Battle Circuit
Encyclopedia
is an action
"beat 'em up
" game developed and published by Capcom
for the CPS-2 arcade hardware
for Japan
and Europe
in 1997. Taking place in an alternate future earth, the game revolves around a group of bounty hunters who must capture the mad scientist
Dr. Saturn and secure a sophisticated computer disc carrying a program known as the "Shiva
System". The game contains comic
-like characters in a futuristic science fiction
setting.
and Alien vs. Predator
, Battle Circuit is set apart stylistically by employing a manga
-style sci-fi
approach to story and character artwork. The art staff, overseen by Ohnishi Hiroki and Yamamoto Kouji, created an assortment of characters with features reminiscent of older Capcom characters and superfluous comic book
elements.
The game saw a speedy translation effort that effectively made the title available in both Japan and parts of Europe on the same day. Though there are no game play differences between the Japanese
and English language
versions of the game, a few pieces of Japanese dialogue were omitted from the European release. The game was not released in North America
n arcades or any other part of the world after its initial release.
-like sidekick
aboard his spaceship
orbiting Earth. After the battle, the character selected by the player returns to his employer, Harry, and is promptly given another assignment to capture the leader of the "Delete Gang", Johnny, who holds a valuable floppy disc in his possession. The bounty hunter then confronts Johnny at his disco
hideout and learns that the disc contains a malicious computer program
known as the "Shiva System", which is capable of control all the computerized systems in the world. As one of the characters chosen, player's must travel through various levels and fight through various members of the Delete Gang to obtain the disc and claim their bounty.
provided support for up to four simultaneous players who can each assume the role of five possible characters. Players must progress through a number of levels made up of horizontally scrolling screens filled with enemy characters that must be defeated using a combination of attacks and movement abilities each character utilizes. Every character is given a selection of these abilities that can be expanded as game play progress by purchasing special "upgrade discs" after the completion of each level using coins obtained by defeating enemies. These techniques are often a combination of either of the two action buttons and the joystick
, and can add additional varieties to a given character's arsenal. A player must attack enemies until their health (indicated by a bar under the player's when the enemy is attacked) is reduced to 0 and they are thus knocked out. If a player's health bar is depleted, they will also become knocked out and must use up one life to continue. If all of a player's lives are depleted in this fashion, the game will end unless more credits are purchased.
Pressing both action buttons while on the ground executes a super move that drains life on contact. But when two players perform their super moves at the same time, they will form a team-up attack that provides greater crowd control. There are also special techniques called "Battle Downloads", which can be used by pressing both action buttons while jumping, resulting in the player and his allies (if any are present) gaining a certain attribute, the effect of which is unique to each character. Cyber Blue, for example, can use his Battle Download "Power Up" to increase the amount of damage dealt by attacks, while Yellow Iris' "Speed Up" increases attack speed. A character will start with a stock of two of these techniques to use per life, and can obtain more from capsules scattered throughout the levels, up to a maximum of five.
Various items can be found inside destructible objects such as barrels and crates, and can provide the player with additional health or add points to their total score. Once a player's score reaches a set amount, they are rewarded with an extra life that will give them another chance to continue from where they were knocked out by an enemy.
and electronic
theme present throughout the game. The music was recorded using only synth-based computer generated sound, a common recording medium for arcade games on the CPS-2. An official soundtrack entitled Battle Circuit Original Soundtrack (catalog number VICL-60056) was released commercially in Japan by Victor Entertainment
on July 2, 1997 and retailed for ¥
2,205.
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
"beat 'em up
Beat 'em up
Beat 'em up is a video game genre featuring melee combat between the protagonist and a large number of underpowered antagonists. These games typically take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical or fantasy themes...
" game developed and published by Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
for the CPS-2 arcade hardware
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....
for Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in 1997. Taking place in an alternate future earth, the game revolves around a group of bounty hunters who must capture the mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
Dr. Saturn and secure a sophisticated computer disc carrying a program known as the "Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
System". The game contains comic
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
-like characters in a futuristic science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
setting.
Development
Battle Circuit was developed by producers Noritaka Funamizu and Yoshiki Okamoto of Capcom's arcade production team in early 1997. While structurally very similar to the company's early scrolling action games like Final FightFinal Fight
is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up game originally released by Capcom as a coin-operated video game in . It was the seventh game released by Capcom for their CP System arcade game hardware...
and Alien vs. Predator
Alien vs. Predator (arcade game)
Alien vs. Predator is a beat 'em up arcade game released in 1994 by Capcom on the CPS-2, in which the players take control of human and Predator characters in a battle against Aliens...
, Battle Circuit is set apart stylistically by employing a manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
-style sci-fi
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
approach to story and character artwork. The art staff, overseen by Ohnishi Hiroki and Yamamoto Kouji, created an assortment of characters with features reminiscent of older Capcom characters and superfluous comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
elements.
The game saw a speedy translation effort that effectively made the title available in both Japan and parts of Europe on the same day. Though there are no game play differences between the Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
and English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
versions of the game, a few pieces of Japanese dialogue were omitted from the European release. The game was not released in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n arcades or any other part of the world after its initial release.
Story
Taking place in the future year 20XX, Battle Circuit follows the exploits of a group of super-powered bounty hunters as they apprehend wanted criminals (identified by special serial numbers) in the city of Neo Koba. The game begins with player attempting to apprehend criminal 9696X, a scientist named Doctor Saturn and his blobBlob
- In biology :* Blob , sections of the visual cortex where groups of color-sensitive neurons assemble* Globster, an unidentified organic mass that washes up on the shoreline of an ocean or other body of water...
-like sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
aboard his spaceship
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
orbiting Earth. After the battle, the character selected by the player returns to his employer, Harry, and is promptly given another assignment to capture the leader of the "Delete Gang", Johnny, who holds a valuable floppy disc in his possession. The bounty hunter then confronts Johnny at his disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
hideout and learns that the disc contains a malicious computer program
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
known as the "Shiva System", which is capable of control all the computerized systems in the world. As one of the characters chosen, player's must travel through various levels and fight through various members of the Delete Gang to obtain the disc and claim their bounty.
Game play
Battle Circuits arcade cabinetArcade cabinet
A video game arcade cabinet, also known as a video arcade machine or video coin-op, is the housing within which a video arcade game's hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the JAMMA wiring standard...
provided support for up to four simultaneous players who can each assume the role of five possible characters. Players must progress through a number of levels made up of horizontally scrolling screens filled with enemy characters that must be defeated using a combination of attacks and movement abilities each character utilizes. Every character is given a selection of these abilities that can be expanded as game play progress by purchasing special "upgrade discs" after the completion of each level using coins obtained by defeating enemies. These techniques are often a combination of either of the two action buttons and the joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
, and can add additional varieties to a given character's arsenal. A player must attack enemies until their health (indicated by a bar under the player's when the enemy is attacked) is reduced to 0 and they are thus knocked out. If a player's health bar is depleted, they will also become knocked out and must use up one life to continue. If all of a player's lives are depleted in this fashion, the game will end unless more credits are purchased.
Pressing both action buttons while on the ground executes a super move that drains life on contact. But when two players perform their super moves at the same time, they will form a team-up attack that provides greater crowd control. There are also special techniques called "Battle Downloads", which can be used by pressing both action buttons while jumping, resulting in the player and his allies (if any are present) gaining a certain attribute, the effect of which is unique to each character. Cyber Blue, for example, can use his Battle Download "Power Up" to increase the amount of damage dealt by attacks, while Yellow Iris' "Speed Up" increases attack speed. A character will start with a stock of two of these techniques to use per life, and can obtain more from capsules scattered throughout the levels, up to a maximum of five.
Various items can be found inside destructible objects such as barrels and crates, and can provide the player with additional health or add points to their total score. Once a player's score reaches a set amount, they are rewarded with an extra life that will give them another chance to continue from where they were knocked out by an enemy.
Characters
Battle Circuit contains five possible characters for the player to choose from, each with their own unique attacks and Battle Download ability. Though each of the character's real names are mentioned in their individual character profiles during the opening demo, they are mostly referred to by their codenames, each indicating a physical attribute and corresponding color.- Brian Bruno (Cyber Blue): A seasoned bounty hunter with several cyberneticCyborgA cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
attachments to his body, giving him the ability to discharge electricity and project energy from his fists. - Andrey Mishucin (Captain Silver): A highly-accomplished bounty hunter who can stretch and shape his body at will. His powers give him the ability to project ice particles from his body, as well as create a number of objects from his suit. Because of the vast nature of his powers, they will threaten to overwhelm him if he should ever lose concentration.
- Diana Martines (Yellow Iris, called Yellow Beast in the original JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
version): A part-time fashion model whose feral appearance gives her access to a number of clawing and agility-based techniques. She is also skilled with a whipWhipA whip is a tool traditionally used by humans to exert control over animals or other people, through pain compliance or fear of pain, although in some activities whips can be used without use of pain, such as an additional pressure aid in dressage...
and is accompanied by her pet foxFoxFox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
"Fin". Yellow Iris makes a cameo appearance in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3is a crossover fighting game developed by Capcom. It is an updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. After the events of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disrupted the development schedule for downloadable content for the original game, the additional content was made into a...
as a DLC costume for Felicia. - Pinky (Pink Ostrich): A large, sentient, pink ostrichOstrichThe Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...
with an eye patch and jewel necklaceNecklaceA necklace is an article of jewellery which is worn around the neck. Necklaces are frequently formed from a metal jewellery chain. Others are woven or manufactured from cloth using string or twine....
who is always accompanied by her owner, a young girl named Pola Abdul. Purported, she is the "only ostrich in the world who can fly", and attacks with an assortment of aerial and spinning techniques. - Unknown (Alien Green): An alienExtraterrestrial lifeExtraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
creature of unknown origin who resembles a large venus flytrapVenus FlytrapThe Venus Flytrap , Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects and arachnids. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces...
with leg-like roots and a large eyeEyeEyes are organs that detect light and convert it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons. The simplest photoreceptors in conscious vision connect light to movement...
in its abdomen. Its attacks mostly center around its vine-like arms, which it can quickly swing to create whirlwinds, as well as grab opponents and slam them against the ground.
Stages
There are 8 stages in the game, but the stage 8 is only accessible if player has 3,200,000 points with 1,000 coins or 6 upgrades after completing stage 7.Stage Bosses
- Dr. Saturn
- Jonny
- Black Elephant, and Barbara
- B.O.B, and Octopus mk2
- Dave, and Doc & Jennifer
- Chris, Betsy,Cathy, Cyber Samurai, and Zipang
- Barbara, Asura, Sandra, Octopus mk3, Black Elephant, and Pluto
- Master Program
Endings
Each character has 2 unique endings, depending on whether or not player can reach stage 8.Music
Battle Circuits background music was composed by Syun Nishigaki of Capcom Arcade Sound Team, and has a recurring popPop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
theme present throughout the game. The music was recorded using only synth-based computer generated sound, a common recording medium for arcade games on the CPS-2. An official soundtrack entitled Battle Circuit Original Soundtrack (catalog number VICL-60056) was released commercially in Japan by Victor Entertainment
Victor Entertainment
is a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...
on July 2, 1997 and retailed for ¥
Japanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
2,205.