Ludography
Metamorphic Force cover

1993 · Konami · Beat 'em up

Metamorphic Force

Nintendo console exclusive

The Evil King has risen from the dead to rule the world once more. The Greek goddess Athena has summoned the souls of four ancient guardians and bestowed their power upon four heroes to stop the evil once again. These guardians wield the ability to shift into anthropomorphic beasts to fight their enemies.

Released
1 August 1993
Platforms
ArcadeNintendo Switch
Genres
Beat 'em up
Developers
Konami
Publishers
Konami
Modes
Co-opSingle-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Action
Country
Japan

About

Metamorphic Force is a 1993 beat 'em up video game developed and published by Konami for arcades. It was released in Japan and North America in August 1993. It is one of Konami's last side-scrolling beat 'em up games to appear in arcades, along with Violent Storm.

Hamster Corporation released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in October 2024.

Keywords

  • greek mythology
  • brawler
  • anthropomorphism
  • bonus stage
  • shape-shifting
  • monarchy

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game's four main characters are able to morph into anthropomorphic "beasts" (referred to as Beast Mode) by collecting a Golden Statue power-up which drops from either a random chest that falls from the sky, or through an anthropomorphic rodent appearing at random times and supplying the player with either a Health Item, Score Item, or Gold Statue. The rodent will drop power-ups after a certain period of time, or if the player attacks him, similar to the elves in Golden Axe. When the players collect a Statue when already in Beast Mode, the character performs a "Screen Attack" destroying all on-screen enemies (if the Statue is collected during a boss fight, the boss is hit hard and usually twice).

The enemies are also anthropomorphic creatures such as frogmen, elephant men, lizardmen, hedgehog men, boar men, and others; and include bosses such as Cabrios the Ram-Man (similar to the pagan god Baphomet) armed with a Scythe, a Flaming Chicken-Man who wields a Sword, an Amazon Demoness, and the Dark Dragon. At the end of Stages 2 and 4, players enter a bonus stage (destroy a statue or a string of regular enemies) which awards them extra points and health.

Story

The year is 199X A.D. and the Evil King Death Shadow, ruler of the Empire of Horror, has arisen from the dead to rule the world once more. The Greek goddess Athena has summoned the souls of four ancient guardians and bestowed their power upon four heroes to stop the evil once again. These guardians wield the ability to morph into anthropomorphic beasts to fight their enemies.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Metamorphic Force as the 17th most successful table arcade unit of September 1993. In North America, RePlay listed the game as the 19th most popular arcade game of December 1993, and Play Meter listed it as the 54th most popular arcade game of January 1994. In Europe, the game was selling well through January 1994.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Arcade1 September 1993Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Ported as
Arcade Archives: Metamorphic Force

Games like this

Collections1 collection

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.