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The '90s were probably best known as the golden age of side-scrolling beat-'em-ups, such as Golden Axe, Final Fight, and of course, the unofficial king of this genre, the Streets Of Rage (aka Bare Knuckle) series.
I don't remember playing many games of this kind in MS-DOS, but I do remember playing Cyberlaw, developed and published by a Spanish company, Balance (aka Bal@nce), in 1997. As with my other two reviews, I won't be able to tell you anything about the music, since this is a CDrip that I'm reviewing.
Cyberlaw has all the elements that a beat-'em-up should have: easy controls, enjoyable gameplay, and lots of baddies to be beaten. You can choose between three characters without names -- which, I think, is not such a big deal. One of them is a female robot, with more speed and less strength; the second one is a male robot, with more strength and less speed; and the third one is a human character (or a humanoid cyborg?). As you might have already guessed, he is the balanced one. There are 6 stages in the game, and all of them (except one) are separated into sub-stages. On some sub-stages you're given a choice of routes. So, depending on your choice, you can finish the stage smoothly or end up beating more baddies than you wanted.
The graphics are excellent: super VGA in all of its glory. The game is a very successful combination of 2D and 3D graphics that resemble those in Rise of the Robots, but with smoother animation. Highly detailed characters and stages will make you ask yourself, "Is it possible that this is an MS-DOS game?"
The sounds are well done, especially the screams of the characters when falling off the elevator in the third stage.
There are adjustable options, such as the violence (blood) level, difficulty, speed, and so on. The options are partially in Spanish, but you'll manage to find your way through. When you start the game, you can redefine the controls for both players, so yes, there is a cooperative mode. Besides the arcade mode for 1 or 2 players, you can play survival mode and see how long you can endure the influx of enemies. The only problem with Cyberlaw is its difficulty, so I suggest playing the game on easy - it's challenging enough. Oh, and the ending could have been better...
In the end, I'll say that Cyberlaw is a great mixture of Rise of the Robots-style visuals, gameplay reminiscent of Streets of Rage, and Mortal Kombat-esque violence (that is, if you set the blood level to maximum). I highly recommend it!
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