Power Athlete (パワーアスリート) is a 1992 fighting game for the Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System developed by System Vision and published by Kaneko. In the US, the Mega Drive version was renamed Deadly Moves, with the Super Famicom/SNES version becoming Power Moves. Both the Japanese and US versions uses English text.
Story
The protagonist Joe aims to become the world’s strongest fighter by challenging Ranker, the game’s final boss.
Gameplay
- Punch
- Kick
- Jump
- (close), + Throw
and moves the character to a higher or lower plane, similar to side-scrolling beat-'em-up games like Streets of Rage. Ranker can be unlocked using cheat codes.
Power Athlete was released before numerous fighting game "standards" were set by Street Fighter II, and thus there are no Street Fighter II-style combos to perform.
In RPG fashion, enemies can be challenged multiple times to level your character up (and exploit the score system). Special moves don’t cause any block damage unless your character is highly leveled up.
There are two long bonus stages that can be used to collect extra points. Progress is recorded through a password system.
The final boss can be easily defeated by fully leveling up your character and throwing projectiles from the other side of the screen. Ranker will block all of them, slowly succumbing to the block damage taken.
Playable characters
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Joe (ジョー)
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An American fighter. The single-player mode follows Joe's journey to become the champion of champions.
Move list
Name
|
Command
|
Description
|
Kikou-ken
|
, , +
|
|
Super Nova
|
, +
|
|
|
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Warren (ウォーレン)
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A Hawaiian fighter. Warren uses his large size and powerful strikes to compensate for his cowardice.
Move list
Name
|
Command
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Description
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Big Wednesday
|
, , +
|
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Rolling Drop Kick
|
+ +
|
|
|
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Vagnad (バグナド・ロフノスキー)
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A huge Russian wrestler with onyx skin. Vagnad learned to fight while held in a concentration camp.
Move list
Name
|
Command
|
Description
|
Double Arm
|
, +
|
|
Double-power Bomb
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(close) , +
|
|
|
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Buoh (舞王)
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A Japanese kabuki performer. Buoh is a master of ninjutsu, kung fu, karate, aikido, and kobudo.
Move list
Name
|
Command
|
Description
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Dancing Smoke
|
, +
|
|
Rolling Hair Attack
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, +
|
|
|
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Gaoluon (百竜(ガオロン))
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A Chinese martial artist. Gaoluon has mastered the hard-fist method of the northern Chinese fighting style.
Move list
Name
|
Command
|
Description
|
Twin Flying Dragon
|
, +
|
|
Moonsault Kick
|
, +
|
|
|
|
Reayon (麗栄(リーヨン))
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A Thai martial artist born in China and the only female fighter. Reayon has mastered the flexible-fist method of the northern Chinese fighting style.
Move list
Name
|
Command
|
Description
|
Dancing Crash
|
, , +
|
|
Shooting-down Kick
|
, +
|
|
|
|
Baraki (バラキ・キメラ)
|
The head of Kenya's Opa Opa Tribe. He is also a member of the secret organization "Junk".
Move list
Name
|
Command
|
Description
|
Diving Roller
|
, , +
|
|
Fire Storm
|
, +
|
|
|
|
Nick (ニック)
|
A Spanish matador. Nick prefers to use knives when fighting, and is a member of the secret organization "Junk".
Move list
Name
|
Command
|
Description
|
Killer Nails
|
, , +
|
|
Dancing Storm
|
, +
|
|
|
Versions
The Mega Drive and Super NES versions of Power Athlete are virtually the same game, save for a few minor graphical differences and performance. For example, Joe uses blue "bracelets" in the Mega Drive version, while on Nintendo's console they are red. Shadows are also semi-transparent on the Super NES, as opposed to the solid black seen on the Mega Drive. There are other minor palette changes, witnessed in areas such as the upgrade screen.
Beating an opponent in the Mega Drive version also leads to a longer victory sequence, in which rather than calculating a score and fading straight to black, the background fades and then the score is calculated.
The Character Select/Bonus Stage theme from the SNES version adds voices samples.
Localised names
Also known as
Language
|
Localised Name
|
English Translation
|
English (US)
|
Deadly Moves
|
Deadly Moves
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Japanese
|
パワーアスリート
|
Power Athlete
|
Production credits
- Producer: Akihiko Uto
- Director: Takahiro Shima
- Programmer: Hisato Shirochika, Hideki Suzuki
- Charactor Design: Kuzira.MK2
- Designer: Kuzira.MK2, T.K, Shikanosuke, Dogrou, Aki.Misuzu, Betty.Black, Dember Sato
- Voice: Kuzira.MK2, Misako.S
- Sound: Hideki Suzuki
- Special Thanks: Kato Dappe, Rika Shima, Takayuki Shoji, Koji Naya, Inter State Co., Ltd., System Vision
Source: In-game credits[4]
Magazine articles
- Main article: Deadly Moves/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
Print advert in
Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-12: "December 1992" (1992-11-07)
Print advert in
Game Informer (US) #8: "January/February 1993" (199x-xx-xx)
Physical scans
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|
Division by zero.
|
Based on 0 review
|
Mega Drive, JP
|
Cover
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Cart Manual
|
Mega Drive, US
|
Cover
|
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Mega Drive, KR
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Cover
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Cart
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Technical information
- Main article: Deadly Moves/Technical information.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Inter_State
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 File:DeadlyMoves MD JP Box.jpg
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software_l.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-02 23:21)
- ↑ File:Power Athlete MD credits.pdf
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 22
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 56
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "December 1992" (JP; 1992-11-07), page 30
- ↑ Electronic Games (1992-1995), "March 1993" (US; 1993-02-09), page 64
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 291
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 305
- ↑ Famitsu, "1992-11-27" (JP; 1992-11-13), page 43
- ↑ Game Power, "Febbraio 1993" (IT; 1993-0x-xx), page 45
- ↑ GamesMaster, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-18), page 81
- ↑ Hippon Super, "January 1993" (JP; 1992-12-04), page 84
- ↑ Joypad, "Janvier 1993" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 82
- ↑ Joystick, "Février 1993" (FR; 1993-0x-xx), page 186
- ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "March 1993" (JP; 1993-02-xx), page 59
- ↑ Mega, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-18), page 56
- ↑ Mega, "July 1993" (UK; 1993-06-17), page 35
- ↑ MegaTech, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-20), page 56
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-02-28), page 40
- ↑ Play Time, "5/93" (DE; 1993-04-07), page 106
- ↑ Sega Power, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-04), page 34
- ↑ Sega Pro, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-02-11), page 60
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 64
- ↑ Sega Zone, "June 1993" (UK; 1993-05-xx), page 28
- ↑ Sega Force, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-02-04), page 72
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 48