Deadly Moves

From Sega Retro

n/a

DeadlyMoves MDTitleScreen.png

Power Athlete/Deadly Moves
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Kaneko (US/JP), Samsung (KR)
Developer:
Genre: Action

















Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Mega Drive
JP
¥8,5008,500 T-33033
Sega Mega Drive
US
T-33046
Sega Mega Drive
KR
GM8072JT

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

  • A Punch
  • B Kick
  • C Jump
  • (close)Right, A + B Throw

Up and Down 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

Joe (ジョー)
It's an American fighter that looks like Ryu from Street Fighter. He's the only playable character from the single-player mode.

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Kikou-ken Left, Right, A + B
Super Nova Right, A + B

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120px Warren (ウォーレン)
A Hawaiian grappler. Warren's technique names are patterned on surfing terms - "Big Wednesday", etc.

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Big Wednesday Left, Right, A + B
Rolling Drop Kick A + B + C

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Vagnad (バグナド・ロフノスキー)
A huge Russian wrestler with onyx skin. The game manual for this version refers to Vagnad as a survivor of The Holocaust.

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Double Arm Right, A + B
Double-power Bomb (close) Right, A + B

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Buoh (舞王)
A kabuki-style fighter who can teleport and attack with his hair.

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Dancing Smoke Down, A + B
Rolling Hair Attack Right, A + B

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Gaoluon (百竜(ガオロン))
An acrobatic Chinese martial artist, wielding a pair of Deer Horn Knives

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Twin Flying Dragon Right, A + B
Moonsault Kick Down, A + B

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Reayon (麗栄(リーヨン))
The only female fighter of the game.

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Dancing Crash Left, Right, A + B
Shooting-down Kick Down, A + B

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Baraki (バラキ・キメラ)
A tribal Kenyan warrior with a beastial appearance.

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Diving Roller Left, Right, A + B
Fire Storm Right, A + B

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Nick (ニック)
An arrogant, lightning-quick Spanish matador. His fighting style uses a combination of break dancing moves and knife throwing

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Killer Nails Left, Right, A + B
Dancing Storm Right, A + B

Template:MoveListEnd

Versions

The Mega Drive and Super NES versions of Power Athlete are virtually the same game, save for a few minor graphical differences. 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.

Production credits

Source:
In-game credits


Magazine articles

Main article: Deadly Moves/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Game Informer (US) #8: "January/February 1993" (199x-xx-xx)
Logo-pdf.svg

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
55 №206
35 №4, p81
81 №16
80 №35, p186
54 №7, p56
79 №16, p56/57
77 №6, p40-42[1]
54 №41, p34/35
71 №17, p60
71 №18, p64
71 №8, p28
57 №15, p72/73[2]
Sega Mega Drive
65
Based on
12 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)
50
[3]
1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)
70
[4]
Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J
50
[5]
Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U
84
[6]
Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU)
60
[7]
Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU)
60
[8]
Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J
55
[9]
Game Power (IT)
80
[10]
GamesMaster (UK) NTSC
35
[11]
Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J
40
[12]
Joypad (FR) NTSC-J
81
[13]
Joystick (FR) NTSC-J
80
[14]
Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J
58
[15]
Mega (UK) NTSC-J
54
[16]
Mega (UK)
54
[17]
MegaTech (UK) NTSC-U
79
[18]
Mean Machines Sega (UK) NTSC-U
77
[1]
Play Time (DE)
62
[19]
Sega Power (UK) NTSC-J
54
[20]
Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-U
71
[21]
Sega Pro (UK)
71
[22]
Sega Zone (UK) NTSC-U
71
[23]
Sega Force (UK) NTSC
57
[2]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
50
[24]
Tricks 16 bit (RU)
63
[25]
Sega Mega Drive
63
Based on
25 reviews

Deadly Moves

Mega Drive, US
DeadlyMoves MD US Box.jpg
Cover
DeadlyMoves MD US Cart.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive, JP
DeadlyMoves MD JP Box.jpg
Cover
PowerAthlete MD JP CartTop.jpg
DeadlyMoves MD JP Cart.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive, KR
<div style="margin:auto; max-width:Expression error: Unexpected < operator.px"> 320x120px320x120pxPowerAthlete MD KR Box.jpg
Cover
PowerAthlete MD KR carttop.jpg
PowerAthlete MD KR cartback.jpgPowerAthlete MD KR cart.jpg
Cart

Technical information

ROM dump status

System Hash Size Build Date Source Comments
Sega Mega Drive
CRC32 35cbd237
MD5 208652cf1e1f77405cf3e854f009d2b8
SHA-1 8733d179292d4dc5c3513459539d96484b6d018f
1MB 1992 Cartridge (US)
Sega Mega Drive
CRC32 b41b77cf
MD5 2391922125eed997b77a015135454ebb
SHA-1 d371e339c5d85b69c34007dc514c1adb524dac2a
1MB 1992 Cartridge (JP/KR)

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 File:MeanMachinesSega06UK.pdf, page 40 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:MeanMachinesSega06UK.pdf_p40" defined multiple times with different content
  2. 2.0 2.1 File:SegaForce UK 15.pdf, page 72 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:SegaForce UK 15.pdf_p72" defined multiple times with different content
  3. 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 22
  4. 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 56
  5. Beep! MegaDrive, "December 1992" (JP; 1992-11-07), page 30
  6. Electronic Games (1992-1995), "March 1993" (US; 1993-02-09), page 64
  7. Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 291
  8. Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 305
  9. Famitsu, "1992-11-27" (JP; 1992-11-13), page 43
  10. Game Power, "Febbraio 1993" (IT; 1993-0x-xx), page 45
  11. GamesMaster, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-18), page 81
  12. Hippon Super, "January 1993" (JP; 1992-12-04), page 84
  13. Joypad, "Janvier 1993" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 82
  14. Joystick, "Février 1993" (FR; 1993-0x-xx), page 186
  15. Mega Drive Fan, "March 1993" (JP; 1993-02-xx), page 59
  16. Mega, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-18), page 56
  17. Mega, "July 1993" (UK; 1993-06-17), page 35
  18. MegaTech, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-20), page 56
  19. Play Time, "5/93" (DE; 1993-04-07), page 106
  20. Sega Power, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-04), page 34
  21. Sega Pro, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-02-11), page 60
  22. Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 64
  23. Sega Zone, "June 1993" (UK; 1993-05-xx), page 28
  24. Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
  25. Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 48