Title: Brutal: Above the Claw Released: 1995 Genre: 2-D Fighter Developer: GameTek Publisher: GameTek Regions: USA Availability: Rare

Also known as Brutal Unleashed.

This 32-bit sequel to Brutal: Paws of Fury continues the original’s successful formula of cute animal characters and Street Fighter 2 style combat. The line-up consists of twelve characters, each with a distinct fighting style and signature moves. The fighting engine is deep and complex, with an innovative skill rating scale and an emphasis on statistics. Options abound, including a training mode, an instant replay feature, and an interesting “Island Conquest Strategy Game." The hand-drawn character graphics are well designed and smoothly animated but not especially eye-catching, showing little improvement over the 16-bit originals. The characters themselves are quite small, taking up only a quarter of the screen space and occasionally taking second stage to the backdrops. Backgrounds are nicely rendered, colorful, and varied. Sound effects are your standard fighting game fare, but the pop/dance music is especially catchy and rates as one of the better 32x soundtracks. Brutal: Above the Claw is a very quick, fast-paced game, possibly one of the speediest games on the 32x. Even on its slowest setting, this fighter really moves, responding to the player joypad imputs instantaneously. The CPU controlled players really take advantage of the speedy fighting engine, whipping our butts on a regular basis. Brutal: Above the Claw ranks as one of the better 32x fighters, and is the closest the 32x ever got to a real Street Fighter game (the wretched Street Fighter: The Movie was scheduled for the 32x, but it was thankfully canceled. The excellent Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo never made it out the door, either.)

The original Brutal: Paws of Fury is available for the Super Nintendo and the Sega CD.