Aggressors of Dark Kombat

Aggressors of Dark Kombat (abbreviated ADK), known in Japan as Tsuukai GANGAN Koushinkyoku (, lit "Thrilling Intense March"), is a one-on-one fighting arcade game released by SNK and developed by Alpha Denshi Corp.

Gameplay
The game's major innovation is the ability to walk into the background, in a similar manner to side-scrolling beat 'em ups such as Streets of Rage or Final Fight. Because of this, unlike many other 2D fighting games, only two action buttons are used for attacking (punches and kicks) and uses the third action button to jump. Grappling and grabbing opponents is made the focus of the gameplay: opponents can counter-grab and break free as well, the moment to do so indicated by a surprise mark near their heads; if a button is pressed prematurely, the fighter will not be able to counter or escape from a grappling attack. Another feature in the game is that when certain attacks from both opponents hit simultaneously, they either block the attack, or in other instances, start a grapple between the fighters where the player must mash the button to win. Should the player come out the victor they'll get a free chance to body slam the opponent.

Also featured is weapon play, another mechanic akin to beat 'em ups. Weapons can be picked up and thrown, or used in special and standard attacks. Weapons are thrown into the ring by spectators in the background, and in some stages they are hidden inside of objects that can be destroyed.

Unlike most other games in the genre, all battles last for one round, and both players have a health bar that has several layers of colors to indicate the health, with blue being the highest, and red being the lowest. Each blow dealt to one or the other will restore a slight bit of their health meter. There is also a "Crazy Meter" at the bottom of the screen. It is built up gradually as the battle moves on, though it can fill up faster as characters attack; this gives the character a special – and often very bizarre – attack that will defeat the opponent outright if their health bar is red. It is called the "Gan Gan Attack" in Japan, and "Crazy Attack" in the US.

Battles are joined by irreverent, sometimes humorous pre-fight banter from characters. The dialogue differs from opponent to opponent, and the fight is immediately presaged by a clash of two small images of the combatants' eyes in the center of the screen.

Release
The game was released in arcades. It was later ported to SNK's Neo-Geo AES and Neo Geo CD consoles.

In 2008 it was included with a few other Neo-Geo titles by ADK on the ADK Damashii Game Collection released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 only. It was also included on the Japanese NeoGeo Mini in 2018. It was re-released on other NeoGeo Mini systems: the limited edition Christmas, Samurai Shodown and Samurai Spirits versions.

Critical Reception
he game was met with generally underwhelming reviews from critics, many of whom felt the large sprites and ability to move through different planes ultimately do not make Aggressors of Dark Kombat intrinsically different from or as deep as fighting games which preceded it, though it had its share of defenders. Ultimate Future Games, in its review of the Neo Geo CD version, summed up that "It's nothing we haven't already seen before, and seen with more finesse at that." The reviewer said every aspect of the game seemed slapdash, citing as examples the near-illegible fonts, dull music, poorly translated English manual, sparse animation, and a setup which is not conducive to stylish or deep fighting. GamePro panned the AES version of the game, saying it "combines aspects of Art of Fighting, World Heroes, and Street Fighter without coming close to the complexity or challenge of any of them." They complained of unresponsive controls and the excessively long string of commands required to execute Crazy moves, and remarked that though the sprites are large, they are nonetheless unimpressive due to the uninteresting animations and unoriginal character designs. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly acknowledged the mediocre animations and character designs, but asserted that the game is fun if given a chance, with the strong points including the ability to fight in multiple planes and the humorous Crazy moves.

Next Generation reviewed the AES version of the game and summarized, "Although moves are difficult to pull off, ADK's crisp look and powerful action make it well worth the trouble." However, Next Generation later reviewed the Neo Geo CD version, and stated that despite SNK marketing the game as a 3D fighter, it is purely 2D, and that the ability to fight in multiple planes, while a decent effort at innovation, ultimately has little impact on the gameplay. The reviewer concluded that "From graphics to moves to sound effects, almost every element in this game is more-or-less average and is not likely to stand out from the enormous 2D fighting library of Neo-Geo." The Electric Playground praised the game's controls and efforts at innovation, but felt the formulaic characters and shallow gameplay cause it to wear thin after a few play sessions. Hobby Consolas commented that the one-round and four health bars format results in fights which are long, interesting, and well-balanced. They also praised the high quality sound effects and large sprites enabled by the massive Neo Geo cartridges, and the excellent Spanish voice acting. However, they concluded that the small number of playable characters prevented them from unreservedly recommending the game, though they emphasized that it is otherwise outstanding and expressed a desire to see a Neo Geo CD version.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Aggressors of Dark Kombat in their September 1, 1994 issue as being the eighth most-popular arcade game at the time. In North America, RePlay reported the game to be the eighteenth most-popular arcade game at the time. According to Famitsu, the AES version sold 6,143 copies in its first week on the market.

The title was named the "Strangest Game of 1994" by Electronic Gaming Monthly. In a retrospective review, Allgame echoed contemporary response to the game by remarking that the ability to move between different planes "introduces some new strategy elements in trying to approach the opponent, [but] it isn't enough to redeem the game from its overall mediocrity." The reviewer did argue that the animated backgrounds somewhat made up for the poorly animated characters, but said the gameplay suffers from small move lists and an overall lack of skill involved in winning.

Trivia

 * In Japan, Aggressors of Dark Kombat is known as Tsuukai GANGAN Koushinkyoku (痛快GANGAN行進曲, translates from Japanese as "Thrilling Intense March"), also known as GanGan for the fans (GANGAN is also Japanese onomatopoiea for the sound of a large bell or a scolding voice).
 * The English game title is a pun on the developer's initials (Alpha Denshi Corp.) and also parodies Mortal Kombat, spelling the word combat with K instead C.
 * The Japanese version has blood when a character is hit by a critical hit.

Aggressors of Dark Kombat