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It's been three months since the city became overrun by monsters, mutants and the walking dead. With armies overwhelmed and supplies running low, it seems the humans are running out of hope... It's only up to three brave hunters to stop this madness once and for all.

Night Slashers is a 1993 arcade beat 'em up developed by Data East, and it's notable for two reasons: 1) It's one of the few beat 'em ups that deliberately utilize campy horror tropes, featuring all-favorite monsters such as zombies, werewolves, and psychotic killers. 2) Although beat 'em ups are never far from violence and blood, Night Slashers is surprisingly graphic, not afraid to show intestines spurting out as the enemies fall down. These made Night Slashers a class of its own, and it became one of the most sought Data East games after years.

Forever Entertainment, the same people behind Panzer Dragoon Remake and the Panzer Dragoon II Zwei: Remake, are working together with G-Mode to make a remake of this game for all consoles.


Night Slashers provide examples of:

  • Abandoned Hospital: The first stage, refitted by Dr. Ripper into a zombie factory.
  • Adjustable Censorship: For those not too fond of the gore, Night Slashers offers optional dip switch setting to replace them with tamer version, which paints the blood to green and simplifies the gory animation.
  • Affectionate Parody: Night Slashers is likely a product of homage to various cheeky horror films from Evil Dead to Braindead.
  • Animated Armor: The third stage's miniboss, controlled by a sword-demon. Defeating the armor destroys the blade as well. An upgraded version appears as the fifth stage's miniboss.
  • Balance, Speed, Strength Trio: Christopher Smith is a Jack of All Stats, Jake Hunter is a Mighty Glacier, and Zhao Hong-Hua is a Fragile Speedster.
  • Barrage of Bats: The Vampire Count boss can release at the player some bats from inside his heavy cloak.
  • Big Bad: The main villain of the game is Zarutz, an infernal king possessing a robot behemoth out to conquer the world by killing humanity with an army of monsters.
  • Boss Banter: The player character has a conversation with the boss before every battle.
  • Car Fu: The first stage opens up with the gang storming through a horde of zombies with a van.
  • Critical Hit: Occasionally your attack will land on enemies with Written Sound Effect "SLASH!" or "CRASH!", which will deal great damage on them (and is usually a fatal blow on most normal enemies).
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Done twice. The game at first sets it up like the Vampire Lord is the main villain, until netherworld gates are detected in Mexico and Australia. After the goal of sealing off the portals to the netherworld is completed, it then looks like The Grim Reaper will be the final boss, but he also turns out to be a subordinate, contracted to make monsters swarm the world. Ultimately, it's revealed that King Zarutz is the main villain.
  • Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Exemplified in Zhao Hong-Hua, a Shenxian Daoshi (i.e. Transcendent Daoist Sage) who wields the powers of the Fenghuang and the Long.
  • Dual Boss: After chasing down the carriage in the second stage, the players have to deal with a hunchback rider and his haunted puppet as minibosses. Played with for the fourth boss fight; there are two spirit bodies, but they share the same vitality meter, and landing the lethal blow on one will immediately destroy the other.
  • Dub Name Change: Jake's family name is White in the original Japanese.
  • Familial Foe: In the Japanese version (the English release has much briefer cutscenes), Christopher notes that the Vampire Lord who appears at the end of the first stage has had many clashes with his father and grandfather. The Vampire Lord even recognizes Christopher from when he was a young boy.
  • Funny Background Event: A bit more morbid than usual, but one zombie in the crowd during bonus stages is cheerfully juggling her own head.
  • Hammered into the Ground: Doing a down air move can do this to most enemies to stun them. The player can kick them while in that state. Be careful, however, because many of them can still fight back while stuck.
  • Healthy Green, Harmful Red: The players', the mini-bosses' and the stage bosses life bars follow this dynamic: green for full health, red for damage/diminishing health.
  • Hyperactive Metabolism: Features cake, curry, gyoza, hot dogs, lychees, roast beef, and soup to heal yourself with.
    Player upon getting food: Delicious!!
  • I'm Melting!: Some enemies' flesh melts away upon defeat with no explanation, most notably the first miniboss, who's human (and, except for all the blood he lost, with an intact corpse in the first part of the cutscene after destroying his creature).
  • Large Ham: The voice acting is generally this. Notable one is this speech from Christopher every time he gets up after knock down:
    Christopher: You caught me off guard!
  • Mad Scientist: The first stage's miniboss (apparently named Dr. Ripper if the second minigame is evidence), who's introduced slicing apart a zombie before approaching the players and offering to turn them into zombies. You then will have to battle a Frankenstein's Monster type creature (the stage's boss) after dealing with him.
  • Monster Mash: The game has the player fight all sorts of monsters. Regular enemies include zombies, werewolves, and knife-wielding psychos, while bosses include a Mad Scientist, a Frankenstein's Monster, a vampire, a mummy and The Grim Reaper.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
    • Jake Hunter is a psychic cyborg serving as a monster hunter.
    • Some of the monsters in charge of the classic enemies of urban fantasy are a mummy and two Aztec God statues.
    • King Zarutz, the demon king, is fighting in a robotic suit.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Some players noted that Christopher looks like a certain musician.
  • Psycho Knife Nut: The undead in hockey masks and Dr. Ripper are all lunatics that use scalpels against you.
  • The Renfield: The hunchback working for the Vampire Count and facing you in the second stage.
  • Rock Monster: The boss of the second stage, who rises up to attack after a sphere takes control of its pile. It still can bleed.
  • Sinister Car: The carriage at the beginning of stage 2. While it won't attack, its purpose is to take the Vampire Lord to his castle. The players has to chase after it while battling the werewolves interfering with their progress.
  • Title Drop: The opening during the demo.
    Hunters: It's safe in here. Leave the rest to us!
    Citizen: Who...Who are you?
    Hunters: Us? I'll tell you who we are...
    NIGHT SLASHERS

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