Back in the early nineties, versus fighters the likes of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were all the rage in arcades. Capcom, who had only fairly recently landed an undisputed smash hit with Street Fighter II, had a tight grasp on the market and both SNK and Midway were following in its wake with a fair few succesful releases.

And then... there was Sammy. This indie Japanese developer - which later merged with Sega - saw it as its task to produce the next big thing on the fighting game market. Or they quite possibly just saw Mortal Kombat and wanted to rip it off completely.

Survival Arts was quite erm... "different" from anything anyone had ever played. Its gore factor ensured it was a major crowd pleaser back in those days, which is difficult to comprehend for audiences spoilt rotten by 20 years of sweet Mortal Kombat lovin'.

The plot summary, in lovely Chinglish as always, is as follows:

"The birthplace and how the series of physical martial arts with a great deal of force called "Survival Arts" were earned became mysterious for quite of some time. However, eight warriors spreading over different countries have learned some of the most important skills of Survival Arts, while they continue learning more about it. Each one qualified for the Survival Arts tournament to see which survivor will win and obtain all the secrets of Survival Arts."

What you probably won't be able to make up from this without actually playing the game, is that everyone is basically fighting each other to avoid having their souls eaten by an evil man in a cape that looks like Richard Simmons' and Brian May's bastard lovechild.

So yes, the plot isn't going to win any awards, but however lame it is, it does seem somewhat "inspired" by that of many a Mortal Kombat title. True as that may be, the gameplay is mostly based on the fighting system of "special move focused" fighters such as Street Fighter II. That, and you definitely can't accuse the good people at Sammy to not having been creative with their character designs. A lot of the fighters in this game seem to have been the product of a horrible acid flashback and programmed into the game immediately after the crystal meth really started to do its nasty business.

Surprisingly though, despite all its obvious flaws, Survival Arts is actually quite playable. Controls are amazingly responsive and animations are fluid. I recommend giving this a try to anyone who's into their cheesy fighters.