Unholy Night: The Darkness Hunter review - SNESdrunk 

Years ago I followed this video's advice and never tried Unholy Night. But then I recently found it for $17 new and thought, what-the-heck, I'll give it a try. And I'm glad I did. I went into this with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised by all the modern trappings and QOL improvements that most 1-on-1 fighters on the SNES lacked (mainly due to them not existing yet). The animation is still nothing to write home about, but overall this game's not nearly as bad as the Internet influencers would have you believe. Comparing it to the likes of Endless Duel or Super Street Fighter II isn't fair, but it does stand up well compared to most of the other fighters for the SNES. The moves and character designs are great, and there's a lot of depth to this fighter. I'm glad to have it in my collection.

Looks like it was programmed in C++ as opposed to assembly, the choppines is a huge tell.

Played this game at a convention about a year or so ago. A real shame. I like the character designs, but the game feels like an early GameBoy Advance fighting game.

They really should have made a version for the Neo Geo CD! CD's are cheap to make and it looks like it belongs there, even for SNK, makers of Neo Geo.

I wish the developers of Gundam Wing Endless Duel decided to do something similar and redevelop for the SNES. They made the ultimate example of a fighting game on the SNES. Extremely fluid graphics and controls along with amazing music. My favorite fighting game on the system for sure.

I like Wurzel for giving me a Darkstalkers vibe.

This game BLOWS. I picked it up for the SuFami shortly after it was released thinking a 16-bit fighter made by former SNK employees was a sure thing. Damn was I disappointed. The best thing about this game is the box, manual and the cartridge itself.

He predicted this one. It's currently less than $18 new on Amazon right now. I kinda want one just for it being a 2017 SNES game

I like the idea of the occasional new snes game. It'd be bad ass if we could get a good rpg for it cause these newer ones don't cut it as often for me.

do you record a new snesdrunk intro for each episode, or did you just record a few dozen one day that you pull from

This game made me appreciate what Konami (even Capcom) did back in the day with the artwork and the gameplay of every one of their games.

Just goes to show, even in 2017, you can’t just make a good SNES game. It’s a true art. Almost a lost one unfortunately.

It looks really cool for a Snes game but good Lord that frame rate. It's the predecessor to Assassin's Creed Unity.

My guess, it was programmed in C or C++ rather than assembly. It is known that the SNES CPU does not do well in C. You can get away with on the Mega Drive (Xeno Crisis recently publlished was in C). If they were former SNK they would have known 68000 assemby from the Neo Geo, but perhaps 6512 was something they did not know.

I don't excuse the programers as if there was "too much stuff to the SNES to handle". As you said, there are plenny examples of games with a lot more content and the SNES run it fine. Bad programing it is. Hope some modders release a fix/hack to make it more digestable.

Looks like a gba game to me

So they had former SNK employees, it's a good start, but they also needed some ex-SNES programmers or whatever that knew how to properly work with or work around the SNES limitations.

The game runs at 20fps (i'm not kidding, i checked) and has very poor controls. The musics are very shitty, reusing the same samples for the... idk, 4 musics. For a 4MB game, there is so much waste. Looks like a 1MB game... and a bad one.

This is an unfinished game that was released I feel due to lack of funding via kick starter. It's a shame as I was really hyped for this. If it was finished I'd buy it again.

Was wondering if you were going to do this one. Great quick and sweet review! Have you thought about doing a video on Super Famicom vs. Super Nintendo fighting games? I almost have a full SNES fighting collection. You could probably do a whole video on the Ranma 1/2 vs. street combat debacle, alone. In any case, love your videos. Keep up the great work!

When you look at what other homebrewers have done with overcoming the SNES hardware's perceived shortcomings, this is kind of a disaster. This looks and plays worse than Gundam Endless Duel, which is ridiculous given that GED is 20 years old and used the same size cartridge.Yikes.

Looks like they were trying to steal and alter some Darkstalkers characters and ideas and alter them enough to declare them as original. I mean, I actually thought, from the screenshot and the name "wait, am I about to hear about an SNES darkstalkers title? This could be awesome!"

You must have gotten lucky. I also planned to review this game, but it literally kept black screen crashing on me before the final boss. This was on original hardware. Super frustrating. Great job on the review. You hit all of the right points. Once finals are done, I may give it another try, and finish my own review. For those interested, I reviewed super Russian roulette for the NES and Water Margin for the Genesis over on my channel. I welcome questions and comments 😁 Happy holidays!

They probably didn't use the FX chip or the tech in the SNES port of SFA2

The best thing about the game is how cute Emily is.

For those interested there is a ton of high level info for this game over on the Super Fighting Wiki! snes.newchallenger.net Just a note this game suffers especially because of a lack of a SNES development kit.

The T&A doh 😏

I almost just bought this... It's not everybody who's opinion I trust, but you've earned it😁 You just saved me $25. Thanks!

Does anybody know where I can find scans of the manual? It looks like a hilarious journey through mistranslation paradise.

That's a shame, cause I kinda like some of the character designs. Would've been much better if it was developed on a Neo-Geo cart of sorts. If Neo-Geo homebrew is a thing anyways

As an aficionado of linguistics, I am always up for a good session of Engrish

maybe they rushed this one and didn't polish it before releasing it. it's strange to see the developers didn't realize its many flaws since it's an experienced team. the SNES could have handled this well, I think it's just a matter of coding. super street fighter 2 has a very large roster and superb graphics, sound and gameplay, just to name one fighting game to compare it to.

Sprite work is nice.

All you're coffin our berong to us

While most of the modern games for retro systems seem disappointing there is a kickstarter now for a new Genesis/Mega Drive game that looks amazing www.kickstarter.com/projects/1676714319/xeno-crisis-a-new-game-for-the-sega-genesis-mega-d

Does this game run better if emulated?

0:12 so close...We got a Kronos (spelled different I know) and Wurtzel (again...I know) alert. Those OSW lads would be proud.

Best gaming channel on youtube. So many games i never heard of... This looks incredible.

At least this is one interesting thing that happened in 2017

When will you review the other new snes game? That platform game that used to be a Satellaview game

Bought this game about 2 months ago, and yeah while its crap atleast i wasnt out too bad(24 bucks). Idk if ill ever play it again but its a nice box to look at lol.

I excitedly purchased this on my first ever preorder for a game. I did not see any of the talent of an SNK game designer. This game was advertised using the "SNK name" of people that worked on their previous fighting games. But you do not see any of that experience showing through here. There are SNK games that were imported to the SNES during its heyday, so it is not like the SNES could not handle this type of game. None of the stages gave you any feeling of depth, scrolling, or animation that you have come to expect in an SNES fighter, and poor use of colors. The game boasts about "32MEGS" but you do not see anything that would substantiate the claim. Fatal Fury Special, was also a 32meg, big difference. The music of Unholy Night grinds in my ears. I like the character designs that they started with, a Night Warriors Castlevania slant, feel, atmosphere in a very vague way, but there are just not enough of them, the character sprites seem small. Some of the fighters seem a bit clunky and stiff. Some were more responsive, with noticeable frames missing in their attacks. I found only half of the fighters enjoyable to control. I wanted to believe but was greatly disappointed. The game feels very unfinished and rushed to market. What you end up with is something very mediocre that had so much potential. It is not that it is totally unplayable, it is just that there are so many better fighters on the SNES that I would rather play. I am a retro gamer and want to support such endeavors, but this left a bad taste in my mouth. A good idea gone sour. Give me good design, something very playable with hidden things, unlockables, a good challenge in a game, something that motivates me to play, sort-of like a tease. And I will throw down that jingle, that cash again.

The first... SFII = 8 playable characters MK = 7 playable characters 6 is still kinda low, and I'm not saying this game is any good. But it's unfair to compare the number of fighters here to Super SF II or Ultimate MK3. The former was the third SF II and the latter was the fourth MK on the SNES. This game is a first entry title.

I can’t tell from the video how much the screen has been shrunk, but if you’re saying it’s even worse than StarFox, wow. Nintendo probably wouldn’t have considered this a shippable product in the 90’s.

They got confused thinking they wanted a SNES game but wanted an arcade to psone and Saturn game.

Maybe a FastRom patch will fix it

You bought this physical? 😲 I thought all of your videos were rom footage!

Wow... even the good ol' snes can't get 60fps from a new game made in 2017 :P

How much were they charging for this one?

the game was on kickstarter and didn't meet it's goal they released what was there anyway.... that's why everything looks so choppy and incomplete because it is

Hardly an awful game. Getting over the performance issues, there is a good game here. Y’all a buncha performance snobs criticizin’ the game without even considerin’ how the game plays (not criticizin’ you as a person of course). It is 100% playable/responsive and the gameplay is quite good (I mean if you can get passed performance issues like I did though it does push the hardware a bit too much like Race Drivin’ did thankfully there’s an improvement hack of it. Believe it or not, I wanna see a remaster of it so throw tomatoes at me if you wish). Moves are easy to pull off, the music is great (what do you expect of Japanese fighting games?) and the visuals (especially the characters) are great I think this is good once you look pass the negatives. However, it isn’t as awesome as BlazBlue or Under Night In-Birth as it’s not quite on the same league as then or other modern J-fighters (anime-style fighters fo’ da goddamn win yo!) for that matter. I can understand if you’re disappointed with it but since I enjoyed the game I have to sternly disagree with what you have to say.

The best channel ever created

I almost bought it at launch, knowing nothing about it other than the fact that it's a brand new SNES game, for 60.00 new. Forgot about it for a week and when I went back it was new/sealed for 19 on prime. Dodged a bullet there, got it cheap...and hated the whole game.

What are they charging?

So would it be better "emulated" ?

My man, snesdrunk.

You should do a review on ‘Phantom 2040’.

Silly SNK programming as if it is for an arcade platform.

I guess I fucked up proper this time. I ordered a loose copy for $10 bucks and saw this video a few hours later... lol

I still want it and that nightmare hunter leprechaun game I want it I want it I want it me me me me mine mine mine mine mine

I'd rather have a buffalo take a diarrhea-dump in my ear.

The developer here really dropped the ball. There was a lot of potential, but it just seems they didn't really understand how to properly work with the SNES to get the most out of it. Very disappointing, as the SNES is more than capable of doing a fighter like this full justice. And, with some very smart design and programming, I don't think the big black bars are needed either. Both Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct managed just fine without big black bars, and the recent Earthquake vs Earthquake demo by Mawel shows there's even more potential there when you really try to work with and around SNES' capabilities and limitations properly. It actually really frustrates me when I see stuff like this on SNES, as it just makes the system look really weak, which it really is not.

Glad to see that I am not missing out when I decided not to buy this one.

"Former SNK staff"... I wouldn't be surprised that they did not work for SNK or any game developer. They're probably shitdiggers found someone's game demo and it made it to run on the SNES. The game is sloppy! SNK have released their IP games on the SNES and it runs fine but this I really doubt "former SNK staff" made this game.

The female fighters are HOT

Still better than some mugen characters, I guess... :D

the choppiness makes it look like an early portable game system. pretty poor showing for a new SNK-dev made fighter

Man, that soundtrack sounds like NES stuff, and not the best NES music either.

Kinda looks like a poor man's Guilty Gear

Anyone else notice that this is just a Darkstalkers clone?

Is the game is that bad?

Better to just play Samurai Showdown for the SNES. Available for about $10.

'Engrish' cool I've never heard that term for bad translations. I've watched a ton of your videos and this will be the last one, bummer.

I wonder if the SNK devs that made this are mad at you now?

Looks like a bad Dark Stalkers rip off.

The backgrounds are abysmal. They seems digitzed photos from the 90s.

Honestly, I could only imagine how hard it was to make Snes games run from titles Gradius 3 and Super R-Type, >> to Cybernator/Axelay etc. If it was difficult to work around the slow hardware in the 90s I don't see why it'd be easier today. Then again, making FM music on the Genesis was incredibly hard as well, and it seemed tough to get the most out of that system too, so no system’s perfect.

The English is fine. English isn't their first cup of tea. It's like watching Americans order in Spanish just because the waitress is Mexican. But what's with that damn look of the game. Scan line is like 80%.

I like the character design but the game feels meh. And I swear I saw some kind of "anime opening" style video of this like many years ago on youtube. I can't find it again.

I'm picked up this game and I agree it's OK. But in other fighting games in the 90s, this one made in the modern age, I give it a little praise, I'm a big fan of SNK, so I gotta be nice.

Kinda sad that this game is even worst than Shaq Fu. I find it hard to believe this was made by ex-SNK staff unless if by ex-SNK staff they really meant the janitors, the secretary, and the cafe maker.

Dam i was hyped lol wish they amend with a 2nd part !

This game is soooo bad that it make feel sad that there is SNK members here. They should create a BeatNUp, game instead 🤷🏻‍♂️

Oh yay.....*Another* One on One fighter for the SNES......

"Engrish" 😂

The game is an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE! Controls are clunky and at times feel broken with damage ratios for characters unbalanced. The music is mindless low quality super sampled mess that plays for EVERY SINGLE MATCH. The translations are both laughable and sad. The animations are rushed and feel like they took up more cart memory but when even SF Alpha 2 plays better even with freezes before after and during battles, it feels like no effort at all was put into this game. What consists of a story in this is convoluted at best and confusing. Characters designs while decent do take a lot of inspiration from guilt gear games minus the fluid animations. I got to play this and was immediately put off after 2 hours of gameplay. I agree with this review that it is a game to steer as far away from as possible and save your cash and spend it on better fighters on the Super N.

i cant believe it. you should have just said it was good. how dare u. how double dawg dare u.

Snes Drunk:On 2017 Hitler still making new game for Super Nintendo. Me:Nani??

It kinda sucks that this game is so bad. It looks kinda like Darkstalkers (in theme, not so much gameplay).

Alright good talk hahah

Street Fighter Alpha 2 for SNES was very slow paced I thought.

...six characters?

♪ "Unholy Night Of darkness never-ending It is the night when the Old Ones ariiiiise!" Sorry, I couldn't resist! Also, this game actually looks kind of fun!

This looks like a rip-off of Under Night In-Birth.

SNESdrunk: ... and those are tied to what it's called a "Synchro gauge". Me: Synchro what? SNESdrunk: Synchro gauge. Me: What gauge? SNESdrunk: Synchro gauge. Me: What what? SNESdrunk: Synchro. Gauge. Me: Oh. What's that? SNESdrunk: It's a gauge that fills- Me: Wait. I seem to have stopped caring.

Bought it, and sold it. It's awful

Looks like crap.

This game looks like every other mediocre clone of street fighter II. Meh

1:03 Breasts should never be bigger than one's head.

what?!! A new snes game!!! Me me me I want it I want it I want it me me me