Draft:Slap Happy Rhythm Busters

Slap Happy Rhythm Busters is a fighting game developed by Polygon Magic in 2000 for the Sony Playstation. It features 21 playable characters and a unique rhythm-based super mechanic.

Gameplay
Similar to other 2-dimensional fighters, Slap Happy Rhythm Busters is a motion-input based fighting game centered around long combo-strings. Each round of Rhythm Busters sees each character start with one super-meter already filled, with a maximum of three meters able to be held at once.

While supers, referred to in the game's manual as "Rave Attacks," are similar to those found in other fighting games, each character is also given access to an alternative super known as "Beat Combo." Beat Combo is a special move that, upon hitting the opponent, places the user into a rhythm-based minigame where they must press one of four directional buttons in time with the game's music. Once the minigame is concluded, the opponent will take a variable amount of damage based on how well the attacker performed in this minigame.

A common feature to characters in Rhythm Busters is the appearance of left-right motion inputs, similar to charge characters in other fighting games. Unlike charge characters, however, these inputs do not need to be held, allowing this input method to effectively replace half-circles. Similarly, the commonly used "dragon-punch" input found in other fighting games is instead replaced two downward presses.

Slap Happy Rhythm busters features a roster of 21 original characters, with 10 of these characters being unlockable through the game's single-player mode.