8 Man (Neo Geo) Review

June 6, 2024

8 Man originally published in 1963 is one of Japan's earliest cyborg super heroes, predating the likes of Kamen Rider and Kikaider. After being gunned down by criminals, Detective Azuma is rebuilt as a super-human cyborg. He dedicates himself to fighting crime and must reconcile with his new identity as a cyborg. 8 Man has had many adaptations over the years, one of which was an arcade game released on the Neo Geo simply titled 8 Man (or EightMan).

8 Man is a beat em up with light platforming elements, you'll take control of 8 Man as he fights his way through waves of robotic enemies while avoiding the occasional pitfall. The controls are simple: attack, jump and a limited bomb attack that deals massive damage. You also have a slide that can be performed by pressing down and jump but I never really found a use for it.

Each stage consists of 4 separate sections each of them ending with a sub-boss. The two main types of sections are the typical scrolling sections where you walk to the right and annihilate everything in your path and the auto-scrolling running stages where you also annihilate everything in your path. The enemy variety is decent, you'll start with the multi-colored goons that go down in a single hit before making your way to tougher enemies that'll take multiple hits with gimmicks like splitting in half. The platforming sections are pretty simple, the hardest they get is when you have small flying enemies near pits but they can be easily delt with by using a bomb.

Despite being an early Neo Geo title the game has some flashy and colorful graphics. 8 Man for whatever reason is colored blue instead of black, he's colored correctly on the title screen so I'm assuming that was to make him pop out from the backgrounds. The game's music is high energy and while it does a good job of getting you in the mood to thrash some robots it's not very memorable and will leave your mind as soon as the game ends.

8 Man is a short but sweet action arcade title, it's far from the best of the genre but if you're looking for a quick hit of fun I'd recommend giving it a try.