Tattoo Assassins is an unreleased 1994 fighting game developed by the pinball division of Data East for release in arcades. A few prototypes were test-marketed, but the game was never officially released. Spearheaded by Bob Gale and Joe Kaminkow, Tattoo Assassins was designed to be Data East's answer to Mortal Kombat. As the game was essentially completed before it was cancelled, the game is easily obtainable and playable with some minor gameplay and sound glitches. Downloads and rare prototype test cabinets containing near-final versions of the game can be played. A limited number of prototype cabinets of the game were released to test markets in 1994.
Development
Tattoo Assassins was developed to compete with the popular Midway fighting game franchiseMortal Kombat. The project was spearheaded by Joe Kaminkow and Bob Gale and put into development at Data East Pinball for a planned arcade release. Using the same style of digitized graphics as Mortal Kombat, Tattoo Assassins featured real-life actors fighting each other with violent moves and combos. Most notable is that the game claims to feature 2196 finishing moves, including some nudity-based finishers and animal-based finishers. Some included dropping a DeLorean car onto the opponent, turning the opponent into a hamburger, and massive diarrhea. Each of the characters had magical tattoos, which came to life when they performed special attacks and finishing moves. Even though the game was never completely finished, EGM posted an in-depth article with moves and information about all of the characters.
Fighters
The following is a list of the fighters that appeared in this game:
A.C. Current – A cyber mercenary who is wanted by his former employers after an industrial espionage double cross.
Billy Two Moons – A stereotypical Native American character who is a fugitive from the U.S. government. He bears a resemblance to the character of Billy Jack. The Mortal Kombat 3 character Nightwolf also bears a resemblance, even lifting a few of Billy's moves for his own.
Deke Kay – A fighting zombie who is one of the sub-bosses.
Koldan The Conqueror – A large man with a gloved hand with giant hypodermic needles in the fingers. The final boss of the game, he seeks to create an army of mutants and enslave the human race.
Maya – An Amazonian warrior woman who is battling land developers for control of her people's homeland.
Prizm – A light-based crystal monster who is one of the sub-bosses.
Rhina – A half-woman, half-rhino creature who is one of the sub-bosses.
Takara "Tak" Hata – A former Yakuza assassin who is wanted by both the Yakuza and Japanese police after being framed for murder.
Truck Davis – A biker who is the lone survivor after his gang is slaughtered. He seeks to avenge the death of his comrades.
Two other non-fighter characters that appear in the game's story are Mullah Abba, the spiritual leader of the Order of Colors who discovered the mysterious ink used by the fighters, and Lyla Blue, a mysterious woman who is used as a channel by Mullah Abba to allow the player to control one of the assassins in combat.
Cast
Eddi Wilde – Billy Two Moons
Kevin Knotts – Truck Davis / Koldan
Charlie Rice – Luke Cord
Melanie Baer – Maya
Rick Mali – Takara Hata
Gretchen Stockdale – Hannah Hart
Maurice Travis – A.C. Current
Cristine Dupree – Karla Keller
Nicolas Andrews – Derek O'Toole
Joanna Lee – Rhina
William Zipp – Deke Kay / Prizm
Mark Urgello – Mullah Abba
Marushka Wilde – ???
Rene Hudson – Lyla Blu
Production and legacy
Internal development strife, management problems, deadline woes, and negative feedback from testers contributed to the game's troubled development and eventual downfall. With similar games like Killer Instinct and Primal Rage performing well, competing chances of Tattoo Assassins were slim and it was never put into production. Even though the game was never released, several prototype models were produced for testing in arcades. Nearly two dozen machines were produced for the AMOA show in San Antonio in 1994, but most were later destroyed. Two machines reside at the PAPA headquarters, and a few others may exist in the wild. Tattoo Assassins was also reviewed in Next Generation; the reviewer panned the game for poor synchronization between controls and characters, sometimes choppy animation, and most especially the game's "extraordinary lack of any real innovation." In addition, the game's ROM has been dumped for use with the MAME arcade emulator and is available on the Internet.
