I grew up enjoying the Ultraman television series. It was a part of the Fox Kids block of programming and came on Saturday mornings, courtesy of Haim Saban. If that name is familar, he's essentially the father of international programming launched in the United States, including Toei Company produced shows like Power Rangers, VR Troopers, and Kamen Rider (known as Masked Rider, which used footage from Kamen Rider Black RX).

Okay, that's veering off topic. To sum up, Ultraman played a big influence early in my youth, and when I learned there was a Super Nintendo game based on the show, it became one that was very amped to play. We had just gotten our SNES, and playing just about ANYTHING on it felt amazing. This was a weekend rental, and oh boy, did those expectations come crashing down like a pillow fort.   

Developed by B.B. Studio and published by their eventual owners Bandai (they're still around, and producing the Super Robot Wars series), this Ultraman game is based on the 1966 television show in Japan, but for its release out here, it became tied with the Towards The Future show of the same name. You play as the titular hero, Ultraman Great, as he battles off an alien virus named Gudis that threatens to destroy the world. In its wake, many giant mutant monsters appear that Ultraman has to defeat in one-on-one combat.

It's a platform game that's built like a fighter, but does NOT play the way you'd expect a game like this. I played this before Street Fighter II, so my basis for a substantial fighting game around this time was based on Flying Dragon: the Secret Scroll and Karate Champ. Even then, it doesn't take long to realize this is one of the most frustrating and painfully disappointing games early in this platform.

The controls HAVE to be talked about before anything else, because the essence of any video game is the ability to play it. Ultraman is a cocktail of delayed functions, unresponsive moves, putrid hit detection, and bland animations that give you zero information whatsoever. He has a punch and a kick, and a jump button. Goddamn, the problems start there.

Ultraman's jump is unreliable, as it's not fast enough to get you out of any kind of danger because of its slow start-up time, but trying to control your trajectory during the high jump (executed by pushing up on the D-pad and jump) sends him flying in an awkward arc and then plummeting straight back down to earth. Despite the fact that you leap way high than most enemies is irrelevant, if you can't use mid-air strikes effectively, and more often than not, landing puts you right in front of the enemy, where he knocks you right on your ass.

Rocking the directional pad also does random things, depending on how close or far the enemy is from you. Since there's no boundaries, you can scroll left or right for as long as you wish (bear in mind, there's a three minute time limit to defeat each monster), but you'll sprint towards them if you're far away enough. Pressing down and forward at an angle makes you tumble forward, tilting away makes you backspring, which is how you "defend", since you don't have a block button. Just like the jumping, it feels more likely to land you in danger, rather than avoiding it.

Unlike any conventional game where depleting the life bar would signify the end of the match, in order to defeat the monsters, you must hit them with Great's signature attack, the Burning Plasma. You have a power meter that gradually fills as the fight progresses, and when the life bar flashes "FINISH", you gotta hit your shot. If you miss, not only does the meter have to take time to build, but the enemy ALSO regains health! The enemy cheap shots you so often because attacks are difficult to react to and Ultraman controls with the poise of an escaped dementia patient.

Even from a fan perspective, this game is embarrassingly lame. The graphics are stupid. There's not much to say here. Flat colors, uninspired sprites, there's very little to look at with the backgrounds. It also happens to be another one of those SNES games that likes to show off its graphical prowess and parallax scrolling by chucking a bunch of disgusting buildings in the foreground of the screen. It's bad enough that it's already a pain in the ass to get a read on the sleepy animations, good luck trying to follow low-aiming projectiles that are blocked out by a bunch of debris. I despise game that do this in an uncreative manner, clean your stupid screen up, I'm trying to fight! 

I can't see any other reason to own this Ultraman: Towards The Future, other than to pad a retro collection. It goes for mere dollars, because even though some SNES games get hiked up in value, copies of this sold for anything more than a sawbuck can be considered a criminal offense.