Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer

Overview

Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer (known in Japan as Choujin Gakuen Gowcaizer, loosely translated to "Superhuman Academy Gowcaizer") is a 2D fighting game developed by Technōs and released by SNK for arcades (running Neo Geo MVS hardware) on September 18, 1995.

The second fighting game from Japanese developer Technōs after the fighting game adaptation of their Double Dragon series, Gowcaizer is themed heavily on superheroes in Japanese pop-culture. The game is known for the ability to give the player's fighter a special move of a defeated opponent (similar to the Mega Man series and obscure fighting game BloodStorm). It's also known for its animated OVA adaptation.

The game was later released for the Neo Geo AVS on October 20, 1995 and ported to the Neo Geo CD on November 24, 1995 (featuring a vocal-laden arranged soundtrack). It was later ported to the Sony PlayStation by Urban Plant on July 17, 1997 exclusive to Japan. This version uses a new gameplay engine (and does not include the arranged soundtrack or the ability to copy moves).

Gameplay

Trace Moves

By default, the game allows players to earn one special move from each of their defeated opponent (even in VS battles) and use them as their own. Players can only equip one Trace Move at a time, which can either be replaced (after defeating an opponent) or swapped out (after continuing, from a selection of moves from previously-defeated opponents). If the player has previously defeated an opponent that is the same as their current character (or have defeated a mirror match opponent), they can instead opt to gain a more powerful version of their own Trace Move.

Using the Neo Geo service menu, arcade operators can change this mechanic to either allow players to swap out their Trace Moves after every match (similar to continuing), force players to replace their current Trace Move with their defeated opponent's, remove the ability to swap out Trace Moves after continuing, or disable Trace Moves entirely.

This feature is not available in the PS1 version.

Characters

The game includes 10 playable characters and two unplayable bosses.

• Gowcaizer
• Captain Atlantis
• Karin
• Fudomaru
• Marion
• Shaia
• Shenlong
• Kyosuke Shigure
• Hellstinger
• Brider
• Platonic Twins (unplayable mid-boss)
• Ohga (unplayable final boss)