that Last Battle screencap is av-worthy
Is it really that hard to do in 3D?
- Sega showed that the formula works fine with the Dynamite Deka/Cop games (and at least a large chunk of any Yakuza game).
- The huge number of Musou/Dynasty Warriors games are more or less the 3D evolution of the ābelt scrollerā.
- Even stuff like the Arkham games and their many clones are gussied up beat-em-ups, Arkham in particular innovating battle mechanics with the well implemented (and often imitated) counter system.
- Iāve always felt like Crackdown could have been a free roaming 3D Streets of Rage.
As for 2D classic stuff:
Maybe I missed it, but no one mentioned Technosā Shadow Force? Really colorful and ambitious game, intricate 6 button move set (reduced to 3 buttons in the Japanese arcade release since a lot of the attacks were similar enough). Worth checking out.
It hasnāt really aged that well, but as a kid I was always blown away by Segaās arcade Spider-Man. Was really cool how they had massive (for the time) sprites and then zoomed the screen way out for some light platforming (Shinobi-esque) segments.
I was just playing Double Dragon Advance this weekend, this thing needs to show up on Virtual Console or something. Very well done āremakeā of the original Double Dragon, including the good elements of the sequels and new levels (8 total). And itās beautiful. Really the only complaint I have is that it would be cool if there was a mode that only included the remade original arcade levels. And an FYI, ports of the arcade Double Dragon and Double Dragon II are available on PS4.
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platinum games are basically belt scrollers, even moreso now that theyāre cranking them out on a template (bayonetta -> revengeance -> transformers -> turtles).
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The argument/counter-argument to why 3D brawlers donāt work are the SpikeOut games and nothing else (especially not the Deka games, which are essentially 2.5D games). Which is to say that they can work, but you have to put a decent chunk of thought into it and consider that some of the limitations/tropes of the genre fall apart in a free-roaming, 3D space
My favorite 3D brawler is Dark Souls.
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Worth noting that the Mark III version of Fist of the North Star, alongside his port of Space Harrier, is widely cited as the game that put Yuji Naka āon the mapā prior to him working on Sonic the Hedgehog
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Also when Mark III FotNS was localized for the US Master System it got major visual changes and became āBlack Beltā. I really really loved that game back in the 80s, and still have a soft spot for it.
Good comparison here: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/hokutonoken/blackbelt.htm
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so between Monster Maulers, Red Earth and Metamoqester, there was obviously a Thing (besides name localization). Fightman beastbrawls. There are a few other less convincing candidates listed here:
http://www.progettoemma.net/indice.php?catver=118
are there any examples of this not in arcades? Surely some obscurity from the 32-bit eraā¦
not quite tangentially, but similarly niche, are there any beatems that take inspiration from Astra Super Stars, DBZ occasional, Twilight Frontier Touhou or any other flighters? All that comes to mind is Advanced Guardian Heroes, barely.
Dig those spell incantations. Since I know you were looking out for art and music, the credits call out the artists and composer by name in case you wanted to do some leg work.
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Impossible. A Rastan game with a walk cycle that isnāt a dumpy shuffle?
(This Replay Burners YT channel is excellent, btw.)
What the heck - this is like a hundred times better than any of the Golden Axe games I played.
yeah, I remember playing revenge of death adder in an arcade as a kid and being surprised by how much worse the genesis game my friend had was. I donāt think itās great by any means but the sprite work is actually nice in a conan-the-barbarian sort of way and the different mounts add a lot of personality.
Iāve been pretty deep into Dragonās Dogma lately, and I love how it feels like someone at Capcom decided to make a really ambitious modern sequel to Tower of Doom/Shadow over Mystara. Shame thereās no D&D license, because Iād love to see some owlbears.
Arenāt owlbears covered in the open-game license? I want to see more owlbears in everything, honestly.
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Youāre right! Beholders and Mindflayers for whatever reason are withheld though.
I prefer the terms ābrawlerā for the belt-scroller variety, and āwalk-and-punchā for the strict side-view ones.
Streets of Rage 1 and 3 are great. 2 is overly long and unvaried. And it just feels like a concession to facile complaints about the original. Even the music ā still pretty good, still in the same style as the original, but now drawn out, less melodic, and overall less interesting or memorable.
Whereas SoR1 is concise and slick and pretty varied (and has that crazy cop car), SoR3 is super experimental. The music, which is awesome by modern standards yet sounded like pure noise back then, is pretty representational of the experience.
I always like the part at the start of level two in Double Dragon, where you can climb the fence. That never comes up again, yet it lends the game so much vitality.
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I expect you mean NES? The arcade version isā¦ not something I would rave about. Itās so weird. Itās basically the first game again, with the exact same levels, except bleaker and with a less intuitive control scheme, making it even harder to play for less reward. The NES game, though, does plenty of new stuff compared to the original game. Probably the best achievement in that series, on a design level.
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Something worth mentioning: DJ Boy. Not because itās good, but because I always used to confuse it with Fatal Fury. The first time I played The King of Fighters, I mistook Terry as the character from this thing.
Fatal Fury is interesting as well, as in much the way of Final Fight it is a follow-up to Street Fighter (by some of the same staff) developed in the midst of a brawler boom. Versus fighters werenāt really A Thing until SFII caught on, and Fatal Fury was under development at the same time. So, there are several curious concessions to the prevailing trends here: multiple planes, recalling the belt scrolling of Double Dragon et al; multi-player co-op against a common threat. A real hybrid game, from just before the genres all got codified in stone. Itās sort of like a brawler boss rush, which really is what Street Fighter II presents at first as well.
Yeah. The NES version of Double Dragon 2 is amazing.
Mechanically itās tight and crunchy. I like that it gives you the option to mash while making it obvious that timing your moves is the way to go. And then it goes back again by letting you āsaveā any mistakes by mashing. That violent knee really pulls it all together. Itās gorgeous.
But the absurdity in the story development is what really has cemented the game as one of my favorite games of all time. When you fight the first boss and he disappears and reappears you know something weird is up, and it just gets weirder and more fantastic. The eyes in the temple kill me every time. And I swear to god I know where the final boss is when he quite literally disappears. Likeā¦ how unfair is it to make an enemy just turn invisible while he can still wail on you? But somehow itās totally 100% playable.
I had a friend who swore by the TG16 CD version or somethingā¦ I always wanted to play it, but I never could find a way.