Panzer Bandit

Panzer Bandit is essentially a Final Fight-style brawler, though everything controls more like a 2D fighter. You have two primary attacks (weak and strong), and a variety of Street Fighter-esque motions will perform flying flips, fireballs and whatever other special moves your character may have (and in case you're not adept enough, most of the speciality attacks are mapped to the extra buttons on the controller.) Even the bulkiest of characters are relatively agile, allowing you to super jump, double jump, dash, and essentially fly around the whole screen, tossing enemies into another and otherwise tearing new holes in everything. Hitting the trigger buttons will send your character leaping back and forth inbetween planes. There's also the usual power meter, which can unleash a super attack when charged up enough. And as natural for games of this type, you can choose to smash bad guys with a buddy by your side. It's all reasonably simple, but a total blast to play.

I'm at a loss to explain the story, but it seems to be about a group of four plucky heroes out to destroy a bunch of bad guys who ride around on giant whale battleships. In addition to the anime intro, all of the bosses have voiced prefight dialogues. And like so very many Japanese games, Panzer Bandit features cutesy adorable character designs to compliment the hectic, action packed gameplay.