Sometime in the 22nd Century, a giant magnetic wave has devastated most of Asia and Europe, the governments have dissolved, chaos and anarchy reigns...until powerful Megacorporations arise to take control of what's left, by restoring most of the affected zones and building Space Stations...and two Megacorporations stood out among the others: the first one, PHATTY, establishes on Hong Kong; and the second, Tenkai, controls Tokyo. PHATTY and Tenkai were being at odds with each other in a regular basis, but when Tenkai stole something very secret from PHATTY, the two were about to go on a full-scale war. With disastrous consequences for the very few good people that is being oppresed.
Enter Kikumaru Sakakibara, a martial artist and former mercenary with proficiency in the staff, who was relaxing in his house when a Femme Fatale, named Rim F. Hackman, enters and persuades Kikumaru to join her so they can find the secret that was stolen from PHATTY. With that secret, they should be able to bring the two Megacorporations down at once. So Kikumaru accepts the offer and enters a partnership with Rim to destroy the two corrupt governments.
If you want to play, be warned that this game contains some mild nudity.
Edge provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Femme Fatale Rim, who fights with two swords as her weapons of choice.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: As if pointing a gun at Kikumaru was not enough, Rim kisses him to make him swallow a "micro-machine" containing a virus that would melt his brain if he disobeys Rim, or if Rim dies. He accepts, but with another condition added: another kiss with her without the micro-machine, along with a full course when it's all over. Rim then says that if he succeeds, she will consider it.
- Badass in Distress: Rim gets captured after the leader of Tenkai gets killed, and the next level has you infiltrate the headquarters of PHATTY to rescue her. She's not playable until after you rescue her.
- Bait-and-Switch: After the murder of the Tenkai boss and Rim's kidnapping by Shunghong Lee, you would expect that his bodyguard, Yukikaze, would be playable for the next level (specially after beating him as a boss). But that's not the case here, you have to go through the next level solo.
- Big Bad: Tenkai, leader of the eponymous Megacorp (until his death at the hands of Lee and her henchmen to become the Final Boss).
- Bittersweet Ending: Kikumaru and Rim defeat Lee and destroy the Brain Eater. But the impact from the Space Colony has left many parts of Asia in rubble, and Kikumaru still has the Brain Eater capsule with the virus. However, the reconstruction effort has already begun and many lives have been saved regardless. And Rim decided to keep Kikumaru alive to "protect her" for a very long time. Kikumaru agrees with that, and its implied that he will have its "full course" with Rim after all.
- Blocking Stops All Damage: A rarity for a Beat'em up, with a dedicated Block button. You can even dash and block some attacks.
- Cast from Hit Points: As with all Beat'em ups, pressing Attack+Block at the same time with execute a crowd control move, draining a bit of health.
- Checkpoint Starvation: Some stages (especially Stage 2), are divided in many sections that don't have any checkpoints. The game only saves after clearing a stage.
- Classic Cheat Code: There's a cheat code to select your starting level (for the curious, press Shift, X, and Z keys while selecting CONFIG in the Title Screen), but your life bar's length will have only the starting amount. And the Final Boss does have all of the maximum life bar. Good luck
with that! - Continuing Is Painful: You only have one life, and if you die you have to retry the stage again, even if you lose a boss battle.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Some bosses can be defeated without losing too much health by blocking at the exact time and then attacking rapidly, but since the special crowd control move also involves those two buttons...
- Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Although the levels are not too difficult, the bosses are, because of the mechanics of the Life Meter. There're very few Bottomless Pits in all the whole game.
- Eldritch Abomination: Shunghong Lee's One-Winged Angel form after absorbing the EDGE.
- Find the Cure!: The other reason for Kikumaru to accept Rim's mission is that the secret stolen from PHATTY contains data about the virus in the micro-machine that Kikumaru was forced to swallow.
- It's Personal: Rim used Kikumaru and tried to kill him after defeating Yukikaze because he allegedly killed his partner, Wen Dimira, Rim's boyfriend.
- Leg Focus: In the opening cutscene, Rim is dressed in a purple coat while she's teasing Kikumaru, and the camera ''starts'' in her legs. This extends to Rim's sprite, with her Leotard of Power battle outfit.
- Life Meter: At the start of the game, you only start with a small life bar and the only way to increase it is by finding Health Canisters inside floating machines Contra-style.
- Mirror Match: After you infiltrate PHATTY's HQ, you get to fight Wen Dimira, a mercenary who has many of your moves (and no, he doesn't get hurt by using the Special Attack).
- Older Than They Look: When Kikumaru questions Rim about if she is too young to work as a mercenary, Rim reveals to Kikumaru that she is 23 years old.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The first boss is nearly impossible to beat unless you know when you have to block.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In both sides of the conflict. Rim wanted to kill Kikumaru as revenge for the death of her boyfriend. But after Lee obtains the "Brain Eater" from Tenkai, she orders her men to knock down and capture Rim.