I’ve always kind of felt similarly about Legacy of the Wizard. I really like the idea of it and I enjoyed watching friends play it when I was a kid but I’ve never really played it much myself. Faxanadu, on the other hand . . . .
Also, if you haven’t tried Astalon, I found it to have some of the same type of appeal and I take any opportunity to recommend it.
Completing my PS2 Brawler round table is Urban Reign by Namco. It is…the worst one of these? The immediate impression is “is this an uglier Bouncer but good?” No. It is mission based and every level is just a fight between 1-3 guys. You have one guy in a snake-skin jacket because Nicholas Cage made a real impression on Japanese game developers.
The problem is it is open-movement Tekken. So every guy you fight is as strong as you and also a Tekken character. Once you get hit, it is 3 Tekken guys bouncing up your body till your life gauge goes to zero. Oh you stood up? Well you got hit so much now you are dizzy.
The plot is a hot Asian girl has hired you to beat all the other gangs. it is the bluest skies of any of these games with great chunky characters. It is also however miserable to play. Somehow this chart ended up:
Bouncer > Beat Down Fists of Vengeance > Final Fight Streetwise > Urban Reign
I don’t think Bouncer is even a good version of the Bouncer. There’s probably 1 or 2 strictly Western developed games that fall into Gritty Urban Brawler.
at your second end of 100 days you get to choose the cowards way out, or to fight to protect the people you have been committing genocide on, even despite someone from said people destroying everyone you were doing the colonization for. the latter seems like the correct choice, both morally and in terms of how satisfyingly the game handles it. all your blood powered kids have to sacrifice themselves to make it possible. what a great way to wrap things up.
i mean, im not stopping here, but that would have been an acceptable end to all of this.
The Warriors
Oh Yeah! My 15 year old memories says that one rocks.
Mine as well! This period of Rockstar with Bully and Table Tennis is my favorite.
if you play warriors though make sure you play with someone it’s so much better two player (the game is good but gets repetitive sometimes and playing co op will alleviate it a lot). also it feels like it’s made for Co op. like that’s playing as intended
Oh yeah and the tag battle where you try to graffiti more spots is really fun.
Where do people stand on Rockstar’s infamous State of Emergency?
it’s a demo
I almost put it in that flow chart then decided against it. It is racist and it has pants on head level social commentary. I got to experience every contemporary review of the game where the first 30 minutes are “fun” then right at 31 minutes you click and “wait this sucks and is boring.”
It’s a demo.
are you only interested in modern urban setting beat em ups for this expedition, rudie? raging bless/blades is pretty good, but it’s fantasy
urban reign is actually awesome and the game isn’t bad just because it’s extremely hard and rewards mastery. namco used to love making ps2 games you had to spiritually dedicate yourself to completing. the later boss fights are amazing you have to pull out every stop to defeat them. The home gamer’s getting her ass kicked incessantly by randoms at fighting games experience. also the multiplayer is sick.
hundred line…
despite everything i was not prepared for pregnancy ending
sometime i wonder if i’ll be learning the names of PS2 games i’ve never heard of as an old lady on my deathbed
Doctors all trying to check for breathing and they lean in close and all they hear is “what the hell is ‘Stretch Panic’?”
i am now concerned this game may have “romance paths” where takumi hooks up with various other characters. this is wrong because takumi is not supposed to hook up with anyone (except eito)
