An Absolute HIDDEN GEM! - EVIL ZONE :The PLAYSTATION LEGACY (Pt. 7) 

I can't believe this. This is the worst case of "HOLY SHIT I FINALLY FOUND IT" I've ever had. Years of this game popping on my head and then vanishing again, with me not having enough memories to do a thorough enough search and actually figure it out. Thanks Max, my brain just feels like it lost a few pounds.

Fun fact: The voice of Danzaiver is Jon St. John, the voice of Duke Nukem.

That moment when Otacon introduces Colonel to his Japanese Animes.

The main thing that I dig about this game is that it's entirely made as a homage to 90's anime and the more prominent archtypes. Each character fits a subgenre of anime, the space investigator metalhero (mainly referencing Sharivan), the magical schoolgirl, the paranormal loli that is way older than she looks (both of these last 2 are shown in the game as lesbians), the martial arts tomboy with dragon ball and shadow skill techniques, the big muscular mercenary with a huge sword (Cyber Gats from Berserk), the bishonen exorcist, the mandatory shotacon, the fantasy girl with a magical set of armor with HUGE shoulderpads, the milftastic final boss. This game has it all and they ALL have storymodes as if they are the main characters of their own anime.

“The power of the supreme leader to destroy evil... The ultimate hero... DANZAIVERRRR”

I'd actually pay money for a remastered version of this.

The concept of this game is absolutely amazing. Imagine a modern game that does this kind of anime all star parody thing, with dramatic narration and tropes and all of that... but with Arc Sys graphics.

This game looks like "Let's take a character from every anime genre and put them in one game"

So each character in the game represents a stereotype found in the anime genres of the time. Danzaiver - Sentai, Al - Fantasy, Gally - Sci-Fi, Kenya - Horror, Midori - Hot blooded fighting genre, etc. it’s harder to pick up on now, but it really leaned into the cheese and I love it.

The amount of money I'd give, to see an _Evil Zone 2_ announcement

Max should run through the characters. Each one has a unique storyline and you get an extra costume for every character you complete the game with.

Not only does every character get their own unique story between each fight. Their done in different styles depending on the kind of anime that character would be from. A personal fav is Gally's. It's mostly cute moments between him and his wife that give glimpses into his home life. Lol. Also yes its criminal this game doesn't get more praise. Such a fun idea and some great characters.

The way every character's story is framed like a TV show is actually pretty clever. When so many modern fighting game devs struggle with making enjoyable story modes, it's pretty bizarre that this niche, campy PS1 title managed to do it right.

The Japanese opening theme ("Kiss in the Dark") is SO GOOD! Recommended, for anyone unfamiliar. Erel has a pretty good vocal theme, cut from the English version, too. ... And, as you can see from Maximilian's playthrough, the game itself isn't half-bad, either (obnoxious AI, aside)! Glad he went with Danzaiver! My cousin introduced my brother & me to this game through the imported JP version, and we loved it.

Max, you should sometime do a "rate their specials" for this.

The opening was reminded me of a Toonami commercial from the 90's I was waiting for Tom to pop up and be like "Next on Toonami, Evil Zone. Followed by Sailor Moon."

The tone of this game is flawless. If it's going for serious, it's hilarious. If it's going for Satire, it's hilarious. Also, these supers are better than some supers we get in modern games, lol.

"Shut up!" - Danzaiver, The Loli Slayer, 1999

Man i just love how the cast feels so perfect to their genre homage and even put different perspectives of core aspects. Setsuna and Midori are both battle manga and anime, but Setsuna goes towards tragic character drama based magic like Revolutionary Girl Utena and CLAMP's productions. It even has the heavy school day lesbianism and suggested slowly incoming dark fates. While Midori is on the curve of hotblooded teenagers reaching their peak and deviation from strictly kung fu masters, the destiny bound , and traditional delinquents. Al and Erel are both fantasy, but Al you could put into Lodoss War and Wizardry, Erel's more the "so much a parody, it actually turned into cliches in themselves" fanservice heavy comedy like Slayers and Sorcerer Hunters. Right down to their cloth armor being just jiggly suits. She even looks like a genderswap of Slayers' Gourry, having the Gorun Nova/Sword of Light.

Also look up the entire lore, there is a website entirely all about explaining the lore. Example AL is not the sorcerers name. Anyone with the power level to summon other people to thier world is called AL. It is a position in their government not a name. Al is also the one who summoned every character who might be strong enough to beat the main villian who is trapped and contained in what they call the evil zone. The villian has a different name to almost every character, as she is multideminsional and each character has encountered our carries a fragment of her with them, in one form or another.

I never knew Jon St. John did Danzaiver's voice that's insane. Danzaiver wound up being one of my favorite characters in this game.

A fighting game with a story mode this lengthy was unheard of back in "99.

What I find fascinating about Evil Zone is that it is a crossover game that isn't a crossover. Every character feels like they are part of a completely different anime, some of which are just completely different genres. . Heck I wouldn't be slightly surprised if this originally WAS intended to be a crossover and they just altered the characters.

I'm still depressed it never got a sequel... it was literally very unique for its time and actually predated alot of things, like its fluid motion, cinematic moves, individual fighter cutscenes and weird episodic format. 😌

14:17 "Is this what I get I'll go easy on you"......14:24 PSYCHO CRUSHA!!!!!

Thank you so much for doing Evil Zone. This was my favorite fighting game as a kid. There were just a couple mechanics I wanted to explain that I don't think you figured out in this play through. While pressing a directional button with the attack button will do a special attack, double tapping the attack button will change the special attack so you can hit sidestepping targets. Also the down attack button, which I consider the grapple, has three different variations depending on your range from the target from close, mid and long range. The down attack from long-range is often the most cinematic move in the game for each character. That was that satellite cannon looking move that blue version of you did.

"You dare to stop us? THEN STOP US!!! " best quote of the game, hands down

This story mode is low-key better than 80 percent of the fighting game story modes I've played 😭💀

There should be more fighting games with arcade/story modes like this game.

I still have my copy of this game, I remember buying it in a grocery store for 5 dollars brand new. Fun fact about this game: They added pants to the blonde girl in the North American version, the Intro actually has a song called "Kiss in the Dark" by Masami Okui and the Blonde girl in pink's stage had a song instead of that generic sounding techo. (probably a rights issue on the songs) This game has one of my fav game soundtracks over all!

Hell yeah Evil Zone was the game back in the day.

I’m glad someone still remembers this game. I absolutely love this game so much I played the hell out of it back in the day.

14:19 Danzaiver: I'll go easy on you. *Instant Psycho Crusher*

love how Danzaiver sometimes goes like "how did you do that?!" if the enemy blocks :D that's how I always felt like as a kid playing fighting games

4:09 that menu looks like a Mugen menu .

I love how that one super implies that whoever brought him to this world decided to teleport both him AND his support satellite.

Great to see this game again. Just a few tips though. Down and triangle has three levels of grab type moves. Up close, mid range and long range and the effect changes with the distance. If you press down and double tap triangle it serves as a trap for if they are sidestepping but will fail if they don't side step. Charge power by holding triangle down and then once you have a stock, double tap back and triangle to use their ultimate attack, but will fail if they guard it so best to stun first with a back and triangle or whist they are mid attack.

This was my absolute favorite game as a kid and I’ve never met anyone who knew of it

Rate the specials would be perfect for this!!

"Floating naked spirit woman, everything start to make sense" Ok, nothing unusual for anime so far "he was summoned to this strange world to save-" HOLD ON! This is an isekai now?! Everything make sense indeed! xD

Holy shit, the Metal Hero / Space Sheriff's story mode is straight up framed like a tokusatsu show, that's amazing!

I have been waiting years for this moment. Max is finally a Evil Zone convert.

Jesus Christ, this game screams 90s Anime so much every second, and it's kinda cool Ihadurca looks just like Sesshumaru from Inuyasha (another 90s Anime). You can't tell me otherwise.

"so bad it's so good" except that the gameplay is actually genuinely good and the badness of everything else is(mostly) voluntary Never seen something so cheesy and campy... And man do i love this.

Recommendation: Search out the original OP for this game; it was called "Eretzvaju" in Japan. If you like the '90s anime feel of this game, the "Eretzvaju" OP won't disappoint you. 👍

Are we all going to just gloss over the fact that Danzaiver's voice actor is Duke Nukem?

Never ever seen this game before but this intro is dope as hell. The metal hero and other Japanese culture references are incredible.

My brother and I loved playing this game back in the day. He then took it with him when he went to college back in 2002. I bought the game for him for fathers day 6 years ago and every now and then we crack it open to play a few rounds. there will never be a game like this again. Thankfully I got Matt and Woolie to sign my copy at EVO 2018 and they were SO HAPPY when I showed them the game.

Holy shit, I was gonna suggest this, I have a lot of fond childhood memories of this one, and it's a competent fighter despite its simple control scheme. Plus the soundtrack is dope, the voice acting is hilarious and Danzaivar is the coolest fighting game character of all time. That's a fact, don't argue.

"Should we put a timer in?" 'Nah, we blew our budget on that anime intro.'

I feel like nobody has mentioned Danzivar was voice by Jon St. John. Duke Nukem as a sentai ranger would be amazing!

When you started this legacy I was like "welp, I'll be there for Evil Zone!". This was my absolute favorite PS1 fighting game. I bought it thinking it'd be ironically fun like a b-film, and was super surprised how amazing it was. Even the 2-button layout is deceiving when you start realizing how much you can do, how much strategy can exist. I really wish it'd get a reboot.

I think the term "hidden gem" gets thrown around too often, but I legitimately have never heard of this game despite playing a lot of PSX fighters, so it actually fits here

Just in case he never does it. These are the 3 cinematic in fight scenarios that can occur. If both players dash towards each other, they'll run side by side like a samurai movie and the winner of the clash gets a free hit in before you return to neutral. If you launch a player by going down attack and then dash (they're all activated with dashes honestly). The dasher will do an air combo and the defender can press buttons to deflect the blows like those Kung Fu movies where ppl are just flying horizontally. If you stun an opponent (create after images while they are in a stunned state) and dash towards them. The defender will try to shoot the attacker with the attack dodges in a zig zag anime style as they come in for a free hit to close in. The defender can dodge that final blow. I don't think you can actually ever hit the attack as he gets shot at. And godammit I wish this game had WAY more of these kinds of actions. And elaborated on these 3 existing ones so players can actually more actively fight during them. Like beam struggle (fire off your stunning moves and have them hit each other). Clashing red gems. double long range grab. That Back attack where Dansaiver moves back while doing a back spin air slash. Let that instance of him doing that spin have I frames. GOD THIS GAME HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I wanna kick start a dumb anime fighter like this so bad!

One of my guilty pleasures. Loved this game.

"Let me see the control scheme." Sees two buttons. "...Wow." He almost sounded impressed.

I hope he plays “Kensei: Sacred Fist”, “Iron & Blood”, “Criticom” (which has a sequel called “Dark Rift on the N64), “Cardinal SYN”, “Vs.”, “Fighter’s Impact” and “Killing Zone”.

Here's the real truthful facts right here! This original Japanese anime fighting game is called: "Eretzvaju" the original anime opening theme is in Japanese and that song is called: "Kiss in the Dark" sung by famed anime diva vocalist Masami Okui who is known for her works in Shoujo Kakumei Utena and also singing the lead opening vocal theme for another Japanese anime fighter called: Advanced V.G. 2 in which that song is called "Endless Life". Due to copyright protections and royalties, the "Kiss in the Dark" vocal opening for Ertezvaju or Evil Zone in the English release was replaced with that "90's techno" becuase of licensing issues. There was another vocal theme that serves as the background music for the in game character Alty Al Lazel but was also changed as well due to licensing and such. This information has been brought to you by goddesses media aka: Fu-Sung E. Cookye esports pro and a leading authority in the collecting of Japanese anime music and fighting game history from shores of Japan.

Toshinden, Evilzone, now all he’s missing is Destrega and my childhood nostalgia is going to explode lol

God I remember playing this so many years ago! The sound of “No, no, no” as that little girl thing defends haunted me!

Yeah, when you were talking about wanting to play some quirky/unique fighting games this was the first that came to mind. So glad to see it was on your list. Also Eretzvaju was the Japanese name.

Midori hands down had the best forward super in the game. A long range pulse beam with super armor.

YES!!! MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE FIGHTING GAME FOR THE PS1!!! NO ONE REMEMBERS THIS BUT I STILL GOT MY ORIGINAL COPY

"This was made by Yukes?" -That's a name I haven't heared in a long time.

Oh, man, Evil Zone! I loved this game back in the day!! Keiya was the best ;D "That move was too good for you; but it's your ticket to the netherrealm!"" Also: "Wood, earth, water, fire, metal!" Edit: I totally forgot that all fights where like an anime episode starring the selected character!!!! This game was sooo good xD

Oh shit Evil Zone! Me and my brother played the hell out of this game when we were kids, and its just as cheesy and amazing as I remember! And yes, from what I remember every character's story mode is set like a TV show from that time, with each character represensing a different genre. I know its unlikely, but I hope Max does more character's story modes, particularly, Alty, Erel, Gally and Midori.

Y'all i know this is memes, but for real 90s anime is still extremely striking and gorgeous.

Man, this brings back memories. I used to play this with my cousins along with another fighting game, Destrega. Definitely looked way better then lol

I remember this game so vividly. It was one of my favourites from my childhood. Me and my cousin where fighting game rivals. Every weekend we tried to win over the other. This game, MVC1, and X-men mutant academy gave us our best memories. Also this game was so intense in 2 player.

That ending theme named "Sorrow Long Day" had me tearing up the first time I heard it. The Dainzaver ending, although sweet, was not the saddest ending. Kakurine one holds that title. The characters look and sound plain as hell, but their backstories were terrific if you delved into the lore.

Man that 90's ass anime aesthetic is SO my shit. Feels like highschool all over again.

The start of the cutscene with the logo, it reminds me of Magic Knight Rayearth

Ah, glad you finally got around to playing this one. A damned good game, enhanced by INCREDIBLY BAD VOICE ACTING

I found this game in a discount store and my siblings and I played the heck out of it. My favorite character was Midori. I can’t wait to look into finding this game again and playing it. I loved Max’s reactions to the game. It was my first time watching him and he played a game I loved as a kid.

If more games took themselves less seriously and just had fun like this game then the industry would be in a better place.

gotta love the slide show before each new fight

Let's not forget that Danzaiver was voiced by the same guy who did Big the Cat and Duke Nukem.

the japanese version "Eretzvaju" is way better than the USA release, uncensored and have a cool opening song

"Assaulting Thrust" aight sounds like a good game to me

Nice seeing people discover this game. It's so freaking good.

Dood. You should check out Destrega and Kensei: Sacred Fist too

Ah, one of my favourite fighters. Easy to pick up, and insanely fun, even if the roster is limited. Plus the soundtrack kicks absolute ass. Glad I picked it up before it vanished from the shelves.

3:03 - "This 90s ass 90s techno" Classic 90s era publisher move. Remove the intro song by Masami Okui (Slayers, Utena, etc) and replace it with the most bog standard and tired techno you can find.

The game is very fun against another player, that is when you really understand how to fight, because depending on what eachother do, you may get a chase scene where your foe approaches and dodges your move to hit you. Every anime episode title is done in the style of the character, so Danzaivar titles are just like what you would see from a super hero show like Kamen Rider.

Eretzvaju. I loved this, the japanese opening theme is amazing

What an absolute riot of a game. The 90s was a goofy and great time for fighting games. I often wonder if any of the over-the-top stuff from that era could survive in this one. Everything has to be competitive nowadays. You can't simply thrive on spectacle and fun. Evil Zone, Eternal Champions, Primal Rage, etc. Could you even revisit those nowadays without them having to be e-sport ready? The series that are left are well done (or will get there eventually). However, they're also massive enterprises and undertakings. There's definitely a real nostalgia factor for the experimental, shotgun atmosphere of the 90s.

The voice actor for the narrator is Paul Eiding, and yes he also voices Colonel Campbell in the Metal Gear series. He's done a tonne of stuff, often just listed as 'additional voices'. He was also the voice of Hojo in FF7 Crisis Core since we all know what a big FF7 fan Max is. Check his wikipedia page some time, he's had a pretty solid career.

This game is totally self-aware. Every character is an over-the-top anime stereotype, and each story is told like episodes of different shows (Danzaiver is the Sentai dude, Erel is the Excel Saga chick, etc.) It’s like a love letter to anime from the 80s & 90s.

Love this game. Played it long long ago. Presentation was fantastic. It may seem basic, but it was fun and everyone basically had their own anime and episode bumpers. An anime episode style that was also used later for techromancer. They just don't make presentations and fun presentation like this anymore. If someone thinks different, recommend me something else like it with anime story bumpers and presentation.

The quality and enjoyment that Max got out of playing Evil Zone was boosted exponentially by the fact that he managed to reference both Lunar AND Alundra in the same video too.

LATE AF. THIS AND GUILTY GEAR WERE MY CHILDHOOD.

Oh dang, never thought I’d see this game again. This was a gem. Played so good too. Remember playing a lot of dope versus battles with some buddies back then, lots of side-stepping, comboing, combo-grabbing, & the lower your HP is the faster it is to charge up your meter to shoot off those supers moves. Would pay top dollar for a sequel or a modern remake.

I had the exact same reaction as Max every time a character tried to chew the low poly scenery to the best of their ability.

Finally!!! Thank for this Max! I have fond memories playing this game with my late uncle. Seeing you play reminded me of those times when we used to play against each other. Thank you Max! Danzaiver!

I've been telling max to play this for like 2 years lol,. Finally

This game is wonderful ! I played as a child back in the day, finally someone is playing it! It’s soooo much fun and really amazing Wish they do a remake or second part

My childhood memories coming back to me. Thank you for this nostalgic trip.

WOW never expected him to play this and I'm so glad! My dad bought me this just because, he was in the electronics section and saw it and thought I might like it (it was probably cheap LoL), I didn't know what it was but fell in love with it! So many fond memories, I always hoped they would make a sequel or a complete remaster/remake, highly doubt it though sadly.

Max, you have no idea how happy it makes me to have you featuring Evil Zone! That game is goofy as hell but an absolute blast to play!

Man I loved this game so much! One of the great hidden gems I found at a local department store back in the day!