Gourmet Warriors is a translated port of a classic SNES Beat 'Em up called Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou. Up until this point, this surreal food-themed brawler - made by the same team that gave us Cho Aniki - has been a Japan exclusive.
You play as one of three characters, the big wrestler Bonjour, the sexy martial artist Madmoiselle and the sci-fi ninja Tres Bien. At first blush, Gourmet Warriors is a standard 16-bit brawler. You walk from left to right and fight enemies as you
go. You've got your basic punch combos, throws, flying kicks and dash strikes.
What sets this apart from other games of the era - outside of the outlandish story and off the rails character designs - is the sheer number gimmicks and special moves. For one, there is a dedicated "pose" button, that makes your character flash the goods and strike various poses based on your directional inputs. You can perform an irish whip on opponents after grab them, bouncing them off the wall allowing you to time a big special move. You can also spike them face down into the floor and perform "top rope" flying splashes off their feet. You can even start a game of tag with enemies by performing a move that sets them on fire, and see if you can win the ensuing "flame war" by making sure they don't get to tag you back - which can easier said than done.
There aren't too enemy types around but they're varied enough to get the job done. You end up fighting basic brutes, sturdy robot heads, playboy bunny girls with mean kicks, mini men that are more about trolling your character than an actual threat, muscle men in diving gear and more.
To help you with these guys, you can find special power-up on most stages. Aside from giving you a helpful chunk of health back it creates a "shadow copy" of your character. These guys will have all your moves and will do their best to fight the enemies the same way you do, or sometimes stand around just flexing if you've got it covered. This can be very helpful, but don't expect them to stick around for an entire stage because they're not the best at dodging.
At the end of each stage is a boss. These bosses are all unique and range from a magician who can transform your character and force you to fight as one of the basic enemies to a Cyber Bunny who goes all Super Saiyan on your crew after you knock the first lifebar out of her.
If you defeat a boss, you get to sit down for a breather while your robot chef prepares a meal based on items you picked up in the stage. You have to come up with the recipe yourself by picking two ingredients from the list, and I recommend starting with veggies as they tend to conjure up dishes that give you a lot of life back. In Gourmet Warriors, you don't get automatic health refills between stages, so you better pick a healthy combo!
All in all, Gourmet Warriors is a short but fun ride. While you only have one life, you can pick the continue option as many times as you like - which puts you right back on the last section of the game that you were playing. Doing so will allow you to beat the game in less than an hour.
That said, there are actually a huge number of secret characters. Almost every basic enemy can be played if you know how to select them. And while their move sets are limited, there are some cool surprises in there, such as the playboy bunnies having their own super move.
Oh and as with many Japanese games, the game comes with plenty of overtly sexual themes. And not just the booty of the main character Madamoiselle.
