How Much did it Cost to Beat Night Slashers in 1993?

This was originall posted on my YouTube channel and can be watched below. But if you prefer the text version, then read on adventurer!

In 1993, while most arcade beat him ups were busy sending players to clean up crimeridden streets, Data East decided to release a campy horror themed sidescroller. Although Night Slashers flew mostly under the radar, it is considered a solid entry in the genre that has since grown into a cult classic.

Did this game offer you a fair fight for your survival, or was this supernatural apocalypse designed to drain your blood... and your wallet? As always, we're going to find out.

Development, Censorship, and Legacy

Creating the B-Movie Vibe

We're heading back to 1993. Sides scrolling beat him ups were at their peak in the arcades and seemed to be releasing left and right. In order to stand out, Data East opted to completely lean into the campy, over-the-top horror tropes of the 80s and 90s, and thus Night Slashers entered production. The game was built on the company's DECO32 arcade architecture to really sell the intense B-movie atmosphere. They brought in composer Tom Sedo to create a phenomenal rocking soundtrack that stood out from the typical synthesized beats of the era. (And in my opinion, he did a pretty damn good job.)

Western Censorship and Changes

The team was committed to the over-the-top gore and horror aesthetics. However, the dev team toned down the violence for the game's international release. While the original Japanese version fully embraced the bloodshed, the western releases were heavily censored by Data East. The regional versions famously changed the color of the blood from bright red to green. They also removed religious symbols such as replacing a crucifix used in the game with a generic blue crystal. In the Japanese version, the "go" arrow prompting you to move forward would flip over to read "to hell" written in blood, which was censored and simply read "go" in Western machines. All hope wasn't lost, though. The violence could be changed back to red using the dip switches in the cabinet, but the crucifix could not be added into Western versions.

Ports and the 2024 Remake

Night Slashers largely flew under the radar when it released. Eventually though, it did cement its status as a cult classic. The game never had any sequels and was never ported to home consoles until a brief appearance on the Nintendo Switch eShop from 2018 to 2023, and as of today, it has since been delisted. Night Slasher survived primarily through the retro community for decades thanks to arcade emulation.

In 2024, a multiplatform remake was released, developed by Storm Trident and published by Forever Entertainment. Now, I played this with my buddy Scott on livestream a few months ago, and to me, the remake is just okay. I much prefer the original over the remake, and just wish that the remake came with the option to play that old version as well, and maybe just a little bit more bells and whistles. It's just really, really short and really, really simple.

Lore, Characters, and Gameplay

The Horror Storyline

The narrative of Night Slashers is the perfect excuse to mash together a bunch of iconic horror movie monster tropes into one giant arcade brawler. The story kicks off 3 months after the world has been completely overrun by monsters and undead creatures. With Earth's militaries completely overwhelmed and humanity on the brink of extinction, it's up to a specialized squad of monster hunters to stop the apocalypse.

Initially, the game sets up a vampire as the main antagonist, but after you defeat him, you discover that netherworld portals are opening across the globe, spewing out monsters all over the planet. From there, it looks like the Grim Reaper is the one pulling the strings, only to reveal that, he too, is just a subordinate. The true mastermind behind the apocalypse is King Zarutz, a demon king who fights you in a giant robotic suit. Zarutz's goal is to turn the planet into the kingdom of the dead. Luckily, a ragtag group of monster hunters are on the job.

Jake is an American monster hunter who replaced his arms with cybernetic mechanisms. His nickname is the psychic cyborg, as he has special psychic abilities. Christopher is Europe's most famous vampire hunter, and he's also a skilled martial artist using both Eastern and Western fighting abilities. Hong Hua is Asia's most revered martial artist. She's a quick fighter whose specialty just happens to be neutralizing black magic. What a coincidence!

Gameplay Mechanics and Controls

Night Slashers was mostly seen in two-player cabinets, but did have support for three players if arcade owners chose to convert a three-player cabinet for it. The cabinet features an eight-way joystick with three buttons: attack, jump, and special. Players get to choose between the three monster hunters previously mentioned and each play differently with unique move sets:

• Jake is slow but strong and uses his telekinetic abilities and machine gun arm to keep enemies at bay.
• Christopher is the balance fighter of the bunch and he uses holy water and elemental powers.
• Hong Hua is fast and agile using phoenix fire and lightning abilities.

Each character comes equipped with a pretty extensive move list. On top of just attacking, jumping and your special move, players can also utilize dash attacks, jump attacks that nail enemies into the ground, charged up attacks known as aura attacks, blocks, a radial spinning blow, a team up throw, a team up special, and a secret technique that can only be used when the player is at critical health. There are also two different special attacks which include a regular special and one that can be performed while jumping.

Now, when I play these games, I usually go into them blind. So, I didn't realize that this game had a bunch of these attacks or moves until after I played and started researching for the script. So, had I known this, it may have altered my results just slightly.

Items, Enemies, and Mini-Games

Like most beat him ups, pickups are scattered throughout each level and include: treasures to help your score, food to replenish your health, and one-time throwing weapons, which include knives, rocks, and a sword. Honestly, I feel like the pickups in this game were kind of lacking compared to other beat 'em ups that released around this time.

Night Slashers features seven different levels with a wide variety of enemies, including zombies, vampires, werewolves, and mutants, just to name a few. Each stage has a boss and almost every level also includes a sub boss, and for the most part, they're not too difficult. To be perfectly honest, most bosses kind of act very similar in their attacks. I tried to do the classic beat him up maneuver where you stand just above or just below them so that your attacks land, but theirs miss. I also actively tried to avoid standing directly in front of most of the bosses as this is where you'll take the most damage.

There are a couple levels that feature a chase scene. One of these is the carriage chase. It's similar to a driving or flying level that you might find while playing another game in the beat 'em up genre. The second time this pops up is near the end of the game.

The game does feature two pretty comical bonus levels, Whack-a- Zombie and Zombie Bowling. They don't really do anything for you except boost your score, but it is a fun little break in the action.

Stage Breakdown and Endings

Level one takes place in a hospital where you'll face off against mostly zombies. The first sub boss is a mad scientist, and the boss of the level is an experiment resembling Frankenstein's monster.

Level two is a dark forest filled with werewolves. You'll battle against a puppet master and his puppet for this sub boss and a rock gollum for the level boss.

Level three is an alleyway leading into a castle where you'll fight against an enchanted knight for the sub boss and a vampire that I've named "DisCount Dracula" for the main boss.

Level four sees the players navigating ancient ruins. There is no sub boss on this level, but the level boss is two spirit warriors.

Level five puts you on a plane facing off against zombies and mutants. The sub boss here is another enchanted knight, and the level boss is a pharaoh mummy.

On level six, you'll infiltrate the enemy's island headquarters. There is a bit of a boss rush here where you'll fight against a few of the bosses you've already disposed of. The level boss is the Grim Reaper, and he is a bit harder than other bosses. He can block your attacks. He'll also attack when you're too close and charge with his scythe when you're too far. The scythe charge can be a little hard to avoid, especially with Jake since he's just so slow. The best method here is to use hit-and-run tactics and try to catch him in a grab combo when you can.

The last level features a final showdown against King Zarutz. He's also kind of tricky since he has a fiery force field that won't let you get close to him. After about 30 seconds to a minute in this boss fight, I found that just waiting for his force field will cause him to walk towards you, and then he's honestly pretty easy. Just keep hammering away at him with combos. He might actually be one of the easiest final bosses that we've played thus far. After you defeat him, the base will start to self-destruct and you'll have another chase mission as you escape from the compound. King Zarutz isn't dead yet, though, and he'll be in pursuit. You'll have to land just a few more hits here to completely beat the game.

With King Zarutz defeated, the supernatural threat vanishes from the world, and our monster hunters return to their normal lives. After the credits roll, individual epilogues and unique ending sequences play out for each character. A scene 3 months later hints at new strange figures approaching the heroes, leaving open the possibility of a new supernatural threat.

Overall Impressions

Now, in my opinion, Night Slashers is far from a top tier beat 'em up. It does feel a little dated when compared to other beat 'em ups that released around this time. And while I do applaud the game for trying to add unique gameplay mechanics, the play just kind of feels slow and clunky, I also found it kind of hard to avoid attacks. And while cool looking, many of the bosses are just pretty generic in their gameplay. Now, that being said, I do really enjoy the premise and the aesthetic of this game. It looks great, the pixel art is fantastic, and I love all of the callbacks to all of the horror tropes. Data East tried something new with this game. It just unfortunately doesn't check all the boxes for me. But if you are a fan of the horror genre, then I highly suggest you give this a shot.

The Cost Breakdown and Predatory Scale

Total Quarters Spent and Cost Per Minute

And now it's time to find out how much I spent to beat Night Slashers. Now, for these games, I play them on emulator on their default settings, and I set up a counter to increase every time I start or continue. For Night Slashers, it took me $6 or 24 plays to beat the game. Adjusted for inflation, $6 in 1993 would feel like spending $14.05 today.

Now, this was done for spending 25 per credit. So, if you were playing a machine that was charging 50 per credit, then you would just double everything. And that $6 would turn into $12 in 1993 and adjusted for inflation would come down to $28 today. It took me 38 minutes to beat Night Slashers, so not too long of a game. This brought my cost per minute to 16 cents, which is actually kind of high for a beat him up. Usually, this floats somewhere around the 12 cent mark.

For the bosses, I spent:

• 25 cents or one credit on the mad scientist
• 25 cents or one credit on the puppet and puppeteer
• 25 cents or one credit on the rock gollum
• 25 cents or one credit on DisCount Dracula
• 50 cents or two credits on the spirit warriors
• 25 cents or one credit on the mummy
• 50 cents or two credits on death
• 50 cents or two credits on King Zaroots

Bringing my boss total to $2.75.

Predatory Scale Rating

Now, halfway through this game, and I was thinking about just how easy it was. And then right around that time, it does start to kind of pick up in the last few levels. You start to see a lot more enemies get thrown at you and I do think if I realized that there were other combat mechanics, such as the aura move where you hold down the button, I probably would have beaten it for a little less.

I didn't notice any like egregious cheating by the CPU or input reading or anything like that. To be honest, what's driving this up the scale for me is that I just don't think that the gameplay mechanics are the best (even with the extra moves I missed). It feels slow and it feels clunky and at times a little hard to defend against enemies. If it wasn't for the cool character designs and aesthetic of the game, I would be completely uninterested in this game.

I do applaud this game for what it was trying to do in telling its story and setting up its lore. The cutscenes and explainations were great, especially for an arcade game of its time. I would love to see this franchise explored with a proper sequel, but overall the clunky mechanics matched with a higher cost per minute and the overall dated gameplay for the time just didn't do it for me.

I just can't put this super low on the scale. I don't think it deserves a super high spot either. So on the mass replay predatory game scale, I'm giving Night Slashers a 5 out of 10.

To be completely fair, I don't think this game was meant to be a quarter eater. I don't think that Data East was trying to manipulate this game into being a predatory game. I just think that it doesn't have a lot of polish and if this game was just polished a little bit more, it would be a really good game and then it would go down on the scale for me a little bit.

Now, can you play Night Slashers today? Well, kind of. You still can't play the original arcade game. Not unless you see it in the wild or emulate it, but you can play the remake that came out in 2024. Like I said, it's just okay in my opinion. I prefer the look and feel of the original. The remake does have an extra character that was added to it, though, so there is that.

Not a predatory score, but my overall score of the arcade game

Next Episodes

Next time on Arcade Economy, we're finally doing it, guys. We're diving into Street Fighter II to see how much it costs to beat every arcade version of the game. And yes, there are six of them. And after Street Fighter II, as promised, we will be covering Ghosts 'n Goblins. So, we've got a couple of Capcom entries in the chamber.