Play Peace Keepers, The Online

Summary

The Peace Keepers feels like a love‑letter to classic side‑scrolling brawlers while slipping in a handful of quirks that set it apart from its Rushing Beat siblings. You start with four distinct fighters, each with its own balance of speed, power and special‑move quirks, and two hidden characters unlock later, expanding the roster to six. The combat system mixes the familiar punch‑and‑kick combo with energy‑draining specials and screen‑clearing super attacks that you can only unleash twice per continue, and a rare "angry‑mode" can turn a battered hero into a temporary invincible powerhouse.

What really makes the game stand out is its branching level design: most stages split into multiple exits, letting you hop between paths and even skip sections while still reaching one of several endings. The US version stripped out much of the original soundtrack and simplified the special‑move animations, but it kept the eccentric naming conventions – from Iago and Fnord to Snake Plissken Ave, Ozymandias Island and a hospital named after Robin Williams’ pseudonym. A nod to Brawl Brothers appears when a Lord J look‑alike shows up in Musashi Plaza, reminding longtime fans of the series’ hidden continuity.

Multiplayer isn’t just co‑op; a versus mode supports up to four players via the Super Multitap, turning the beat‑em‑up into a chaotic showdown. Critics were split – scores ranged from a modest 4/10 to a respectable 8/10 – but the game’s blend of branching routes, quirky references and solid brawler mechanics still earns it a nostalgic spot in the SNES library.

Storyline

Peace Keepers (known as Brawl Brothers in some regions) drops players into the year 2015, a few years after the 2011 “economic wars.” The world is dominated by the ruthless Deutschland Moldavia (DM) corporation, which rules most resources and conducts secret genetic experiments to create mind‑controlled slaves or monstrous super‑beings.

Four rebels have been twisted by DM’s research and now hunt the company for revenge. Flynn (called Dick in the Japanese version) transforms into a muscle‑bound powerhouse when badly injured and wields the Dragon Wave (Electric Shock in the Western release). Echo (Elfin) is a quick but fragile fighter who can perform a Frankensteiner throw and shouts a “Yaaaay!” as her Bird Storm special. Al (Kythring) carries a bazooka, relies on grapples like piledrivers, and finishes with the Assault Tiger. Prokop (Jimmy) is a slow, heavily muscled brawler who channels electricity for his Thunder Edge and delivers crushing wrestling throws.

Rick Norton—named Hack in Brawl Brothers and Jack Flack in Rival Turf—searches for his kidnapped sister Maria, though the American manual omits the details. He fights with a double‑hit German suplex and a Dragon Punch uppercut. The yellow combat robot Orbot, built by a defecting DM scientist, uses long arms to grab, a blue flame to burn, and can fire bullets like Al; similar robots appear as mini‑bosses. A brief cameo by Douglas Bild (Oozie Nelson/Slash) greets players at the start of the first level.

The final stage, titled “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!” nods to Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Flynn’s ending (when Norton is unavailable) quotes T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”