During the year 1996, arcades weren’t that popular. As dedicated arcades such as Aladdin’s Castle were not commonplace at that time, gamers played games like Daytona USA and Area 51 in movie theaters or minigolf places. A lack of action arcade games led to larger, more attractive cabinets with special gimmicks or fighting games that would take multiple people’s quarters.
Despite this, Cannon Dancer, or Osman has largely gone unnoticed. It’s still a far better Strider sequel than the one we originally got as a spiritual successor. It’s easy to recognize Strider DNA in Cannon Dancer – Osman, which features large colorful sprites, climbing abilities, and attack abilities.
In Cannon Dancer – Osman, your boss turns against you and leaves you in the desert to die. As well as getting revenge, you’ll face a kind of death goddess who wants to take over and/or destroy the world. The final level has an intense final level with nameless goons, robotic foes, out of control vehicles, and unique bosses. With its home console port, Cannon Dancer – Osman feels as close to the arcade as possible, and it holds up well against online emulators as well. Despite the wonky translation, the CRT filter settings, cheats, and enhancements more than compensate for any additional polish.
I could not tell if there was any significant difference between the two versions of Cannon Dancer except the untranslated text. Each game has two modes, Challenge mode, which is your standard Arcade mode, which has one continue, and Achievement mode. In standard mode, cheats and enhancements are available, including invincibility, unlimited continues, double jumps, and more. With practice, you may be able to overcome much of the initial difficulty curve of Cannon Dancer. With cheats, you may find it difficult to overcome some instant kill pits in later stages.
Although this relatively obscure action-platformer was released nearly 30 years ago, it’s still really cool to see it on consoles. It would have been great to have more supplemental material, background information, concept or flyer artwork, cabinet shots, etc. I would expect just a little more for the price, even though the cheats and enhancements are cool and borderline necessary. When it comes to 90’s arcade action games, you might want to wait for a sale, but if you enjoy Strider or other games like it, you might enjoy Cannon Dancer – Osman.
