Top Ranking Stars is a 1993 arcade boxing game developed and released by Taito, known in North America as Prime Time Fighter. Running on Taito’s F3 System hardware, it pits six boxers from around the world — including Japan’s Shouichi Kanou, America’s Michael Eldorado, and Brazil’s Storm Viper — against each other in an open-weight title tournament, blending traditional side-view boxing with Street Fighter-style special moves triggered by joystick motions.
How to Play
Win each three-round bout by draining your opponent’s stamina bar, which is split into three segments. Emptying a segment knocks your opponent down, and three knockdowns in one round ends it; surviving a round refills the bar and restores some health. In the browser, move and guard with the Arrow keys, and throw light, medium, and hard punches with Z, X, and C. Each fighter also has unique special attacks performed with directional joystick commands, similar to a fighting game — Shouichi’s signature move, the Stardust Upper, comes out of a fireball-style motion. Press Enter to start and Shift to insert a coin.
Tips
- Blocking works by holding a direction away from your opponent; releasing it fires an immediate counter-punch, so use guard actively rather than just to soak damage.
- A knockdown restores some health, so landing body blows to force one can be a useful way to recover if you’re behind on stamina.
- Save your strongest hits for the later rounds — with fights capped at three rounds, a well-timed knockout is often more reliable than trying to win narrowly on points.
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