When people think of Konami’s beat em ups they automatically lean toward the licensed ones like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, the gigantic 6 player X-Men game, The Simpsons, etc. Little do they know there was one game released exclusively for arcades 31 years ago that gave them all a run for their money. That is Konami’s lost arcade masterpiece Metamorphic Force! Alas it FINALLY got an official home port!

   

So what is the big deal about Metamorphic Force? It has everything that made Turtles in Time, X-Men, and even Sega’s Altered Beast so awesome and fun to play and multiplies it times ten. Like most Konami beat em ups from that era you have bright colorful well animated graphics and 4 player multiplayer. Your characters can transform into monsters after grabbing a gold statue power up. Gameplay wise it is very similar to all the other Konami brawlers from that period and that is a very good thing in my book. The music however is PHENOMENAL. The stage 1 theme has some serious lost 90s Saturday morning action cartoon energy. You’ll seriously be air guitaring.

This Arcade Archives release will include the 2 and 4 player International and Japanese versions of the game. There are slight differences between the International and Japanese releases. The Japanese version has a normal life bar with lives while the western counterpart has a Gauntlet style timer as your energy which only refills if you insert a coin.

Metamorphic Force is on the Japanese Nintendo eShop and PSN marketplaces as of this article. It will come west tomorrow for $7.99 USD. Don’t miss out on this fantastic release!

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David Medina is a hardcore gamer and Japanese import collector owning dozens of systems and games from Famicom to Nintendo Switch. He has an active YouTube channel called "The Karnov Jr Show" and posts retro gaming content there weekly showing off collections, random store tours, and gameplay clips.

By David "Karnov Jr" Medina

David Medina is a hardcore gamer and Japanese import collector owning dozens of systems and games from Famicom to Nintendo Switch. He has an active YouTube channel called "The Karnov Jr Show" and posts retro gaming content there weekly showing off collections, random store tours, and gameplay clips.