4/5 ★ – RawMetal's review of Beast Busters: Second Nightmare.

System: Arcade Started: February 12, 2024 Ended: February 12, 2024 I saw the first Beast Busters game at the Arcade. However, the light gun was faulty and needed recalibration since I could not aim the reticule upwards at the screen monitor. Luckily, they have the sequel, Second Nightmare running and it's working well. I never heard of this game, but I saw the SNK logo and This was SNK’s response to Sega’s The House of the Dead. This is my first Beast Busters game and it is a shame it did not get the attention it deserves. This game plays almost like The House of the Dead, as you infiltrate a science facility and exterminate every zombie and giant monster you encounter. The arcade cabinet does not look anything special except for the light-gun you use and it's weird since it fires like a machine gun, but to reload, it's pump-action like a shotgun. You pick up powerups and bonuses like grenades and special ammo to make this an explosively good time. The gameplay for this is straightforward zombie killing mayhem. There is destruction, zombies with guns trying to kill you, attack dogs, and even bugs as you blast your way to the end of the level and fight a boss. The Boss fights lets you shoot and attack their weak spots quickly, or else you take damage, but once you have grenades left over, taking them down is easy. For its linear story and design, Beast Busters: Second Nightmare tries to be different by adding over-the-top destruction such as zombies riding on motorcycles and even crashing through glass windows as if somebody threw them at you. The power-ups were fun to use. What gets me the most is that you can summon a beam satellite from outer space to eliminate all enemies on-screen, which always makes me laugh at how crazy this game is. I instantly became hooked from start to finish. This is like House of the Dead, but on crack. It's got zombie gore and pure destruction throughout. The Final Boss Finale for this game was spectacular, and it really went overboard with its epic zaniness. This is SNK’s lost franchise that was never mentioned except in hardcore gaming circles and it needs to be resurrected. Looking at the first game, this one was completely different with its transition to 3D and filled with zaniness and here is a slight downgrade: only two players can play this while the first game can be played by 3 people. This was a matchmade game for me, but the problem is that this game was terribly short and I wanted more of it. I could possibly understand that SNK made this game short due to huge differences between this and the first game as the first 3D-style Beast Busters and it looks a little bit more like The House of the Dead games, so they don’t want to pour too much budget over this. Plus, the late 90’s and early 2000’s was a dark time for SNK for bankruptcy until Playmore acquired the company. Beast Busters 2 was a great light-gun shooter and this might be hard to find in any local arcade. Since this was my first Beast Busters game I played through, I had to look up this franchise afterwards to see if there were any sequels after this. There was a Neo Geo Pocket Color exclusive, Dark Arms: Beast Busters 1999 and the latest entry, which got the Breath of Fire treatment, was a mobile game titled Beast Busters featuring KOF as a crossover game to King of Fighters, but it's not available in the App Stores anymore, so emulation is the way to go. If Sega ships out the recently released House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn, SNK can make another Beast Busters game and have it be Arcade exclusive.