Early Geo games served one purpose: "Hey, look at me!". 8-Man was one of those games that would've blown gamers away back in 1991. Huge sprites, scaling all over the place, insane speed, and really LOUD sound all did their job to make it feel like this cart would've been worth the $200+ asking price. 13 years does alot to a video game, but 8-Man is still enjoyable, just not on the level is might've been in it's prime. Taking control of a super-hero styled guy named (appropriately enough) 8-Man, you'll be on a quest to stop the usual world conquering idiot and his evil plans. A second player can join in (their name will be 9-Man..doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?) to aid you on your quest. Controls are of the basic jump, punch,and screen clearing bomb variety. Enemies rarely take more than 3 or 4 hits to go down (excluding bosses of course) and your bombs are more than effective.
Immediatly apparent is the game complete lack of any major difficuly. Any powerup you need is nearly always available so wasting bombs doesn't hurt the players at all. Life is a little more rare, but you'll stil come across more than you need. The game is also ridiculously shot, clocking in at a meager 4 stages. Granted, these are split into numerous sub-levels, but a half hour and it's all over.
Even though it's short, you'll being seeing everything the Geo can pull off through your adventure. Enemies scale in from the backgrounds to form up attacks, explosions are all over the place, and you'll never have to suffer through slowdown. Colors are bright an vibrant and have a really unique style to them. Even with all of this, after seeing what the Neo Geo is capable of, this is certainly not going ot impress the new generation of gamers. Sound effects are sparse, but there's some great music to be had in that classic style that is completely lost in todays games. The stereo effects are excellent as well.
Sure it's a simplistic platformer with some beat-em-up aspects. Sure it doesn't really do anything different. Does any of that matter as long as the game is fun? Not at all. It's one of those games that just about every Geo owner has played at some point. It's not terribly memorable by any means, but it is a solid game that is a worthy addition to anyones massive collection of AES carts.
