Collection essentials #335: Three Dirty Dwarves (Saturn)

Here’s a fun game that’s not usually one of the first titles mentioned when talking about the Saturn and what it has to offer. Three Dirty Dwarves is a “beat ‘em up”, an arcade-style game, but was never released in arcades, only coming out on the Saturn and later PC. 

The story is pretty weird. There are these four children who were created through genetic engineering in a military installation. They are geniuses and created another actual dimension in order to play a role-playing game. There is a gate between that dimension and the real world, and the children wish to use their three dwarf avatars from that world to come save them in the real world. Many monsters follow the dwarves through the game, so they must defeat them on their quest to save the kids. 

Up to three players can team up to take on this game. But even if only one person is playing, all three dwarves are on the screen at all times. When one or two players are playing, they can switch control of the dwarves at any time, though with three players each person is locked to one dwarf. What’s cool is that this game doesn’t use the typical “hit points” system to determine how many hits a player can take before death. When a character gets hit, they become dazed, and can be revived if an active player goes up to them and gives them a whack. So you can technically take infinite hits as long as you keep getting revived. Despite that, the game is pretty darn challenging.

Beat ‘em ups are prone to getting repetitive in an extended play session, but luckily Three Dirty Dwarves sometimes mixes things up with a level or boss that plays differently. For example, there’s a mine cart-riding level and a baseball level where an enemy pitches to you and you have to hit the ball into other enemies to destroy them.

Three Dirty Dwarves is a great choice for a multiplayer game with its fun co-op gameplay and some wacky enemies that provide extra amusement. Three players is kind of an awkward number for video games since local multiplayer usually expects there to be either two or four players. This is one bright spot for that neglected middle number, and one that I’ve enjoyed firing up with friends every now and then.