How wacky, you ask? The final boss fight has a giant snake emerge out of the main baddie. And that’s after an elephant manages to head butt a tank to take it out of commission.