Eight Man is a 1991 Beat 'em Up arcade action game made by SNK for the Neo Geo. It's based directly on the manga and anime series of the same name.
When futuristic criminals unleash their legions of robots, cyborgs, and zombies upon the city, it's up to the players to save the day. Players assume control of Detective Yokoda a.k.a Eight Man, the Cyborg superhero (and on two-player mode, Nine Man, a clone of the titular hero) capable of ripping through steel with fists and kicks, battling legions of enemies across multiple levels from the city streets to factories full of hostile mechas.
Eight Man contains examples of:
- Acid Pool: Indoor acid trenches are an obstacle in the factory stage. Falling into one costs players to lose a life, and sometimes the acidic liquid can literally leap out to attack the players.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: The "Chase" Levels. Eight and Nine man activate their dash mode and start speeding forward to pursue enemies in their getaway vehicles while avoiding obstacles. They can't stop running in this mode until they caught up with the vehicles and destroys them.
- Boss Warning Siren: There's a "Warning!" screen before each boss stage, with the boss looking menacingly at the player as the red background blinks rapidly. Then comes the Boss Battle.
- Chase Scene: The "Chase" Levels, where Eight and Nine Man turn on their speed to pursue escaped criminals in their vehicles which takes up a whole level until the vehicle is destroyed. Followed by a boss fight.
- Detachment Combat: The factory levels have a recurring robot enemy who can detach itself from the waist and attack as two entities. Destroying one of the halves (usually the legs) will have the other wandering around in circles; leaving it idle for longer periods of time and it will leave.
- Gashadokuro: The game's Final Boss, the skeletal, floating remnant of Cyborg's soul and a giant horned skeleton with half a body, who can float around the arena and rain electric blasts all over the place.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: The bosses on their vehicles in the "Chase" levels, where the player must catch up with them before they get away.
- Giant Mook: The four-wheeled robot tank enemies who's a meter taller than either Eight or Nine Man and spam beam attacks with their turrets while advancing forward to crush the players or push them into Bottomless Pits. They can absorb quite a bit of punishment compared to lesser mooks, due to their size.
- Mecha-Mooks: Players as Eight (or Nine) Man will be battling hordes and hordes of robotic soldiers the entire game, which they massacre by the dozens.
- Predator Pastiche: One of the Elite Mook enemies are dreadlocked cyborg brutes wearing Predator-like masks, usually attacking either one or two at a time. They can occasionally fire Hand Blasts from a distance away and take plenty of damage, besides being more agile than the robot tanks and jumping all over the area.
- Robotic Undead: There are robotic zombies in the abandoned laboratory stage, rising out from beneath the ground much like classical zombies, but have visible mechanical features on their bodies such as screws and wiring.
- Sphere of Destruction: One power-up allows Eight or Nine Man to generate a powerful energy sphere around themselves that destroys enemies in their way. When punching or kicking when the sphere is in use the players can also launch ranged projectiles.
- Super-Strength: Much like the source material, Yokoda can rip apart enemy machines by punching and kicking.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: On two-player mode, the second player assumes control of Nine Man, an exact clone of Eight Man whose attacks and movesets are exactly the same as the titular hero. Save for his outfit having a "9" insignia instead.
- TV Head Robot: The boss, Scurry, whose head is projected on a screen on the front of his Transforming Mecha.
- Weaponized Exhaust: When in Scurry's hangar to board a his plane about to take off. In-between fighting mooks on ground level, players risk getting incinerated by the plane's bottom exhaust which can damage their health. They can either dash past it or jump upwards and smash the exhaust to pieces.
