Welcome to Classic Game Room for the review of a game that makes a wobbling sound but still works, because this is Joy Mech Fight on the Famicom. If it’s called Joy Mech Fight, it has to be good, and it is good. A big thanks to my friend Mark from Fresh Meadows, New York once again for sending this delightful game to the show. Joy Mech Fight, a fighting game with robots held together by magic. Maybe. I can’t read it.

This is a 1993 release from Nintendo for the Famicom, a late release in the system’s life, and a very interesting one. Joy Mech Fight is a very accurate title for this game. I love the music, I love the style, I have no idea what’s going on, but it doesn’t matter because it’s a fighting game. Like Street Fighter, with… I don’t know what these things are. Did we just give life to a robot? Is that what happened, and now I’m fighting with it? Maybe. It doesn’t matter because this is a good button‑mashing fighting game.

It reminds me of a good version of Balls with a Z. Balls? I played that months ago on the Panasonic 3DO. It’s an awful fighting game with characters that kind of look like Vectorman — spheres held together by magic. Like these things. The robots in Joy Mech Fight look like floating dismembered parts. Were they saving development time and then found a way to make it look neat? Is that what happened? Because it kind of works. Credit where credit’s due: I like the effect because it’s different. It’s quirky.

This plays a lot like a Street Fighter II kind of game. You jump, you punch, you kick, there are special moves. I don’t really know the moves, so mashing buttons seems to get the job done. After playing for a while I figured out some of the robots are better than others, and there’s a storyline mode. You play through the storyline and thankfully it saves your progress, which is nice.

While Joy Mech Fight is easy enough to pick up and play, there’s a language barrier if you want to follow the storyline or know what’s going on. Basically you battle your way through enemy robots, fight a boss, then progress to the next area on a map and fight a new round of enemies. The backgrounds look nice, the music is cheerful. It’s a fun game. This is a good Famicom game, one I wasn’t expecting to enjoy.

When I first turned the game on, it hits you with all these cutscenes. I can’t read any of them, so I thought this was going to be one of those Japanese RPGs I can’t figure out because I can’t read Japanese. After navigating the menus with a bit of confusion, I got into the game and it’s pretty straightforward from there. Choose a character, fight, win. Here I am beating the crap out of what I think is a robotic ostrich. Not so bad. It’s been a bad week for animals around here after carpet‑bombing koalas and getting into Baltron. It’s so easy to confuse Baltron with Gatplus. Come on.

There’s something charming about weird, undignified games like Strip Fighter 2 and Joy Mech Fight. These are the kinds of games that make you appreciate the bizarre corners of the PC Engine, NES, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and Famicom libraries. They’re strange, they’re fun, and they’re the reason retro gaming is endlessly entertaining.

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