The array of villains looks like there were casting calls for extras for multiple movies, but all accidentally sent to the same Indiana Jones set.

And that’s not even the insane part, this game confirms that taito once had a “universe” that was loosely tied together. The final boss in this one is a member of the race your shooting down in darius

Any game where you save animals and fight alongside them is a good game!

11:40 When the last enemy was killed and fanfare like music suddenly started up and a horde of obese men in business suits and fezzes started marching onto the screen I genuinely laughed out loud. This game is so wonderfully absurd, I love it all.

Man, you know they were looking at Temple of Doom when they designed the character you're playing with. I love it.

I guess the Dial of Destiny is working perfectly because the villains are all over the place in time also I like that the king of hunting animals is a weird space alien monster, sounds about right

"Your tank flew 5 feet, that counts as a ride. Two bucks."

Holy shit, this totally needs a modern remake! And according to Wikipedia, it's even got a pro-environmental message as well- the heroes are straight up rangers trying to stop (and by stop, I mean 'punch and/or kick the shit out of') an army of animal poachers who are literally driving animals to extinction. Now I don't know about you guys, but that's a message I can definitely get behind!

Dude! I remember playing the Genesis version a lot as a kid. I also remember it having a dark cave instead of a lava cave and the final boss being even more of a Alien rip-off.

Not that anyone is asking, but the tank featured at the 15 minute mark is a Czech LTvs.35, later taken into German service during WWII as the Panzer 35(t). Most were out of service by 1942, although it is unknown if any were disabled by elephant attack.

You had me at "You kill poachers"

I love Growl and Taito in general! Thanks for playing it!!

This brings me back, I used to play this a lot with my brother on a Mame emulator. Taito had a lot of really fun games, another one that was great was "The ninja kids"

A legitimately fun game, like Double Dragon mixed with the Punisher arcade game. The Taito collections on PS2 have so many classics like this.

Had such fond memories of this game! Love the beat-em-up era.

I first found out about this game on TV Tropes. The final boss is the image for the Giant Space Flea From Nowhere page, and has been for absolute years. It's just such a perfect example, I doubt they'll ever find a more blatant instance.

I was not expecting a Darkman or a Shockmaster reference in this vid. Pleasantly surprised as always 😅

It was a tough time growing up in those days, with both bullies and video game corporations shaking you down for your lunch money.

You basically play as either pallets swaps of Paul Hogan and Jesse Ventura.

2nd character is definitely budget Clark from KOF.

There was an arcade machine at my university that had about 400 ROMs on them and I remember one day, when all our classes were over, my friends and I loaded it with quarters and played Growl, Ninja Baseball Batman, and Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja to the end. It was a hell of a bonding moment for the three of us, but I will say that Growl's last boss reveal is forever burned into our brains. Love trips down memory lane like this. GG, Mister McMuscles.

This is what I’d imagine our good pals Taito will come up with a arcade beat em up game. You play as a rescue rangers who’ll over kill every poacher in town,just to rescue some innocent animals. I mean Hey Come On! It’s an awesome game.

So many sprites onscreen! No wonder there weren't any ports in its day. I do like the positive bent on this video. Videos about the utterly absurd and over the top are a nice change of pace from worst games and stuff.

You start fighting poachers and you finish fighting a lovecraftian monster. It has sense.

I was at Galloping Ghost fairly recently, and I have been there a bunch of times, but I've never seen Growl there. However, according to the website they do have Growl. I'll have to check it out next time I am there.

There was an illegal arcade in front of my house back in 1994 which you had to call to get in, they had four machines in their garage and this was among them. Some of the most fun i had that year

This game is coming this Thursday on the arcade archives games

Wow, this has strengthens my testimony of the Book of Mormon ten fold.

5:35 That's motherfreaking Shao Kahn!

All the jumps in the lava section had me weak bro 😭

I should have known the Babadook was behind the poachers' evil scheme.

Somebody on the Growl team had to have worked on Violence Fight or vice versa, it would explain how we got sound effect expressions like SHBROOM for explosions in this game and DOGOON in Violence Fight

Bringing grenades to a fist fight reminds of some other, recently covered, beat-them-up video game...

I’m honestly surprised that “grenade-throwing ‘80s business lady” isn’t a common trope. Like, I’m pretty sure it’s not even in those ridiculous Andy Sidaris movies like Hard Ticket to Hawaii or Malibu Express, and he was all about heavily armed sexy ‘80s ladies.

If you want to keep up the beatemup kick, try *Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans* . Like Double Dragon, it also features a famous duo. (though maybe not as famous in North America)

This should SO be made into a movie.

India has been cutting back on poaching by just shooting poachers on sight. I imagine this is what that looks like.

Saving kids and animals were once a big thing in arcade games.

I like how one of the people was credited for "trifling work". I assume he was, like, the office gofer or something. I hope his title sounded a little less insulting in the original Japanese!

This game needed more Shortround. Really wish it were available on the Switch. Can you do a playthrough of Taito's Superman arcade beat 'em up? LOVED that cabinet as a kid!

Oh my god. Hulk Hogan got pearl harboured from the front in front of that elephant.

I remember this arcade game very well, because of that main music theme and the setting of the game. Watched the whole video and hadn't seen the latter half of the game before. Some moments did make me laugh. Makes for a nice video too! If you're planning on playing more arcade games, don't know if you know these, a bit more obscure titles: Boogie Wings Burning Force Monster Maulers Osman The Outfoxies

Villains: We have a guy who can easily lift a jeep. What if we strapped lit dynamite to him?!

Been wanting a port of this forever

I eagerly await the 10 hour video of all the Taito games Matt will play XD

This is the greatest thing I ever saw

I can't believe those sumo samurai just wombo combo you like that. They put your ass in a blender.

I liked how the animals would help you fight the enemies

I remember always playing this game in a local bowling alley when I was a kid. I'm now lucky to live not far from Galloping Ghost and yes they have it there AND the prototype of the Beavis and Butthead game you mention...but it's also broken so I've yet to try the prototype.

I think I need an isolated "Hey, Come ooooooon!"

Matt, have you even made a video on "Trio The Punch - Never Forget Me"? It's one of those batshit insane videogames

And the exclamation words like SHAPOW and DAGOON lol

Ah I love this game! Gonna include some references into Fight Forever for sure :D

This game should've had a sequel about eight years ago where the heroes go after Harambe's killer.

okay Guts' theme KILLED me

I mean, do we really need a more nuanced moral than "poachers suck; animals are awesome"?

There should be a count at the end of these videos to figure out how many quarters it took Matt to beat it.

The amount of enemies is probably due to 4-player mode and devs just not tinkering with enemy count. There was an arcade machine where I lived as a kid and it ate coins like crazy when you played it alone.

Business Grenadier would look pretty impressive on any CV

"Grenade specialists" = those who failed have no arms.

I can remember when my local arcade replaced the teenage mutant hero turtle 4 player cabinet with this. Was no where as good but if you had a few 10p left over after playing narc, salamander and shadow dancer it was always worth a shot 😅

I can;t believe the bats are allied with the poachers to become the only animal in the wild

Hey, Matt McMuscles. Can you please do a playthrough of the arcade version of Fighting Vipers in a future video?

The guy in the blue shirt is clearly Crocodile Dundee

I remember playing this in a 3 players arcade, it was the Japanese version which titled Runark

7:02 You got me

Hey matt mc muscles growl is coming to arcade archives next month

Considering the stage,maybe he was the elephant man around the 13 minute mark.

My favorite Taito game of ALL TIME

This was a fun game in the arcade

Broooooo this game was so awesome! 🔥🔥🔥

Big baddy in the white mask and red tank looks an awful lot like JJ Allin/JJ Escobar

Resident Evil 4 is a "Beat Em' Up" if you think about it.

This game was on sega genesis, I remembered renting it and just being confused and entertained 😂

I think the elephant boss is supposed to be John Merrick, the Elephant man. If it is, that's crazy bad taste, but there you go.

You should play Champion Wrestler. Nitro Panks is the best Taito character.

Hey if there is no iceberg video about obscure late 80's early 90's arcades maybe you can make it a reality Matt, i know i could watch the fuck out of that video.

Loved playing this in the arcade

A game that perfectly encapsulates my dream career

They should make a movie out of this! Give the task to the same folks who made RRR.

Maybe the Business women are time travelers from a dark future where animals became sentient and enslaved humanity sent back to weaken the animal population enough that Humanity can win the war. In the future they get 1980s and 1930s fashion and weapons mixed due to much information being lost in the wars.

it's games like these that make me sad that square enix only focuses on the part of taito that touches SPACE INVADERS and maybe sometimes Bubble/Puzzle bobble (though these 2 are because of ININ which likes to work on many not well known games)

0:24 "Hey come on, hey come on......" I knew this was the one specific arcade game that does that whenever you insert quarters into it. It does not get old one bit XD.

"Get lost wisp!"

Discovered this game years ago and the sega genesis port is solid. Missing multiplayer due to small cart size. Fun game tho

I've just realized Indiana joens never got a arcade beat em up huge missed opportunity there

i had this game as part of the Tiato Legends on ps2

i must've blown like $25 of my childhood dollars on this game on a cabinet in the shittiest convenience store in the shitty town where i grew up. 10/10 must play

Your reactions was the same as mine when I had taito legend 2

Indiana Jones, Hulk Hogan and Dr Grant get together to dismantle a poaching business that, although evil, is very diversity-oriented in its hiring practices.

Hey, cmon!

Newer fan here, have you played "Ninja Kids"? It's another beat-em-up by Taito, one of my favs

I played the megadrive version of this game,it was named Runark. Hope they bring it as an Arcade Archives game on current consoles and PC.

Het mat on July 27 2023 growl will be re release on PS4 and switch in arcade archives

Just like real life Hogan comes in at the end, to pick up the win. Bum!

Thanks for the video Matt, super fun as always! Can I suggest a game? Its called Black Belt Challenge for GBA. Its a fighting game made by lost boys, the developer that will than become guerilla games. I think it was a fun game in its semplicity.

I wasted so many quarters on this when I was a kid... Good times!

This game rules

Growl's the most underrated belt scroller ever.

And this game is connected with the Darius series, of all things.