The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang

Overview

Spike McFang is a linear action RPG for the SNES. It was developed by Red Entertainment, published by Naxat in Japan, and by Bullet-Proof Software in the US.

Spike travels through the different cartoon-like isles of Vladamasco, using his cape, his hat (which can be upgraded), and a deck of cards to save his world. Most of the game is spent in battle, collecting coins and experience, but there are a few moments in towns where the player can upgrade Spike's hat and buy new cards. There are a few different hats to buy, and the cards are only nominally useful, with a few exceptions. Upon leaving one section of the game it becomes impossible to return, but there is very little exploration to be done.

Japanese Version

The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang is known as Chou Makai Taisen! Dorabochan (Super Devil Wars! Dorabochan) in Japan.

The differences between the two versions are small, the most notable would be the scaling of difficulty: the game gets harder as Spike gains levels and his health does not regenerate. Another striking difference is that in order for the game to sell in North America the game was made more family-friendly replacing Spike's hunger for the hearts of his enemies by turning them into adorable garlic clovers and giving spike a thirst for tomatoes and tomato juice.

Weapons

Spike has two physical attacks and a special attack, which includes:

• The Cape Spin: A basic attack that causes damage to nearby enemies. The longer the attack button is pressed, the more the character will spin. Spinning too much will cause Spike will get dizzy.
• Hat Throw: Allows Spike to cause his hat to float and soar toward the enemy dealing damage according to how many times the weapon hits the enemy. With each new hat the offense remains exactly the same but the way the hat is thrown changes. While the first hat performs a boomerang attack, the final hat in the game is a path-clearing homing missile. The only method of increasing offense and defense is to level up, but unlike most games doing this will double that stat instead of the usual incremental bonuses.
• Cards: Spike can also use cards that he will receive from NPCs that run stores in the game, these cards differ from restoring life in the form of tomatoes as well as cans of tomato juice to Quake cards that rain stone fish from the sky and shakes the ground.