I've been talking about this game quite a lot. I bothered to dig down unused stuff! I am working on a translation for it. So let's review it! It's Hummer Team's port of YuYu Hakusho Final for NES. Original game was on SNES. At least this THANK GOD wasn't made by Waixing, because i you've read my previous review you'll see i've detonated them.
Music and Sound 0/10
Hah! The music is from other sources, 0/5. And the few music that actually ARE from the original game are badly composed. Sound effects are kinda similar, most of them are different renditions of the same sound effect. Plus alot of it is stolen from other Hummer Team games. Mainly Garou Densetsu Special, Kart Fighter and Master Fighter VI'. That's where the Music and Sounds were stolen from.
Graphics 5/10
Incorrect palletes (the water in Demon's Door Cave is GRAY. GRAY and WATER. TWO WORDS THAT DON'T FIT.) Plus palletes are very inconsistent. For example, The shades of orange in Kuwabara's sprite differ from the char select screen from those in actual battle from the unused portraits! And there's mossy stuff. Eck. Just look at the cutscenes. What EXACTLY were they trying to represent??? And this game has the same problems as their Super Mario World port. Actually i might review that later. The catch is: instead of converting 16-bit into 8-bit (look at the title screen in Nanjing's Chrono Trigger port!), they redraw stuff from scratch. Google up small mario sprite from SMW NES and from SMW SNES and you'll see. Plus there's unused palletes that could get another use. For example, sprites have 2 palletes, one for differing body parts. To load more for projectiles, palletes have to flicker between the char and the projectile. Shinobu Sensui has 2 palettes, one unused, yet he flickers in his special moves. Why not use the alternate pallete for the enemy's and his special moves?
Control 9/10
Depends on the character. I mean, Kuwabara has the stiffest controls of everyone. The rest all have fine controls. Could have gotten a 10 if only Kuwabara wasn't hard to control. Oh, and on the english versions he was dropped. More on that later.
Story: 0/10
No points for originality. And no points either for well-represented plot. I mean, i found a bunch of unused cutscenes that could've been used. But no. There's the fact that also everyone uses the same cutscenes, so even if you play the story mode as Hiei, you'll still get Yusuke's cutscenes.
Gameplay: 6/10
TL;DR. Once you begin the game you're introducted to an intro, showing the 3 Kings, suggesting this game has the 3 Kings arc adapted in it, like the original. Then the title screen. If you wait too long you'll be presented some demos. Bypassing the title, there's the mode select screen: 1P story mode, 1P training, 2P battle, and options. 2 more modes than expected. In options you can adjust difficulty, but never mind, since you can everyone and everything by spamming super attacks (more on that later). This is one of the few games built on the SFII engine that have the 2P mode as it's own thing instead of enabling it by pressing a button on the second controller. Kinda nice, actually. 2P mode is self explanatory, 2 players choose their own characters and brawl. 1P training, you fight everyone (including a clone of yourself) until you're the last man standing up. 1P story mode is self explanatory. The original game adapts the Chapter Black Saga and the Three Kings Saga from the Yu Yu Hakusho anime, but here they've crippled most of it. Plus in later variants they've cut Kuwabara from the roster. I've seen a variation called Yu Yu Hakusho 97 V that is in english, cuts the intro and story mode, as well as clones the characters. So you have a super-long training mode that you're rewarded with nothing for completing it. I don't need training, all i need is to spam super attacks (Hmm, 2. More on that later)! Now to the fights themselves. 8 playable characters, all identical: A projectile move performed by Down, Forward, Punch, and a melee move performed by Down, Down, Punch. The only exception is that Kuwabara has 3 special moves instead of 2 (the extra can be performed with Down, Down, Kick) and Hiei, which has his projectile performed with Down, Down, Kick instead of Down, Forward, Kick. There's no power bar, so in order to perform supers, instead of having a full power bar as well as low health like in the original, here you only need low health. You'll know when your health is low enough when it blinks. Specials can be done with B+A, and can be spammed. As for regular moves, Kuwabara has the slowest of all, Hiei has the fastest, and throws when performed next to the wall, make the character go the other side, like in Kart Fighter. Plus, this game has the same AI as Garou Densetsu Special, aside from music also from that. Proof? In Garou, instead of making the enemy make projectiles by Holding Down, there you only need to crouch kick, also here, check. Unused tiles from Garou left-overed here? Check. In Garou, Round 1 and 2 all use the same lazy Hummer Team AI (here's an example from Kart Fighter: if player holds down, projectile. If player jumps, use charge attack.), but with different AIs. Check. The Cutting Room Floor says this is based off Mortal Kombat II Special due to left over characters here, but this is false, since i think it has more in common with Garou than MKIIS. Plus some special moves are overpowered. If you've stuck a foe to a wall, use your melee move (Down, Down, Punch). Always works. If you're low on health, mash B+A repeatedly so you can use supers many times. Bonus if you use Turbo buttons. Now onto stages. All stages are there, but like Garou, no one has their own, instead they're chosen from a preset order. The things this game has other SFII engine built games don't: Supers, 2P mode is separate, Story mode, Supers. This game has dashes, like in Hummer Team's Samurai Spirits 2 for NES. This has small sprites? Samurai Spirits 2. Plus, the same super move scheme here is also in SS2 (Down, Down, Kick; Down, Forward, Punch, B+A; etc.). There's an english release, but don't play it because you lose Kuwabara. Talking on him, why the story mode character select doesn't have him? In his place is Raizen. He's on 1P training and 2P modes, why not Story? And Kuwabara's super move doesn't work properly, i think it's broken. Since he has bad controls, and somewhat broken features, GOOD LUCK PLAYING AS HIM! MWAHAHAHAHA. In variants, you can look for TCRF so you can learn how to play as him. Plus you can also learn how to play as the hidden MK chars and learn about variants. Cool stuff right.
Conclusion: 7,6/10
I changed my score system, but no problemo, this game kinda sucks, it's gameplay saves it for the majority of time.