Somewhere Over the Jungle, the President's Plane Disappears! My Journey into Bloody Wolf on TurboGrafx-16

You were born to fight, and now your time has come. 

The latest game in my TurboGrafx journey is Bloody Wolf.

Starting with my last Turbo journey, into the bug filled madness of Cyber-Core, I altered the format of Turbo Times a little. From now on, I'm going to start playing each game knowing very little about it, other than reading the beginning of the manual, and then capture and write about my first impressions before reading anything else about it, or playing it any more. 

Then I will look up reviews on the game and any other feedback I can find before continuing to play it, including cheats and current pricing, and report on any differences in my experience between playing it for the first time and replaying it after knowing more about it.

This might extend the time it takes to play each game and write each article, but in the end I think it will be a more interesting and fulfilling way to approach it, both for myself, and for you.

So... let's jump in.

(VIEW MANUAL)

To start, let's review the story and overview from the manual, which is graciously hosted at tg-16.com

FROM THE MANUAL

Story

Somewhere over the jungle, the President's plane disappears. 

A crazed General, seeking wealth and power, orders his troops to kidnap him and hide him away. Now it's up to You to get him out!

You were born to fight and now your time has come. As a member of the special combat team, "Bloody Wolf," you were recruited from the best of all four branches of the military. Your partners are from the Seals, the Green Berets, the Marine Corps and the Air Force. But this time you'll have to go it alone.

ln order to prove yourself as a worthy member of Bloody Wolf, you've got to bring the President back alive even if it means your own life. lt will take everything you've got and more, so look yourself in the mirror and ask..."am I a man or am I a 'Wolf'!" 

A Bloody Wolf! 

 

Objective of the game

Rescue the President from the enemy stronghold after his plane goes down and he's kidnapped by a berserk military unit. Pass by enemy outposts, cross rivers, make your way through the jungle, defeat the enemy bosses and score points as you go. Besides the President, make sure you help out the other prisoners-you'll find they have important power-up items and information that you'll need to succeed. But if you do rescue the President, what then? Find out for yourself in this action-packed arcade hit!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

After reading the story and objective in the manual I decided to jump right into the game. Before I got into the game I thought it was going to be a lot like Ikari Warriors, a top down run and gun, but I was pleasantly surprised that it mixes things up quite a bit.

First of all, probably because of past trauma from playing a lot of Rambo First Blood Part II on the Sega Master System (which is like Ikari Warriors), I was thinking Bloody Wolf would look very similar with the same top down perspective, chunky characters and fat bullets. 

Rambo First Blood Part II on Sega Master System

Ikari Warriors on NES

I was very happy to see, however, that Bloody Wolf looks quite different, with character and bullet designs that almost look more at home in a Contra-styled game.

I really like the way the character moves and can jump over obstacles. It took me a minute to figure out, but I really like how you can climb certain objects and walls to get to higher levels (you'll see my struggle when I come across the first hostage in my gameplay video). 

I also really like how the character will pull out a knife and stab an enemy if you are right next to them. Not only is it a great way to structure the mechanic (without requiring complex button combinations to do it), but I like how you can get close and take down armored enemies. 

The game also has a bunch of boss fights which are cool and help break up the constant waves of enemy fighters coming at you. None of the boss fights were too hard or frustrating either. I could see some people complaining about that, but it didn't bother me.

I also really liked how you were able to ride a motorcycle at one point and take out a bunch of enemies, while dodging grenades and other obstacles. Was a nice change of pace and something I haven't seen in some other similar games, especially back in the day.

Like a lot of games on the TurboGrafx, the music is also really good. 

I didn't get a lot of time to play the game during my first run at it, but I like how you have unlimited continues to keep going if you want to, and the checkpoints when you die are very generous. 

The only reason my game session ended is I needed to leave and couldn't keep continuing (adulting, am I right?) 

You can see my very first time playing Bloody Wolf in the video below:

REVIEWS AND COVERAGE

Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine reviewed Bloody Wolf in their July 1990 issue (number 12) and generally gave it good scores.

GamePro magazine covered Bloody Wolf in their July 1990 issue, but apparently this was during a period when GamePro wasn't reviewing games and simply was covering them and offering gameplay tips. Their famous face-based score system isn't present in this issue at all.

 

Sinclair User magazine covered the European arcade version of Bloody Wolf, named "Battle Rangers", in their June 1989 issue, and gave it a 6 out of 10. Personally I think they were a bit harsh in their criticism, as they apparently saw it as a needless Ikari clone, but I think it's a much more enjoyable game than Ikari Warriors, and had several important gameplay enhancements. Still interesting to see some of the critical opinions back in the day. 

PRICING

According to the ProView for Bloody Wolf in GamePro, it retailed for $69.99 when it first launched. Now, according to the latest from PriceCharting.com, a complete-in-box (CIB) version of Bloody Wolf can cost anywhere from $100 to $150, while a loose copy generally sells for $50 to $70. 

Here is a current CIB listing on eBay:

CHEAT CODES

Sometimes it can be difficult to find cheat codes for specific games in old gaming mags, and I wasn't able to find any published cheats, however there are several on different websites, like GameFAQs, IGN and Planet Cheats. I wasn't able to try them all, but I was able to get the following codes to work: 

• Fast Mode: at the title screen press Up, Down, Right, Right, I, I, II, Select, Run

• Flying Mode: at the title screen press Down, Up, Left, Left, II, II, I, Select, Run

• Sound Test: at the title screen hold Up and II and press Select

• Level Select: at the title screen press II, I, I, II, I, II, II, I and then press one of the directions listed below on the D-pad to start at the desired Stage (there is no indication it works other than you will start at that level once you press Run and start the game):
• Stage 1: Up
• Stage 2: Up-Right Diagonal
• Stage 3: Right
• Stage 4: Down-Right Diagonal
• Stage 5: Down
• Stage 6: Down-Left Diagonal
• Stage 7: Left
• Stage 8: Up-Left Diagonal

I ended up using the Stage 8 code so I can verify that it works. I had reached Stage 8 during my Replay session and then had to take a break to go do adulting stuff, then when I returned the game was off and my progress was lost. So I used the code to at least restart from Stage 8 and not have to start over from the very beginning (the game is fun, but I wanted to get to the last boss).

ARCADE FIRSTPLAY

In researching more about Bloody Wolf, I learned that it started as an arcade game, so I wanted to try playing that a bit before jumping back into the TurboGrafx-16 version, in order to be able to compare the two. 

At first I was just planning to just capture a little gameplay, but then I actually ended up playing through the entire game, since I could just keep inserting virtual quarters whenever I died. There were certainly some challenging parts, but overall I found it very playable and not super punishing. 

Overall lots of fun. I did notice that when you die and continue in the arcade version, you simply pick right up where you died. 

In the TurboGrafx version, however, when you have to continue you restart from the beginning of the stage. This honestly makes sense, since you can continue infinitely and they have to make it a bit challenging when you die.

You can watch my full arcade playthrough in the video below:

TURBO REPLAY

After reading more about the game, and playing through the arcade version, I was ready to jump back into the TurboGrafx and see how my replay would compare to my first impressions.

It took me about a week to be able to get back to the TurboGrafx version after having played the arcade, and I'm glad because it gave me a bit of perspective.

The music is really badass in this game, especially the first stage's theme that recurs throughout the game. The action is also excellent and is a wonderful evolution of the Ikari Warriors-like formula. Where I never really liked Ikari Warriors and similar games, the changes made to Bloody Wolf feel like they were made just for me. The action is generally fast and enjoyable, and unlike the arcade version, I even enjoy the cheesy dialogue your character shares with each boss and some of the hostages when you rescue them. Really reenforces that cheesy 80s action flick vibe, which I'm not sure was totally intentional back when this game was created, but is excellent today nonetheless.

I'm also very glad for the unlimited continues they give you, and the fairly generous checkpoints throughout the game, except for in a few sections that felt difficult to get through. Making it to the end of the game becomes more a matter of perseverance than pure skill, but when you have adulting responsibilities pop up it can still put an early end to any gaming session, making faster playthroughs and less continues more necessary if you want to see the ending in a single sitting.

I was able to make it to the end boss, but I wasn't able to defeat him yet. He just kept killing me over and over, and eventually my life responsibilities meant I had to end my session and hopefully try again later. At least I can use the stage select cheat to go right to Stage 8, but I still have to fight my way to the boss, and that's easier said than done.

Compared to the arcade version, I really like the extra levels they made for the TurboGrafx home version, even though some of them are pretty insane. Feels like this is one case where the home port is actually superior to the arcade game, which is not something we used to encounter back in the day too often.

Overall Bloody Wolf was a bloody damn good time. I didn't know exactly what to expect going in, and I'm so glad I finally discovered it. Just surprised I hadn't run across the arcade version before this, but it was a happy discovery on both accounts.

I'll certainly keep playing more Bloody Wolf in the future, but I'm ready to move onto the next game in my journey.

The next game I'll be playing is King of Casino! ...um, yeah?

Certainly I can tell what this game is going to be about (would actually be awesome if it was nothing like I imagine). Hopefully it ends up being more fun than I fear.

Until next time!