Power Instinct
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Power Instinct (豪血寺一族 Gōketsuji Ichizoku?, "The Gōketsuji Clan") is a fighting game series created by Atlus started in 1993.
The Power Instinct series (often abbreviated as PI or GI for short) is renowned for its more humorous take on fighting games, its music and its often-weird characters.[citation needed]
One of the innovations unique to the series was the introduction of the transformation feature. Several of the characters can change their appearance and fighting style by simply executing certain moves (usually a throwing move), though this has not been featured in every entry in the series. Other features include the ability to perform a double jump and attacking while dashing.
[edit] Games
| Power Instinct | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Atlus |
| Publisher(s) | Atlus |
| Designer(s) | Atlus |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Super Nintendo, Sega Mega Drive |
| Release date | November 1993 |
| Genre(s) | 2D Versus fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Input methods | 8-way joystick, 4 buttons |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Display | Horizontally oriented, 320 × 224, 2048 palette colors |
[edit] Power Instinct (Gōketsuji Ichizoku)
The first game of the series was released in 1993. It has eight selectable characters and one boss, Oume, a palette-swap of Otane. Originally, every character had a specific win quote for each defeated foe, but that was reduced to only one win quote for each character in the English version.
This game was ported to Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis and included some new play modes: Vs. Battle, Practice Mode, Time Attack and a "Life Attack" that consists of defeating as many opponents as possible with just one life bar (similar to the Survival Modes seen in other fighting games). The Genesis version had a Battle Royal mode where 1 or 2 players can select a team, with an option to hide the characters being chosen and they would not be revealed until during gameplay. Additionally, it featured an option that allowed the strength of each special attack of every playable character to be adjusted to the player's liking.
The English console ports of this game had several omitted features, such as Karaoke Mode with the lyrics for the songs "Tatanka no Uta" and "Otoko no Karatemichi", character biographies that popped up in between demos, the intro demo to the game and the scene of Oume where she speaks to the player before she fights them (which changes if she's fighting Otane).
Another difference between the Super Nintendo and Super Famicom versions are the endings; The Super Nintendo version replaces them with a Congratulations screen with the character portraits used in the pre-fight screen, while in the latter the endings are still present, though slightly different from those in the original arcade version, drawn in a style similar to the endings found in Power Instinct 2.[citation needed]
[edit] Gameplay
The game uses a four button layout, two buttons for punches and two for kicks. Every character has their own stage, attacks and special moves. The special moves are performed via combinations of joystick movements and buttons.
All the stages are wider than they look. When the objects in the corners are broken, the stage itself is expanded upon, making a bigger playing field.
The player will fight against all the characters and, every four matches, will have the chance to play one of two bonus stages. One of them consists of knocking away Kurokos who run into the screen, and the other involves breaking jars tossed from around the screen in certain orders.
When all the characters have been defeated, the player will go on to face Oume, the current clan leader, and once she is defeated, the ending for that character is shown.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Angela Belti
Although she has a very rough lifestyle, Angela is very passionate and tends to fall in love easily. (She once followed the man she loved all the way to Japan. He is currently missing.) She is very tall, and very strong, even stronger than most men.
[edit] Annie Hamilton
She is at times overbearing and bossy, due her spoiled upbringing. However she loves animals, and currently has six dogs, four cats, three horses and a turtle named Kensington.
[edit] Keith Wayne
Keith is self-centered and conceited. He was a misunderstood youth who at one time ran with a gang. But the strong, unrivaled love of his father was what made him leave. His one and only best friend was the leader of the gang (he still hangs out with that friend once in awhile).
Keith is a playboy, a guy who likes flirting with women, which is one of the reasons that he enters the Goketsuji tournaments, though his ego is what often ends up driving them away. But there, he found Annie Hamilton, the love of his life.
[edit] Otane Goketsuji
Due to her unconquerable spirit, Otane Goketsuji (豪血寺 お種 Gōketsuji Otane?) has become superhuman. She is both mysterious and secretive so you never know what she may be up to.
Otane had a sad childhood where she was constantly berated and abused by her older sister Oume and due to her relative weakness her mother did not pay much attention to her.
Her older sister seemed to hate her.. one day, at the age of 6 years, while strolling in the forest, Oume buried Otane alive. Fortunately an old farmer that was near the place heard Otane crying and saved her. Oume, after have seen her attempt to get rid of her younger sister foiled, turned more aggressive.
Finally, tired of the Oume's abuse and the indifference of her mother, Otane decided to leave home at the age of 15 with only one thing on mind: Training endlessly, so that one day she will prove that she is a worthy representative of the Goketsuji clan.
[edit] Oume Goketsuji
Oume Goketsuji (豪血寺 お梅 Gōketsuji Oume?) is superhuman. In any case, she is scary. To master her mysterious attacks she confined herself to the mountains. Moreover, she has an eerie and unearthly presence about her and it is rumored that she can practically turn her opponents to stone just by gazing into their eyes.
[edit] Reiji Oyama
Reiji Oyama (大山 礼児 Ōyama Reiji?) is very straight forward and honest and is the ultimate training fanatic. He does not do well with minute details, but excels at physical strength matches. He works part-time for a construction company to exert his excess energy. He also constantly searches for a worthy opponent.
[edit] Saizo Hattori
Saizo Hattori (破鳥 才蔵 Hattori Saizō?) is a dark character who keeps his emotions hidden. He normally hides behind a mask to avoid the contact with others, although on occasion his part-time job requires him to appear on stage in an animal costume.
[edit] Thin-Nen
Thin-Nen (陳念 Japanese: Chin-nen?) is a violent individual with obscene desires. This religious man studied ancient rituals to gain mystic powers. He will do everything he can to get what he wants, whether it be women, food or money. He’s afraid of nothing.
[edit] White Buffalo
White is a Native American who tries to protect the rights of his people at all costs. A man of few words, he does not say much. A man who appreciates the little things in life. He tried to make one with the world.
| Power Instinct 2 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Atlus/CAVE |
| Publisher(s) | Atlus |
| Designer(s) | Atlus |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation |
| Release date | April 1994 |
| Genre(s) | 2D Versus fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Input methods | 8-way joystick, 4 buttons |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | CAVE 1st generation |
| Display | Horizontally oriented, 320 × 240, 10240 palette colors |
[edit] Power Instinct 2 (Gōketsuji Ichizoku 2 Chotto Dake Saikyō Densetsu)
- Power Instinct 2 features five new characters, giving a total of 13 playable characters and one boss (Otane Goketsuji)
- Introduction of the "Stress" meter into the series, which increases when one's attacks are blocked or when attacked. A super attack can be executed when it is full. In addition, when the Stress meter fills up, a character becomes engulfed in a flame of their own energy for a brief moment, which protects from any incoming attacks from the opponent and knocks them away if they are too close.
- The version for the Playstation was only released in Japan and has some characteristics from Power Instinct Legends, like the team battle and the possibility to play as Chuck and Kuroko, but these features are only available for Versus (player vs player) mode.
[edit] Story
Oume Goketsuji, Leader of the Goketsuji clan for the last 60 years, finally was defeated by her younger sister, Otane, the day where she surpassed her older sister finally had arrived.
One night, Oshima Goketsuji unexpectedly appeared in front of Oume and offered her help to take revenge of Otane.
According to the rules of the clan, if the leader dies or quit, one new tournament should be held immediately to find a successor.
That same night Oshima and Oume sent their servants to dispose of Otane, so while Otane slept, she was kidnapped and thrown to the ocean.
Next day Kuroko found a letter supposedly written by Otane, where she declined to her right to be the leader of the clan.
One week later all the competitors from the previous tournament and other family members were convoke to be informed about Otane's decision and the beginning of a new tournament.
| Power Instinct Legends | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Atlus |
| Publisher(s) | Atlus |
| Designer(s) | Atlus |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release date | 1995 |
| Genre(s) | 2D Versus fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Input methods | 8-way joystick, 4 buttons |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | CAVE 1st generation |
| Display | Horizontally oriented, 320 × 240, 10240 palette colors |
[edit] Power Instinct Legends (Gōketsuji Ichizoku Gaiden: Saikyō Densetsu)
- The battles are in teams of two characters, a leader and a partner.
- Super Kurara and Pochi are individual characters; because of this, Kurara and Kinta gained new moves. Otane is also made playable, bringing the cast to 16 characters.
- A Super Block and a Charge Attack was brought into the gameplay. A Super Block can nullify the opponent's blow and allow for a counter attack, and a Charge Attack can immediately knock down the opponent or launch them into the air for another attack.
- There is one new playable character (Kuroko) and a new boss (Chuck).
- All of the characters were given new special attacks. However, a majority of them were exclusive only to this game.
- The game was called Gogetsuji Legends outside Japan, it lacked the Power Instinct title strangely enough.
[edit] Story
Otane Goketsuji, leader of the Goketsuji clan, was kidnapped. A new tournament was held to find a successor. Otane managed to arrive at the tournament to defend her title as clan leader against the winner of the tournament. Unfortunately to Otane, she was too tired to fight and was defeated by Kokuin Kanji!
After his victory in the Goketsuji tournament, Kanji taught that would be fun to test the strength of the Goketsuji family members, so he invited them for a new tournament.
"Welcome to the Goketsuji Clan friendly Exhibition Match! As a special guest, I have invited the strongest and most powerful man in the world. Surely none from the Goketsuji clan will be defeated by such an outsider.
Let the game begins! -Kanji"
| Groove on Fight | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Atlus |
| Publisher(s) | Atlus |
| Designer(s) | Atlus |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Sega Saturn |
| Release date | April, 1997 |
| Genre(s) | 2D Versus fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Input methods | 8-way joystick, 6 buttons |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Sega Titan Video |
| Display | Horizontally oriented, 704 × 513, 6144 palette colors |
[edit] Groove on Fight (Groove on Fight Gōketsuji Ichizoku 3)
The story of this sequel of the Power Instinct series takes place 20 years after the last Goketsuji tournament. It also has a darker and more serious tone than its predecessors, similar to that of Garou: Mark of the Wolves, but still maintains a little of the same humor that is particular to the series.
The players can choose from eleven characters, all of them, save Otane/Oume, being new. The graphic style of Groove on Fight is very different from its predecessors, as the sprites are smaller, but are more fluid and have an animated look to them.
In the Sega Saturn port of the game, many animation frames were cut; the port included some features like being able to play as Damian, Bristol Weller and Bristol-D once the player beats the game with certain characters, the possibility of four players to play at the same time by way of the Saturn's multi-tap and an "Omake Mode" where the players can view artwork of the characters for the game. The Saturn version also features an arranged version of the soundtrack that has some new music themes that were not present in the original, like the theme "Mystic" and the vocal version of the title song.
[edit] Gameplay
Gameplay is in a 2-on-2 format with the ability to tag in and out at any time between players. Every time the player tag successfully between characters, the character who is one the sidelines slowly begins to get his or her energy back.
At difference from the previous games, Groove on Fight has a six buttons system. The two new buttons are for "Dodge" and for the "Powerful Blow" the "Dodge" allows the characters to evade attacks and then counterattack the opponent.
The "Powerful Blow" is an attack that inflicts more damage to the opponent than the normal strong attacks, but is also slower. The special guard and the shadow moves from Power Instinct Legends are still present in the game and some other new characteristics were introduced to the gameplay:
Body Toss: The character throws the body of a defeated character at the opponent.
Taunt: Pressing the start button will taunt the opponent. Introduced for the first time in the series.
Unblockable Attack: Each character has his/her own Unblockable Attack. This attack is very slow, but if hits cause a great amount of damage to the opponent.
Partner Attack: The character that is not fighting will perform a jump-in attack from the sidelines.
Dual Combo: Is a series of attacks performed by the two characters at the same time. This requires one level of the Stress meter.
Pounce: Pressing up + Light kick, Hard Kick, as soon as the character knocks an opponent down, will attack the downed foe.
| Power Instinct Matrimelee | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Noise Factory |
| Publisher(s) | SNK Playmore |
| Designer(s) | Noise Factory |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release date | 2002 |
| Genre(s) | 2D Versus fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Input methods | 8-way joystick, 4 buttons |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Neo-Geo (646 Mbit cartridge) |
| Display | Horizontally oriented, 320 × 224, 4096 palette colors |
[edit] Power Instinct Matrimelee (Shin Gōketsuji Ichizoku: Tōkon Matrimelee)
- This new sequel features 4 totally new characters and one new boss (Princess Sissy).
- Jimmy, Elias, Lynn and Jones from Rage of the Dragons are guest stars, and are unlockable. A few of the game elements were borrowed from this same game as well.
- Transformations were excluded, and a few of the characters from the previous sequel do not appear.
- The Stress meter now could be filled up to three levels. Every character has a Stress Shot (1 bar), an Ippatsu Ougi (2 bars) and a powerful, hidden super attack called a Kinjite (3 bars). However, only a few of the Kinjite moves are known; information on the rest have not been released by Atlus or Noise Factory.
- It was one of the last few games to be released on the Neo-Geo.
[edit] Story
The king of Certain Country wants to find a worthy successor for the throne and the ideal husband for his little daughter (or a beautiful and strong woman for his older son) So he holds a fighting tournament where the prize is the hand of the princess and the throne succession.
| Shin Gōketsuji Ichizoku Bonnō no Kaihō | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Noise Factory |
| Publisher(s) | Noise Factory, Excite |
| Distributor(s) | Noise Factory |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Release date | May 25, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | 2D Versus fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Input methods | 8-way Joystick, 4 Buttons |
[edit] Shin Gōketsuji Ichizoku: Bonnō Kaihō (Liberation of Lusts)
- The sequel of Power Instinct Matrimelee. It features enhanced graphics and sound, the return of two of the older characters, a new boss, and the return of the transformation feature. Gameplay was also improved in some areas, and super attacks were made easier to execute.
- The game also features an online mode and a 'Lust Cards System' that consists of buying cards with special effects. Some allow the player to change certain characteristics of the characters, others are used to view special music video clips, and others to call strange characters to help the player in battle.
- The game has the same backgrounds and all the characters from Matrimelee, and because of that it is usually described as a port of the game, while in fact the game's story takes place after the events from the previous game, making it a sort of sequel or update.
- Bonnou Kaihou was released only in Japan, much to the chagrin of international fans. It is possible that this is due to the very little chance of marketing the game has outside of its country.
- Ignition, a company that helped to publish the game, has explained there are currently no plans to release the game outside of Japan.[citation needed]
[edit] Story
Princess Sissy was sad. She just couldn't forget the excitement of the Matrimelee tournament. The King, worried about the emotional state of his daughter (Who is usually joyful and vigorous) invited the world's strongest fighters to his country to convince them to enter to a new tournament, the "Bonnou Kaihou" tournament.
This time the prize is anything that the winner could wish for (Except the throne succession). When the King told Sissy about the Bonnou Kaihou tournament, her characteristic smile returned to her face, finally she will once again have that feeling that is present only in battle.
[edit] Related Products
- Gouketsuji Ichizoku: The Novel
Release Date: 1995
Publisher: WANI BOOKS
It is a novel of 253 pages that relate the history of the Goketsuji family. The book contains some art made by Range Murata.
- Gouketsuji Ichizoku: THE CD-ROM
Release Date: December 9, 1998
Publisher: Toshiba Emi
Is a CD- ROM for PC and MAC. It contains information about the series like: characters profiles , correlation diagram, the family lineage, rejected designs, sounds and artwork. Also has wallpapers and screen savers.
- Gouketsuji Ichizoku original soundtrack
Release Date: January 21, 1994
Publisher: Pony Canyon / Scitron
It contains 20 tracks, voices and sound effects from the game.
- Gouketsuji Ichizoku 2 original Soundtrack
Release Date: December 16, 1994
Publisher: Pony Canyon / Scitron
It contains 37 tracks, voices and sound effects from the game
- Gouketsuji Ichizoku Saikyou Densetsu original soundtrack
Release Date: September 21, 1995
Publisher: Pony Canyon / Scitron
It contains 32 tracks, voices and sound effects from the game
- Groove on Fight original soundtrack
Release Date: June 18, 1997
Publisher: Pony Canyon / Scitron
It contains 24 tracks, voices and sound effects from the game
- Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku Toukon Matrimelee original soundtrack'
Release date: 2003
Publisher: Noise Factory
It Contains 31 tracks from the game.
- Gouketsuji Ichizoku CD-BOX
In January of 2005, Noise Factory released a box set containing all the soundtracks from the Gouketsuji Ichizoku series. The Box set included a 2005 calendar featuring art from the series. The difference about these CDs and the original releases is that these does not include the sound effects collection and the Groove on Fight's CD has the arranged tracks from the Sega Saturn.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Literally translated, the Japanese title of the series is "Goketsuji Family". In that vein, there are apparently many alternate spellings of the name Goketsuji.
- Range Murata has provided the character art and illustrations for the Power Instinct series since its debut.
- The music was done by Toshikazu Tanaka, who also did the music for The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact, Metal Slug 5, and Rage of the Dragons He is always credited as "Dencyu" in all his works for the Gouketsuji Ichizoku series. Dencyu is an alternate romanization of his name, which he frequently uses.
- In the PlayStation RPG Persona, the hero's alternate self in the Well of Mind and Souls is seen playing Groove-On Fight.
- A year after Power Instinct 2, Atlus released Purikura Daisakusen, a shooter/plataform game with one of the characters, Kurara Hananokoji, as the protagonist of her own game.
- Some North American and overseas versions of Matrimelee also had the original music replaced with music from Rage of the Dragons, another game from Noise Factory, which was also met with criticism.[citation needed]
- The boxing game "Glove on Fight" takes its logo and most of its name from the Groove on Fight game, though the two have almost nothing in common.
- Bobby Ologun is the final boss in the PS2 version of Matrimelee. His named is Bobby Strong however, due to licensing issues.
[edit] References and Resources
- Power Instinct Manual
- Goketsuji Ichizoku Soundtrack Manual
- Goketsuji Ichizoku 2 Game Manual
- Gouketsiji Ichizoku 2 Soundtrack Manual
- Groove on Fight guide book
- Groove on Fight Soundtrack Manual
- Gouketsuji Ichizoku The CD-ROM
- Noise Factory's site
[edit] External links
[edit] Power Instinct
[edit] Power Instinct 2
- Power Instinct 2 at the Killer List of Videogames
- Power Instinct 2 at GameFAQs
- Power Instinct 2 screenshots
[edit] Power Instinct Legends
[edit] Power Instinct Matrimelee
- Power Instinct Matrimelee at the Killer List of Videogames
- Power Instinct Matrimelee at GameFAQs
- Noise Factory's site for Power Instinct Matrimelee (Japanese)
