Shuihuzhuan: Liangshan Yingxiong (The Water Margin: Heroes of Liangshan) is a 1997 arcade-style Beat 'em Up game developed by Panda Entertainment, a somewhat obscure and short-lived Taiwanese company.
Owing to the success of Capcom's Romance of the Three Kingdoms-based duology, Dynasty Wars and the follow-up, Warriors of Fate (both which were well-received in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, predictably), Panda Entertainment decides that yes, they'll need their own arcade game based on another Chinese literary classic.
But with Oriental Legend (based on Journey to the West) released the same year, Panda Entertainment decides to adapt another Chinese epic instead, that being The Water Margin note . Loosely based chapters 6th to 11th of the novel - Framing of Lin Chung in White Tiger Hall - players can choose between five heroes lifted from the book's pages, to re-enact the chapters arcade game-style.
Players can choose between:
- Lin-Chung, the Panther Head (豹子頭林沖) - expectedly, since the game's adapting chapters featuring him as protagonist, he's the Jack of All Stats main character for players to use;
- Lu Zhishen the Flower Monk (花和尚魯智深) - Lin Chung's bestie, both in the game and novel, a chubby, boisterous monk and The Big Guy;
- Yang Zhi the Green Faced Beast (青面獸楊志) - formerly an enemy of Lin Chung, who bonds with the Outlaws of the Marsh after his defeat;
- Jing-er the Cunning Spirit (鬼精灵锦兒) - the handmaiden of Lin-Chung who's secretly a martial artist investigating the corrupt Senator Gao while posing as Lin's servant.
On the Journey to Mount Liangshan...
- Acrofatic: Lu Zhishen, the chubby Flower Monk, can move with surprising speed. There's also the temple's boss, a hugely overweight corrupt monk who can pull off a Dash Attack.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Jing-er went from a handmaiden in the novel to a very competent ass-kicking martial artist who beats up plenty of mooks using her metal hoops.
- Gao Ya-nei is hardly a fighter in the novel, relying on framing Lin-Chung and fleeing in panic when things go south, but his game counterpart is a dangerous boss near the final stage.
- Gao-Qiu in the source material is a Corrupt Politician, but nowhere a physical threat. Here, he's depicted as the High Commander of the rebel army and the difficult Final Boss.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: The underground mausoleum has closing walls that the player must repeatedly hit to avoid getting crushed.
- Amazon Brigade: Gao Ya-nei have his personal legion of female bodyguards who fights unarmed, but can still dish out some hits. They tend to be far more agile than male mooks.
- Ascended Extra: In the novels, Jing-er is merely a minor handmaiden serving Lin-Chung. She's one of the game's major heroes, likely to fulfill The Smurfette Principle (after all, Oriental Legend had the Dragon Princess...).
- Barefoot Poverty: The civilians seen in the game's backgrounds are often barefoot, to depict how corruption within the Song Dynasty's ruling government thanks to Gao-Qiu's takeover have destroyed their lives. Especially evident in one stage set in snowy winter.
- Battle Butler: Gao Ya-nei's manservant, Fu-An, who offers to fend off the player when his boss makes a run with Lin-Chung's wife. Despite being a servant he's quite capable as a boss.
- Booby Trap:
- White Tiger Hall is loaded with traps, from fire-breathing bronze tiger heads to spiked walls and pitfalls.
- Gao's gardens contains statues of Chinese dragons... outfitted with flamethrowers.
- Border-Occupying Decorations: In the initial version, the screen is badly compressed within a bronze Oriental-style frame
(with the stage's title written on top), probably due to it being a low-budget game. A re-release a year later removed the frame. - Broomstick Quarterstaff: Some of the monks in the temple stages are armed with brooms, though it's downplayed that they're not very good fighters.
- Canon Foreigner: The first stage ends with a Dual Boss, Zhang-San and Li-Shi, neither whom are from the novel. They're given ridiculously generic names, too - Zhang-San and Li-Shi is basically the Chinese Dynastic equivalent to "Tom, Dick and Harry".
- Continuity Nod: The first stage is set in the same temple Lu Zhishen used to serve as a monk (before the corrupt Abbot and his mooks took over), and the background's wall is notably collapsed. In the novel, Lin Chung first met Lu Zhishen after watching the former's staff training in the temple over a fallen wall.
- Degraded Boss: Most of the earlier bosses return as common enemies, and in later stages they can be encountered more than one at a time.
- Dual Wield:
- Zhang-san carries two bronze hammers during his fight.
- There's an acrobatic mook enemy who carries two torches at the same time.
- The Final Boss, Gao Qiu, carries two axes as big as himself.
- Frog Men: Oddly enough, the marsh stages contains frog-people who leaps out of the water and attacks with their Overly-Long Tongue. They're definitely not from the novel.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Low on health? There's always fruit baskets, sticks of roast, a whole chicken, and even ginseng that can be consumed to restore the Life Meter.
- Panthera Awesome: The White Tiger Hall's inner sanctums are inexplicably guarded by fierce tigers. They're presumably bred by Gao Ya-nei for security purposes. More tigers appears as above-average mooks in the woods.
- Recurring Boss: Gao Ya-nei, who pulls a Screw This, I'm Outta Here when his health bar is reduced to a fraction in his initial boss battle. He returns later in the mansion's exit, with twice the health.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Gao Ya-nei have a squadron of soldiers carrying shields painte3d with tiger faces. They're among the few enemies who doesn't get knocked over instantly by projectile-based attacks.
- Sword Beam:
- The unnamed Traitor General boss can release a spear beam which deals extra damage.
- Gao Qiu can unleash an ax beam from both his bronze axes.
- Warrior Monk: Lu Zhi-sheng is a monk and a perfectly capable fighter, just like his literary counterpart. The temple also contains corrupt fighter-monks as recurring enemies.
- Weapon Specialization: All the characters wields weapons identical to their literary counterparts, save for the handmaiden Jing-Er who isn't a combatant in the novel but is given a hefty Adaptational Badass.
- Lin Chung, a retired soldier, uses his trusty spear (a weapon widely associated with said character in all adaptations)
- Lu Zhishen, being a former monk and the largest playable character, swings his hefty monk spade.
- Yang Zhi, descended from a line of generals, uses his trusty saber, presumably the same saber he nearly sold in the novel.
- Jing-er, the sole female playable character who relies on Waif-Fu uses two blunt metal hoops allowing her to grab and ensnare enemies.
- We Can Rule Together: Lu Jian, one of the bosses (in the novel he's an Evil Former Friend to Lin Chung) will make this deal before his boss fight. Which the player instantly rejects, being more interested to slice up a traitor than to join him. Cue boss fight.
