Night Slashers | 1993

Night Slashers is a beat 'em up arcade game developed and published by Data East in 1993. A remake for major platforms is in development with Forever Entertainment. A Nintendo Switch port was released through Johnny Turbo's Arcade from 2018 to 2023.

Night Slashers is a typical side-scrolling beat 'em up similar to Capcom's Final Fight and Sega's Streets of Rage series. One to three players move through each level from left to right, fighting enemies until they reach a powerful boss character. After defeating a boss, players automatically progress to the next stage. Enemies appear from entrances on both sides of the screen and from the background, and players must defeat them to continue. If a player tries to pass through a level without fighting, the screen will stop, and they must defeat all current enemies to proceed. Each stage has a time limit.

Unlike Final Fight, Night Slashers features three characters with a larger move set and has a horror theme. Players must battle various monsters, including zombies, mutants, vampires, werewolves, and elementals. Bosses are characters resembling mummies, golems, mad scientists, Dracula, the Grim Reaper, and Frankenstein's monster. Players must stop the evil plan of King Zarutz, who seeks to turn Earth into a realm of the dead. One distinguishing feature of this game compared to other beat 'em ups is that enemy names do not appear on the health bar during battles.

In the Japanese version, blood and gore were not altered (green blood instead of red), while the overseas version offers options to adjust blood color and violence levels. At the end of close combat attacks, Christopher holds a cross instead of a blue crystal ball, and the "Go" arrow reads "To Hell!" in blood. Cutscenes include additional artwork and dialogue.