From the Memory Bank: My History with Video Games

Reflections: "Bloody Wolf" (TurboGrafx-16)

So all of these years later, I'm continuing to discover the wonder of the TurboGrafx-16. Each day, I become more aware of the fact that it's a truly great console and that its library is loaded with quality software.

It's a console that keeps on giving. It keeps on surprising. The more I explore its library, the more gems I dig up.

That's been the story since 2018, when I began to seriously look into the TurboGrafx-16 and make a focused effort to learn about its games. Ever since then, I've discovered that its library is home to some of the best genre and series entries in existence. It has the Neutopias, which are two of the finest The Legend of Zelda-inspired action-adventure games you can find. It has New Adventure Island, which is one of the top entries in its series. It has Zipang, which is one of the greatest action-puzzle games ever made. And it has Ninja Spirit, Ys, Devil's Crush, Bomberman '94, and many other genre- and series-defining games.

Then there's my latest discovery: Bloody Wolf, which I'm excited to say, is one of the best action games around. I'm crazy about it.

In the previous years, I was somewhat familiar with the game. I'd read about in TurboGrafx-16 retrospectives, and I'd seen Youtubers and Twitch streamers play it. And I thought it looked really cool. All that time, I desired to play it, but I just could never find a good opportunity to do so. There was always some other game currently soaking up all of my time and attention. So I kept postponing our meeting.

Well, that situation changed about 8 months ago, on a day when I was no longer able to suppress my desire. I knew, at that time, that I needed to seek out and play Bloody Wolf as soon as possible. So I cleared my schedule and spent the night playing it to completion.

And Bloody Wolf was, expectedly, a fun, awesome action game. I loved it. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of the time I spent with it. And I was so enamored with what it offered that I wound up replaying it again and again in the following weeks and months.

And from day one, I've been dying to talk about this game. I've been eager to tell you why I love it so much and furthermore do my part in spreading the word about this criminally overlooked gem of a game.

That's what I'm here to do today.

So let's do it: Let's talk about Bloody Wolf, one of the best action games in history.

 So if you've never heard of Bloody Wolf before, you should know that it started its life as an arcade game. It was, according to what I've read, regarded as a middling action game and largely shunned by arcade-goers.

About a year later, in September of 1989, it was ported to the PC-Engine (the Japanese version of the TurboGrafx-16), and it arrived in a newly refined form. Its level design and structuring were significantly improved, its soundtrack was upgraded, and it had more content in general (longer stages and one exclusive stage); and these improvements helped it to become a much-superior, more-highly-regarded version of the game (the only negative was that it lacked the original's two-player support). It was so good, in fact, that it came to be one of the PC-Engine's most beloved games (among the platform's most ardent supporters, it's considered sacred).

(I don't have much experience with the arcade original, so consequently any comparisons I make to it will be purely surface-level.)

Bloody Wolf is, by classification, a run-and-gun-style shoot-'em-up, but that description, as I'll explain in due course, seriously understates what it is and what it does. It's much deeper than what its label suggests that it is, and I intend to make that point clear in my reflections.

But first let's talk about the game's story.

Unsurprisingly, it's typical of what the genre was offering during the era in which the game was released: The U.S. president has been kidnapped (of course) by the forces of a crazed general, who seeks to amass wealth and power, and now it's up to our chosen hero to go in and rescue him.

At our disposal are commandoes Snake and Eagle, who were born to fight. They're members of a special combat team called "Bloody Wolf," which is comprised of top recruits from the four military branches (the Seals, the Green Berets, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force), and thus they're among the select few who can capably carry out the mission.

As for why the army is inexplicably choosing to send in only a single commando: Well, you see, such an edict is being issued for the purpose of testing the chosen commando--of seeing if he can prove himself to be a worthy member of Bloody Wolf by carrying out the dangerous mission alone! (Ultimately, you do wind up controlling both heroes over the course of the game. I'll tell you more about this later on.)

"It will take everything you've got and more," the manual explains, "so look yourself in the mirror and ask, 'Am I Man or am I "wolf"?!'"

Because it's a late-80s-early-90s action game, man. That's what they were like. Logic, according to video games, wasn't a priority for military commanders. The top brass would have all kinds of reliable assets at its disposal--the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, the FBI, the CIA and countless other groups and agencies--but instead it'd decide to send in two fitness trainers or a ninja with a stick.

That type of storytelling was a defining aspect of the era (and it's what made it so great!).

So obviously Bloody Wolf's story isn't meant to be taken seriously. It's there to communicate to you that the game is silly and goofy in nature. The unserious tone is reflected, also, in the in-game dialogue and in the way in which some of the action unfolds; it's comical and humorous.

Basically Bloody Wolf is the type of game that likes to have fun with its subject-matter. It has a playful spirit, and that helps it to feel charmingly lighthearted.

 So Bloody Wolf has eight stages in total, and the goal in each stage is dependent upon the stage type. In normal stages, the goal is to reach the endpoint and defeat the boss, whereas other stage types have different goals and challenges (I'll talk about those in a bit). And in most stages, you'll encounter anywhere from one to three sub-bosses.

The game's stages vary in type. Some are wholly vertical or horizontal. Some continuously switch between the two axes. And one in particular (the console-exclusive stage) is wide open in nature and freely explorable; it represents a rescue-type mission in which you have to search a large multi-screen area for hostages (some of which are being held captive by the stage's boss, who you can confront at any time).

And, like I said, some stages have unique goals and challenges. They require you to complete unique objectives under certain conditions. One of them might ask you to, say, escort a hostage to a helicopter or engage in an escape sequence.

That's what's so great about Bloody Wolf: It eschews formula and conventional structuring. It bravely experiments with its stage design and endeavors to mix things up in fun and interesting ways. And it delivers variety in an inspired way and consequently makes you excited to see what it'll throw at you next.

And the result of its efforts is an action game that rises above derivation and becomes something wonderfully unique.

The stages' only common theme is the rescuing of hostages. It's not a mandatory objective, but it's worth doing because rescued hostages will sometimes reward you with power-ups and other desirable items. Other hostages, much like those in the Metal Gear games, will give you hints or helpful advice.

You have to be careful when you engage in combat around hostages. You have to remember that explosive-type weapons can kill them. If you screw up and kill a hostage, you'll have likely put yourself in a position in which you're unable to obtain a very useful item (and, really, isn't that the worst part about a hostage dying?).

At the mission's start, you select between one of the two available commandos: Snake and Eagle (after selecting one of them, you can, if you desire to, change his codename to something else). There's no difference in how they play. The only thing unique about each character is his personality and the manner in which he speaks and communicates.

So let's talk about the basics.

You only have one life to work with, but that's not really a problem because the game has unlimited continues. You start with three units of health, though you can expand that number by obtaining a certain item (you can have a maximum of six health units). And you lose health when you get hit by a bullet or an attack (bullets, typically, inflict one point of damage while explosions, electric beams and such inflict two or more) or make contact with an enemy (but what's nice is that enemies also suffer damage from the contact!).

You have two types of weapons: main assault weapons and secondary explosive- and incendiary-type weapons. You start out with the default machine gun, which has unlimited ammo, and a combat knife, which you use automatically when you're standing close to an enemy. Any new assault weapon that you pick up will replace the machine gun. Each obtained assault weapon has a limited amount of ammo, and when its stock is depleted, you'll be returned to the default machine gun (note that any subsequently obtained assault weapon will replace your current one, which is something you have to think about before breaking the box that contains it; you'll have to memorize the weapon locations if you want to avoid picking up certain weapons at moments when you don't need them).

You start out, also, with 20 grenades, which, expectedly, function to clear out sections of the screen. Any newly obtained secondary weapon will replace the grenades, and when its stock is depleted, you'll be returned to grenades, whose total will remain what it was before you picked up the new weapon.

The score-total is only for show. It increases as you kill enemies and rescue hostages, but you don't gain anything useful from it (unless you're the type who likes to vie for high score).

There are no time limits, so you don't have to rush through stages. You can, if you desire to, take your time and play methodically and tactically.

If you die, you lose all of your obtained weapons and return to the default three health units. Though, you do get to keep your power-up items.

At the game's halfway point, you take control of the other character and do so for storyline purpose. Who you selected at the start doesn't change how this transition plays out or how the following events unfold. Though, when you take control of the other character, you're essentially starting over; you don't retain any of the starting character's obtained weapons or power-ups. In the final stage, you retake control of the starting character, who is, thankfully, still in possession of the items that he had before you lost him.

What's also unique about Bloody Wolf is that it's a belt-scroller. It's designed in the style of a beat-'em-up, whereas its contemporaries use the side or top-down views that are standard for run-and-gun games and shoot-'em-ups. So as you traverse stages, you're able to move along all axes and shift between multiple planes and levels (balconies, cliffs and such).

It's a really distinct style. You'll feel as much the moment you take control of your character and begin frantically running in circles and jumping and firing your weapon in every direction. You'll know right away that Bloody Wolf is quite different from other games in the genre. And you'll be excited to find out more about what it does.

You'll correctly intuit that learning about the game's stylistic differences is going to be a huge part of the fun!

Bloody Wolf's gameplay, you could say, is a mix of Commando and Contra (with a bit of Metal Gear influence sprinkled in), but, again, if you describe it using such simple terms, you kinda miss the point. You don't do the game justice. Bloody Wolf borrows from those other games, certainly, but in truth, its mostly a product of its own design; it's undeniably derivative in certain ways but ultimately one of the most distinct entries in its genre.

So in each stage, you traverse every available space and battle hordes of enemy soldiers. And as you move along, you engage enemies in different ways: You get right in their faces and use close-quarters tactics. You fight them from afar and use grenades to take out those who like to hide behind defensive barriers. You tangle with them in swamps and rivers. You clash with them while riding on high-speed rafts, jumping over rolling logs, and navigating your way across gap-filled bridges. You evade them while climbing mountain walls. And you interact with them in scenarios that can only be described as uniquely and wonderfully absurd.

And the whole time, you'll never have any idea what the game is going to hit you with next! It could be anything. And you'll be eagerly anticipating whatever the hell it is.

Bloody Wolf's action entails more than just running and gunning. There are other notable dimensions to it. There are other things that you'll be doing as you engage in combat.

First there's a light platforming element. At certain points, you'll be required to jump over obstructions like barbed wire, rolling logs, and long gaps, and in most instances, you'll have to do it strategically because enemies will be charging or firing at you at the time. This style of platforming adds some nice variety to the gameplay, and that's why I find it disappointing that the level designers didn't include more of it.

Also, there's a cool exploration element. As you traverse your way through stages, you can seek out and enter into sub-areas like truck interiors, buildings and caves! And you'll want to do this because such areas tend to contain hostages and boxes and thus some very valuable items.

And what's also great is that you can ride motorcycles! After you rid a motorcycle of its owner, you can take control of it and freely ride around the stage with it. As you move about, you can fire your default machine gun (which, for whatever reason, now fires bullets at a full-screen's length, whereas it can only fire them half a screen's length when it's used on the ground), kill enemies by running into them, and perform longer jumps.

When you're riding a motorcycle, your life gauge is replaced by a 6-unit fuel gauge that depletes over time. You lose one unit every five seconds, and if you take damage from enemy fire, the depletion-rate will speed up significantly (a grenade blast might cost you two or three fuel units). When the motorcycle runs out of fuel, it'll begin to flash, and then it'll explode five seconds later. If you don't heed the warning and dismount in time, you'll be killed instantly (thankfully, though, you won't be damaged by the explosion motorcycle if you're standing next to it).

Then there are the boss battles, which have no standard theme to them. They come in multiple types. Some are designed in a shoot-'em-up style (in these fights, you occupy the screen's lower portion and spend most of your time evading the projectiles that are raining down on you). Some take place in a full-screen environments. And in others, you're only able to fight with your knife and engage in close-quarters combat.

And all such boss fights are really fun. They do a lot of cool things. There's a lot of variety to them, and all of it is good. None of it feels thrown in; it's all well-thought-out and well-developed.

And that's the story with Bloody Wolf. It doesn't care to do what's expected or standard. Its main desire is to constantly present new ideas and continue to surprise you. And that approach helps it to become one of the genre's standout games.

 So what's important in games of this type is the quality of weapons, and I'm happy to say that Bloody Wolf delivers well in this area. It has a very good selection of weapons.

First there are the assault weapons.

You start with the default machine gun, which fires bullets at half a screen's length. It has unlimited ammo. Though, it doesn't feature automatic fire; rather, you have to keep tapping the button to make it fire rapidly.

Also, you have the default combat knife, which is never replaced. You use it automatically when you engage an enemy in close-quarters (it functions much like the sword in the Shinobi games). It makes sense to use the knife when you want to conserve ammo (when you're in possession of a weapon that has limited ammo), but doing so is always risky because it requires getting close to enemies, which can potentially result in contact damage. The knife's most useful quality is its ability to cut through metal and kill armored enemies (most of the other assault weapons aren't able to do this).

Along the way, you'll obtain new assault weapons. They include the following:

• The shotgun, which is your standard Contra-style spread weapon. It fires seven large bullets in an outspreading manner and does so at half a screen's length. You get 35 shots per shotgun pickup.
• The bazooka, which fires rockets at half a screen's length. Its explosive blast hurts or kills a targeted enemy, and the blast's resulting splash damage hurts or kills enemies that are in proximity to the target (those that are within, say, two tiles of the blast). You get 25 shots per bazooka pickup.

Then there are the secondary weapons, which are explosive or incendiary in nature. Here's what you can get:

• Grenades, which travel about 40% of the screen's length. They explode on impact and cause splash damage that hurts or kills any enemy that is within an eight-tile radius. They, unlike bullets and rockets, can travel over walls and barricades and reach higher-level locations (truck roofs, balconies, and such). They're very effective against minor enemies, but they don't work particularly well on bosses; they inflict only minor damage on the latter. You start with 20 of them, and you can obtain more over the course of play.
• Powerful grenades, which function like regular grenades but have much-greater attack power, a longer blast duration, and a larger attack radius. You get 10 of them per pickup.
• The flamethrower, which is of course a flame-shooting weapon. You can fire one flame-blast per button press or continuously spew flames by holding down the button. This weapon, contrastingly, works on a timer. You can use it for 15 seconds worth of button-presses and input time. And its flames are able to pierce enemies' armor and barricades. While firing continuously, you can change direction and spin rapidly and consequently create a spread effect.
• Flash bombs, which are grenade-type weapons whose blasts cause all onscreen enemies to become temporarily blinded and stunned and thus unable to move. The effect lasts five seconds. You get 10 flash grenades per pickup.

When you deplete an obtained weapon's ammo, you'll be returned to your default weapon.

If there are weapons that you prefer to obtain, you have to memorize their locations. You have to know which boxes to break or unlock and which ones to avoid. Note that grenade and rocket blasts can destroy boxes, so you might want to refrain from using said weapons while around boxes.

What's great is that the level design is, in many cases, crafted in a way that's intended to give you the opportunity to immediately put to use your newly obtained weapon. Right after you get a shotgun, you'll likely encounter enemies that come at you from all sides in line-type formations, and you'll be able to take out whole rows of them at a time. Moments after you pick up some big grenades, you'll be attacked by a huge cluster of enemies that you can obliterate with a mega-blast.

The designers make every obtained weapon feel important. Thus when you come into possession of one of them, you'll want to hold on to it as long as you can, and you'll be disappointed when it's gone.

Then there are the power-up items, which can be found in boxes or received from hostages. They include the following:

• The key, which can open locked boxes.
• Muscle emphasis tablets, which provide you an extra unit of health. (The maximum is six units. Any tablet you pick up thereafter will simply replenish your entire health gauge.)
• Medicine, which fully replenishes your health gauge.
• Food, which replenishes one health unit. This item is so rare that it only appears in a single sub-area.
• Fins, which allow you to move faster when you're submerged.
• The infrared scope, which allows you to see invisible security lasers. It can only be found in Stage 6.
• Body armor, which reduces the amount of damage you take from attacks. (From what I've read, it functions in a situational manner and only protects you from attacks executed by the penultimate and final bosses.)
• The lucky rabbit's foot, which can randomly negate an enemy attack (it's basically the charm from Bionic Commando).
• The koala, which is a secret "item" that you can obtain in Stage 5 by climbing a certain tree. It will provide you six units of health and all power-up items.
• The seal, which is another secret "item." It maxes out your secondary weapon's ammo-total (and thus sets it to 99). This little fella can be found in Stages 2 and 6.

The best part is that you don't lose obtained power-ups when you die. They'll still be in your possession when you continue!

 What also makes Bloody Wolf such a joy to play are its controls, which are extremely fluid and precise. They allow you to quickly and accurately run, jump, turn, and fire in any direction and do so without the imposition of frame delay or any other type of end lag. You have full control over the action and the speed and pace at which it occurs.

But let me take a moment to talk about the basics.

So Bloody Wolf's control scheme is simple to understand: Its directional controls offer you full 360-degree movement, and they allow you can walk, jump, and fire your weapons in all directions. (Note that it's possible to remain in a diagonally-facing idle position but that it can be difficult to orient yourself in such a way if you're using a mushy d-pad or any d-pad that has large dead zones. You'll have the best luck with analog sticks, which have natural diagonal control.)

Otherwise, you can climb up and down ladders, tree trunks, mountain walls and fences with vertical directional input (you can't move sideways while climbing).

You press Button II to fire your assault weapon and execute knife-stabs.

You press Button I to jump. The longer you hold down the button, the higher and farther your jumps will carry you. You're allowed a limited amount of modulation over your jumps; when you're in the air, you can shift over and pull back a bit and thus make moderate adjustments. You use Button I, also, to submerge while you're wading through water.

You press the Run button to use your secondary weapons and hop off of motorcycles. And you press the Select button to pause the game.

That's it.

But really, though, I can't stress enough how incredibly smooth the game's ground controls are. They enable you to move about and perform actions with great speed and fluidity, and thus they allow for completely uninterrupted action.

It's just fun to move around in Bloody Wolf. It's fun to run around in circles like a madman, spin wildly while firing shots in all directions, and speed through areas on a motorcycle and furiously run down every enemy in sight.

The game's movement controls are extremely satisfying. They represent the games most viscerally pleasing element. And they're a big part of what makes Bloody Wolf so great!

 Honestly, Bloody Wolf isn't a graphical powerhouse. It doesn't have the blow-away visual flair that's usually a hallmark of big action games (especially of those that appear on the Genesis and the SNES). Though, even then, it still manages to look really nice.

What it has in its favor is its evocative visual tone. It has the appearance and the complexion of an early 16-bit game and the type that's so raw and so primal that it feels 8-bit in spirit and thus powerfully nostalgic. It possesses both early-8- and -16-bit games' best visual qualities, and consequently it's capable of stirring the imagination in the most wonderful way.

Its textures are simple in appearance and only moderately detailed, sure, but still they're undeniably filled with character. They inspire you to put your imagination to work and make you think about what the game's spaces would look like if they were real. They immerse you.

Some textures are better than others: Most floors and backgrounds (of which there are few) are plainly rendered. They have simple designs and tile-patterns.

But large structures (like buildings, trucks and mountain walls) fare much better. Their textures are more nicely rendered and more detailed, and they contain some interesting features. Thus they're generally more attractive in appearance.

And I have to say that I love Bloody Wolf's foliage texture. It represents the game's most entrancing, most interestingly complex graphical element. The lush, wild greenery is eye-catching and alluring in character, and it's always able to immediately capture my attention and fill my mind with images of overgrown jungles and make me wonder about what it would be like to sneak and crawl around in such a space. I love how it looks and what it does.

And the game can look spectacular when it wants to. That becomes clear when you observe its rivers and lakes, all of which are comprised of separate layers that flow independently and thus create the appearance of wild tides and rapids (in a nice touch, the water that passes around rocks becomes foamy). I wish that the game had more of this type of visual trickery--that it contained more parallax and parallax-like effects (outside of its animated scenes). That there's so little of it makes me feel as though the designers wasted some of the game's potential.

Bloody Wolf's colors also do some important work.

The game uses mostly complementary colors and especially a lot of brown and grays, which either dominate textures or lend shading to them. And this helps it to render an appropriately gritty- and murky-feeling battlefield setting.

The colors and environments immerse you. They put you in that space. They consistently stir your imagination and make you think about the nature of the game's world.

And that's how Bloody World manages to be so visually engaging.

The character sprites look fine. They're not amazingly detailed, no, but still they look pretty good. (And it's a nice touch that the heroes' sprites change to reflect their obtention of new weapons.)

My only mild complaint is that there isn't much variety in terms of enemy design. Most of the soldier and metallic-buoy types are merely palette swaps and resultantly mundane in appearance. It would have been more impactful, I think, for red and blue soldiers to have distinguishing features--maybe some different gear like backpacks, goggles or hoods. Simple modifications like those would have done a lot to reduce the sense of uniformity.

The character animation is kept simple. The running animation looks nice--a lot of leg movement occurs when a character is in motion--though the same can't be said for the attack animations, which are much more limited. Characters execute their actions and attacks (like throwing grenades and thrusting their knives) with a mere one or two frames of animation. And some enemies remain completely stationary and are only capable of turning to face you.

The bosses are bigger and more-impressive-looking, but they tend to remain static in appearance as they move about. This is more so the case with vehicle-type bosses, whose animation is limited to turret and propeller rotation and tread movement.

Animation simply isn't one of the game's strong points.

Though, Bloody Wolf does very well in an important area: quality of explosions! It has some really great explosions in its repertoire. They all look, sound and feel impactful. And they have cool animations, too. They produce visually pleasing blasts, bursts and fiery eruptions. And the larger explosions spread all around and create wonderful series of smaller explosions!

It's all very satisfying.

Bloody Wolf is, overall, a good-looking game. Its visuals get the job done. They're not spectacular, no, but still they're able to create an interesting world. They're able to tap into the spirit of early-8-and-16-bit games and create spaces and environments that have the power to stir the imagination and inspire you to wonder.

 There are times, though, when Bloody Wolf is a little too ambitious for its own good. There are instances in which it throws a lot at you with calculating the cost of doing so. At certain points, anywhere from 12-15 enemies will appear onscreen at the same time, and this always results in the game slowing down significantly. The slowdown benefits you in that it makes it easier for you to read the enemies' movements and attacks, sure, but at the same time, it undeniably makes the game look bad. A lot of noticeable sprite-flickering occurs, too, when the screen is jammed with enemies.

The fact is that the TurboGrafx-16's processor isn't designed to handle activity on that scale. It simply doesn't have the power needed to render dozens of sprites and do so while maintaining a stable framerate.

It's not that I don't appreciate the designers' ambition, no. I absolutely do! It's just that I recognize that it would have been better for them to show a little restraint and cap the enemy total--keep it somewhere around 8-10.

Otherwise, the game has an annoying collision issue that causes you to become stuck on objects (walls, rocks, boxes and such) and especially corners. In such instances, it can take you up to a full second to regain control of your character. And during that time, you'll be helpless to defend yourself against attackers.

I'm happy to say, though, that the game's technical issues aren't frequently occurring and won't hinder your enjoyment of the game.

 Bloody Wolf's soundtrack is similar in style and character to other 80s- and 90s-era military-themed action-game soundtracks, but, to its great credit, it separates itself from the rest by incorporating a high degree of variation. It comes out of the gate with some high-adrenaline, rockin' tunes, expectedly, but then, before long, it begins to introduce tunes that are more chill in nature--tunes that are, interestingly, investigative in tone and usually mysterious and clandestine in character. It does whatever job it needs to do at the time, and it does so excellently.

The tunes, in all of their forms, are spirited and energizing (and naturally always heavy on head-banging-inducing percussion), and thus they're able to keep you engaged and emotionally connected to the action. They immerse and inspire you. And they do a great job of setting the tone and conveying to you how you should be approaching a stage's action. If a tune is urgent-sounding, it's telling you that it's in your best interest to move swiftly. If it's mysterious in nature, it's suggesting that you should advance cautiously. And if it's chill-sounding, it's letting you know that it's OK for you to relax and engage in some exploration.

What also differentiates Bloody Wolf's music from its contemporaries' is its style of composition. It's "classic TurboGrafx-16" in form. It's very synthesized-sounding and rife with pulse-waving. Also, it incorporates a lot of strange and interesting sounds--a lot of computerized-sounding note strings and arpeggio (which are formed from what seem to be sound effects from old arcade games), peculiar clangs and cosmic-style sounds, and even sounds that are meant to synthesize yelling voices.

Bloody Wolf's is quintessential TurboGrafx-16 music. That's what makes it unique. That's what makes it stand out. No other action game's music sounds quite like it. That's why listening to the music and observing what it does is an important part of the experience.

And all of the tunes are great. Most of them, I'd say, rank among the genre's best. Each time you play Bloody Wolf, you look forward to hearing them, and in between play-throughs, you can't help but seek them out on YouTube and enjoy them in other ways.

Stage 1's is definitely the soundtrack's most outstanding piece. It's an intense, rockin' tune that quickly pumps you up and puts you in a shooting mood. Its sets the tone with powerful force and tells you, in rousing fashion, everything you need to know about the experience that waits beyond the first screen.

So yeah--the game's music is topnotch.

The sound effects, though, are a little on the primitive side. They're simple and basic. They're the types of sounds you'd expect to hear in an NES or early arcade game.

As you engage in action, you'll hear a lot of dinks, bleeps, bloops and chops and archaic-sounding synthesized oscillation of grenades flying, windows breaking, and laser guns being charged. And you'll probably think to yourself, "These sound effects aren't exactly becoming of a 16-bit action game."

And you'll be correct in that thinking. They really aren't. (Though, the cartoony, comical falling sound effect, I have to admit, is appropriate because it jives with the game's unserious spirit.)

But there are some exceptions: The game's explosion and splashing sound effects are very nicely produced. They're sharp-sounding, pronounced and impactful-feeling.

So it's not all bad.

In truth, though, this is all nitpicky, and the primitive sound effects, like other negative aspects, don't actually hurt the game. You'll quickly forget all about the issue.

 Bloody Wolf is a moderately difficult game, though it does have a few troublesome rough spots in which you might become stuck for a while (let's just say that certain boss fights expect you to display a level of skill that's well beyond anything you're asked to display in the other 95% of the game).

What prevents the game from being incredibly difficult is its providing of certain amenities: unlimited continues and a very generous checkpoint system. If you die, you restart at the segment's starting point, which is usually only four or five screens back. Also, there are always checkpoints before boss fights; you restart right at them.

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of this system. It's a little too generous, I feel. I mean, I'm OK with there being unlimited continues, but I can't deny that the game giving you a checkpoint every couple of screens only works to diminish the challenge and your feeling of accomplishment.

The game shouldn't be this kind. It should demand more work from you. It should insist that you learn and improve. And you'd be happy to make such an effort because the game's action is so inviting and enjoyable that you'd want to spend more time reexperiencing and becoming more familiar with it.

Sometimes Bloody Wolf is lenient when it has no reason to be. It some instances, it makes it all too easy for you to simply run past enemy hordes rather than engage them (the level designers should have been more liberal in their placing of unjumpable barriers). Also, it lets you off the hook by allowing you to clear the screen of all enemies by ducking into a building or a truck (and none of the cleared enemies will respawn when you return to the battlefield). It's too merciful. It doesn't make you work as hard as you should.

What's fair, though, is that the enemies don't overwhelm you (like they do in most shooters and shoot-'em-ups). Soldiers fire their weapons in four-second intervals and thus give you plenty of time to approach them, and their bullets travel only 40% of the screen's length. So even if you're surrounded by soldiers, you'll have all of the opportunity you need to clear them away and come out of the encounter unscathed. (And I have to mention, again, how fair it is that enemies suffer contact damage, too. This balances out what has always been an unfair advantage for their kind.)

That's why it's fair that your weapon-fire doesn't travel very far, either. In this game, you can't just hang back and pick enemies off from afar, no. You have to work to take them down. You have to be proactive and aggressive in your approach. You have to find openings and exploit them. You have to remain alert and focused. And what results is a style of action that feels wonderfully engaging and tense rather than stressful.

The boss fights represent the game's toughest challenges. They demand that you dial in harder and perform on a much higher level.

These fights provide you a real test, especially if you're not the type who's adept at shoot-'em-up-style action. To survive them, you have to be great at weaving your way through bullet spray and projectile storms and deft enough to do so while simultaneously getting off your own attacks. And if you struggle with this style of play, you might get stuck on certain boss fights for a while. (Note that if you die after killing a stage's end boss, you'll still get credit for a victory and not actually lose a life, which is, again, very fair.)

Really, though, the only considerably difficult boss fight is the final one. It can be an extreme challenge if you don't know how to handle what it's throwing at you. It can take dozens of attempts (and it won't help that you'll likely have only three units of health at the time). So be prepared to spend 20-30 minutes on this part (in your first play-through, at least).

The challenge is mostly determined by the items you pick up. If you obtain multiple muscle emphasis tablets and hold on to them, you'll be in great shape; but if you miss the chance to obtain them and remain at three health, you'll probably struggle. If you find the Infrared Scope in Stage 6, you'll have the capability to easily clear Stage 8's security-laser sections; but if you don't find it, you'll be in big trouble (touching laser causes the floor to collapse beneath you, and if you can't see them, you'll be forced to advance with extreme caution at times when you can't afford to do so).

And obtaining a weapon that lends itself well to a situation will naturally help you to overcome it more easily (if you have a shotgun in a stage section in which lines of enemies run at you from all sides, you'll be golden).

So how you decide to play (and how willing you are to explore) will determine how well you'll fare.

 The bottom line on Bloody Wolf is that it's simply a joy to play. It has its shortcomings and limitations, sure, but it rises way above them and shows itself to be an incredibly fun, very replayable action game. It has a lot of fun ideas, and it executes them very well. It has wonderfully intense, explosive action. It entertains and immerses at a high level. And that's really all that matters.

Also, Bloody Wolf has ideal length for a game of its type. It's about 30 minutes long once you know how to handle its challenges. But it doesn't even feel that long. Time flies by when you play it. And you feel sad when it's over because you desire more of what it offers.

And what's nice is that the game doesn't waste your time. It has narrative elements, yes, but they're never intrusive. You can skip cut-scenes and speed through dialogue sequences.

The game is considerate of your needs. It gives you what you want. It gives you the ability to cut out the nonsense and have fun at your own pace. And that's a big part of its appeal.

And Bloody Wolf is, for all of those reasons, one of the best action games around.

Closing Thoughts

 All I can say is that Bloody Wolf is a tragically overlooked gem of a game and that it deserves to be known about and played by gaming enthusiasts everywhere. It's one of the best, most original action games out there, and certainly it's one of the TurboGrafx-16's premier action games.

It's everything I've said: It's intense and engaging. It has nonstop action. It hits you with one interesting idea after the next and makes you eager to see what it'll do next. It flies by and leaves you wanting more. And it's just a really cool game in general.

That's why you'll want to play it again and again. And you should. It's that good.

 Bloody Wolf is, also, one of those games that makes me feel incredibly disappointed by the fact that that I overlooked the TurboGrafx-16 back in the late 80s. It would have been great to have grown up with it and experienced the true genesis of the 16-bit era. It would have been an unforgettable period in my life.

And it would have been great to have grown up with Bloody Wolf. My friends and I would have loved it. It would definitely have found a place amongst Mega Man 2, Contra, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Rygar, Altered Beast, Golden Axe and all of our other go-to action games. We would have played it constantly.

And I would have felt then, as I do now, that TurboGrafx-16 games have a special quality to them. Like I've said in this piece and in all of my previous TurboGrafx-16-related pieces: TurboGrafx-16 games possess, simultaneously, some of the best qualities of both 8- and 16- bit games. Their visuals and music produce emanations that evoke memories of your experiences with games of both varieties, and consequently they provide games a nostalgic quality that feels familiar but is still somehow uniquely powerful and enchanting.

And that's another reason why I would have loved TurboGrafx-16 games.

 So yeah--the TurboGrafx-16 has become one of my favorite consoles. I'm having a great time with it. It has, I'm excited to say, provided me some of the finest games I've played in recent memory. And its library, I'm aware, is filled with many other gems. And I'm looking forward to discovering and playing all of them!

At the current moment, I have my eyes on the Bonk games (which, I'm ashamed to admit, I've mostly ignored up until now), Beyond Shadowgate, Cadash, Blazing Lasers, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, the Valis games, and about a dozen others. I plan to seek them out and play them as soon as I find the time to do so. And who knows--I might even write about my experiences with one or all of them on this blog.

I don't know where, exactly, my TurboGrafx-16 journey is going to take me, though, still, I can speak of one certainty: There are going to be a lot of fun times ahead.