Arcade Archives Urban Champion

Genre: Fighting Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Urban Champion is a Fighting Game released in 1984 on the Japanese Famicom, and then in 1986 on its Western counterpart, the Nintendo Entertainment System. Meanwhile, the game also received an arcade port in 1984.

Urban Champion uses 2D pixel art visuals and chiptune sound design that work well enough for the game. It all has a retro style charm to it, but it’s not exceptional in any way.

Urban Champion is what you get if you strip a Fighting Game down to its core. You only have high and low attack types, each with weak/fast and strong/slow versions, as well as a the ability to dodge back and block high or low. You have limited stamina, but health isn’t measured with bars or HP, but with how far to the left/right you are, with a win requiring players to push their opponent off the opposite side of the current block.

There’s no depth or nuance here. The Punch-Out!! games featured similarly simply controls, but those games at least had you facing a wide variety of opponents with different attack patterns and unique personalities. Here, it’s just the same copy-paste characters over and over again.

This release of the game includes a new “Hi-Score Mode” that challenges players to make as many points as they can in one run. There is also a new “Caravan Mode” that does much the same, but with the limit being five minutes. In addition, this release of the game gives players a decent array of options, including various display options, sound options, challenge modifiers, button mapping, and online leaderboards.

So there are only two remaining elephants in the room to discuss. First: Is this game worth its $8 price tag? And second, is it worth buying if you already subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online, which includes a version of this game on its Nintendo Entertainment System app? I’m going to say no on both counts. Not only is $8 pretty steep for a game this old and that plays this poorly, but the Nintendo Entertainment System app version is not different enough to make this version worthwhile in its own right. Really, the only reason anyone would want to buy this release is if they absolutely must own a version of the game. But if you plan on continuing to maintain your Nintendo Switch Online subscription, this release has very little of value for you.

In the end, Urban Champion is a terrible, dated Fighting Game and this release only makes things worse with a bloated price tag. This game isn’t worth playing, but if you must, play it on the Nintendo Entertainment System app.

tl;dr – Urban Champion is an absolutely miserable Fighting game with terrible controls and a complete lack of depth. There’s a reason this game has been the butt of jokes every time Nintendo re-releases it instead of countless other, better games in its backlog. This release only adds insult to injury with its absurd $8 price tag. Do not buy this.

Grade: F

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