A little-known Fighting Game designed by GameTek Inc. in 1994 and developed by them and Eurocom. It features a creature known as the Dali Llama (no relation to the real person) funding a large martial arts tournament in a world of anthropomorphic animals. The cast is made up of the Llama as the final boss, plus Kung Fu Bunny, Prince Leon (a lion), Rhei Rat, Tai Cheetah, Kendo Coyote, Foxy Roxy, Ivan the Bear, Pantha, and Karate Croc. The sequel added Psycho Kitty and Chung Poe (a mole who can turn into a bat-dragon hybrid). The game was released on the Amiga, Mega Drive/Genesis and Mega/Sega-CD, and later the Super Nintendo. An Updated Re-release, marketed as a sequel (called Brutal Unleashed: Above the Claw), was released to the 32X and PC in 1995. A fairly simple fighting game, it got middling reviews (though few bad ones), and despite being released on nearly every major system at the time, it failed to make a dent in the already-overcrowded fighting game market.
No connection to Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.
Tropes:
- Adapted Out: Pantha and Karate Croc were cut from the Genesis and SNES versions of the game.
- Animal Stereotypes: Ivan the Bear is Russian, matching the symbolic animal of the country.
- Combos: Each character had "katas" which, when executed, would automatically chain together a sequence of moves in a particular order.
- Depending on the Artist: A more glaring example than usual because it occurs within the same installment. The official cover and manual artwork, in-game cinematics and artwork, and character sprites tend to disagree on the specifics of the characters; Ivan the Bear is probably the most consistently drawn.
- Dali Llama's head looks vastly different in portraits and cutscenes than he does in the game proper, being depicted with more of a muzzle in the latter.
- Prince Leon's sprite has a white muzzle with a beard, a headband, and white-furred feet; his portrait lacks the beard and headband, and his fur pattern is an even tan.
- Karate Croc gets it really badly. His manual art gives him pants, a spiky tail, and webbed toes, none of which he has in the actual game. His fighting sprites give him sunglasses and a black belt over a long karate gi. His character portrait lacks the shades and belt, in addition to giving him a MUCH shorter, more open outfit with red trim that exposes everything below his waist.
- Earn Your Fun: You were given tutorials in each character's special move list, starting with their taunt, as you progressed in belts. Even if you already know the controller motions, you couldn't perform the moves if your belt wasn't high enough.
- Embodiment of Virtue: Each of the combatants is said in their profile to embody one of the Noble Eightfold Path. Since there's more than eight characters, they made new edicts for the original's bosses and Above the Claw's new characters.
- Kung-Fu Bunny is right understanding.
- Prince Leon is right effort.
- Tai Cheetah is right mindfulness.
- Rhei Rat is right speech.
- Pantha is right meditation.
- Kendo Coyote is right resolve.
- Foxy Roxy is right livelihood.
- Ivan the Bear is right action.
- Karate Croc is right respect.
- Dali Llama is right perfection.
- Psycho Kitty is right love.
- Chung Poe is right power.
- Excuse Plot: The Dali Llama is just making everyone fight for a belt.
- Formerly Fit: The manual says this of Kendo Coyote, calling him "aging and overweight", and mentioning his belly that "flopped over his belt like it was trying to escape". However, most of his art depicts him with a more slender stomach, including the portrait on the exact same page of the manual that calls it large!
- Funny Animal: The entire cast.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Sweeping the Pantha reveals he wears a pair.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Most are shirts-optional.
- Limited Animation: Depends on the character. Some characters have nicely animated attacks, like Prince Leon pulling out a guitar and striking a power chord. Others, like Kung-Fu Bunny, have only 2 to 4 frames of animation despite being active for much longer, giving them very stilted movements.
- Ms. Fanservice: Foxy Roxy, being a curvy anthropomorphic fox using a sports bra and lycra.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Karate Croc. He invited himself to the tournament, and if you beat the game with him he rudely rubs his victory in Dali Llama's face.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite dressing the part, Karate Croc specializes in street brawling, not karate. The manual reveals he's never actually had any martial arts training. Maybe he just likes the aesthetic?
- Obstructive Foreground: Not uncommon to see the characters fighting behind objects. In the Genesis & Sega CD version, this includes the Screen Room, where two paper screens divide the scene into thirds, with only the middle completely unobstructed and the fighters silhouetted on the sides.
- Practical Taunt: Taunting leaves you wide open as expected, but it also recovers a little bit of your health.
- Punny Name:
- Tai Cheetah and Dali Llama.
- Above the Claw, a play on "above the law".
- Re-Release Soundtrack: Notable in that all three console versions (SNES, Genesis, Sega CD) have unique soundtracks.
- Ring Out: One stage has a bridge where you can knock the enemy off and win automatically.
- Silent Snarker: Rhei Rat is depicted as such in the manual; he brushes off his manager with eye rolls, head shakes, and a well-placed door slam. While he does grunt during matches, he otherwise doesn't speak; he never says anything in his win or lose screens, and his personal quote in the manual is simply "(Quote unavailable)".
- Stat-O-Vision: Finishing a match provides an extremely detailed look at how many punches, kicks, etc. each character landed during the fight.
- The Smurfette Principle: Foxy Roxy was the only female character.
- Three Round Deathmatch: As is the standard for fighting games.
- Updated Re-release: The "sequel" Above the Claw merely adds two characters and some cutscenes. Otherwise, the story, mechanics, and character roster are the same.
- Version-Exclusive Content: The Sega CD version had CD quality audio and full-motion cinematics, as you might expect, but it also had the "Fun Room", a menu option that took you to a Sound Test as well as "outtakes" featuring pencil tests and unused characters.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Interestingly, in the Sega CD version, beating each combatant in single-player immediately tells you what the loser proceeded to do in their disgraced state. This includes a Mirror Match.
- World of Funny Animals: More like World of Kung-Fu Animals. You could almost believe this game was the inspiration for Kung Fu Panda — if it weren't for the fact that nobody has heard of it.
