I always wondered, what happened to the "beat 'em' up" genre? It's one that hasn't carried over from past generations.
Is it because it's too repetitive for today's gamers? (Right-Right-B-B-B -Right-Right-REPEAT). Has our games gotten so advance that there is simply no room for it? If so, then why do platformers still exist? Or, is there simply no more room for it to grow? To innovate?
Oh, how I miss the old days. I use to love playing co-op with my brother. *tear*
@NeVeRMoRe666: It lives on in the small-scale world of free unlicensed games.
There's a fairly large group of people still making Beats of Rage mods, some of which I daresay beat a lot of the "Official" games today.
@NeVeRMoRe666: Reviewers bashed awesome games like Dynamite Cop and Zombie Revenge. "It's too short! I can beat it in an hour!" Idiots like that missed the point, and poor scoring on excellent titles only serves to kill developer interest in churning out more beat-em ups.
The Warriors and Castle Crashers did well enough, so maybe the market would be receptive for a revival. It's difficult to believe considering those are basically the only two original beat-em ups out in about a decade now. :/
@NeVeRMoRe666: Well, you could possibly argue that it's evolved in a 3D environment with action games like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. Of course, the co-op aspect is usually missing, which is no good.
@NeVeRMoRe666: The way I see it, beat-em-ups sort of didn't age very well with other genres in the '90s. While other games got longer and friendlier, beat-em-ups, which were largely tailored for arcade settings, did what they did best, even if it didn't necessarily transition to the home setting.
For the $50~$70 that mainstream cartridge games ran you then (damned if we'll even start on the Neo-Geo AES), beat-em-ups were a poor value; they were too short, too hard, and very linear, non-dynamic. Not a good buy.
The irony of it was that there were attempts made to deal with these flaws up front, in which case you got titled like (the non-arcade) Final Fight 2, which bored me even in my easily-entertained youth. (One innovation that worked well and large exception, although slightly on the easy side, can be found in the obscure Super Ninja Boy.)
The genre flourished though, albeit constrained to the arcade. Capcom continued to make wonderful games on the CPS2, which saw less and less of a home conversion effort (Alien vs. Predator, anyone?) and eventually became exclusive to the place altogether (Battle Circuit, my personal favorite of the genre.) Outside of Japan, the genre sort of died along with arcades and after a point, even the companies gave up.
I'd consider this decade's action titles a natural evolution of the genre, such as DMC or Bayonetta, yeah. But there's been a surprising amount of more traditional entries recently, with games like Spyborgs, and remakes/ports like the one above. A good deal of this resurgence could probably be owed to Castle Crashers, which, ironically, I thought was awful...however, the simplistic action suits the budget pricetag/distribution very well, and it may be more of the latter innovations than one title/"brand name" kickstarting it.
@NeVeRMoRe666: Beat 'Em Ups do still exist. They're just not as present as they once were, thanks to gamers considering the repetitive.
Meanwhile, FPS that involve no strategy other than "Shoot, shoot, shoot" are somehow not considered repetitive and are the most popular thing since sliced bread.
The closest we have to modern beat 'em ups are the Dynasty Warriors/Sengoku Basara games. Many of the elements of the beat 'em up genre have carried over into these games.
I've also just started playing Watchmen, and while it is unpolished and the combat is a bit weak, it still feels like a modern beat 'em up and has co-op play.
(I was actually working on an Open Beats of Rage mod myself - a Darkstalkers beat 'em up.)
@Witzbold: I love this stupid game. I never finished the damn thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but did the game disallow continues after a certain point?
Final Fight got played to DEATH when I had it on the Mega CD. But I can see it being one of those games that wouldn't hold much of my attention if I were to play it now. At least LIVE and PSN are getting the arcade version. Wii owners would have to make do with that horrid SNES port.
@Pornosaur: I didn't really like the Simpsons or Turtles in Time. I loved the first one when it came out, played it over a year. I'd argue though that X-Men was better than the TMNT games. Hell, Cap and the Avengers was pretty great too, seemed a Marvel license made a great beat-em-up at the time.
@Karlott: Basically I'm saying I think Konami owned the beat them up vs Capcom. Although I'd take the Technos 4 player beat them up that wasn't a Double Dragon deal.
Two of my all time favorite CPS1 games right there! I have lost count of how many times I finished Magic Sword. I wish some of this Capcom retro love would hit the Wii...
oh man, does this mean we could see some of capcoms other beat em ups on live or psn?
id pay high dollar for final fight 2 and 3, alien vs predator, punisher, cadillacs and dinosaurs, the dungeons and dragons games, and battle circuit.. especially with onlilne c0-op.
now konami and sega need to bring some of their classic arcade beat em ups to live or psn.
@shouryuuken: No kidding, who do I have to send a letter writing campaign to for the D&D arcade games getting released with online multiplayer support?
10:24 AM
The more you know!
11/30/09
Is it because it's too repetitive for today's gamers? (Right-Right-B-B-B -Right-Right-REPEAT). Has our games gotten so advance that there is simply no room for it? If so, then why do platformers still exist? Or, is there simply no more room for it to grow? To innovate?
Oh, how I miss the old days. I use to love playing co-op with my brother. *tear*
11/30/09
12:01 AM
There's a fairly large group of people still making Beats of Rage mods, some of which I daresay beat a lot of the "Official" games today.
12:04 AM
The Warriors and Castle Crashers did well enough, so maybe the market would be receptive for a revival. It's difficult to believe considering those are basically the only two original beat-em ups out in about a decade now. :/
12:05 AM
At least there's Castle Crashers.
12:10 AM
12:27 AM
For the $50~$70 that mainstream cartridge games ran you then (damned if we'll even start on the Neo-Geo AES), beat-em-ups were a poor value; they were too short, too hard, and very linear, non-dynamic. Not a good buy.
The irony of it was that there were attempts made to deal with these flaws up front, in which case you got titled like (the non-arcade) Final Fight 2, which bored me even in my easily-entertained youth. (One innovation that worked well and large exception, although slightly on the easy side, can be found in the obscure Super Ninja Boy.)
The genre flourished though, albeit constrained to the arcade. Capcom continued to make wonderful games on the CPS2, which saw less and less of a home conversion effort (Alien vs. Predator, anyone?) and eventually became exclusive to the place altogether (Battle Circuit, my personal favorite of the genre.) Outside of Japan, the genre sort of died along with arcades and after a point, even the companies gave up.
I'd consider this decade's action titles a natural evolution of the genre, such as DMC or Bayonetta, yeah. But there's been a surprising amount of more traditional entries recently, with games like Spyborgs, and remakes/ports like the one above. A good deal of this resurgence could probably be owed to Castle Crashers, which, ironically, I thought was awful...however, the simplistic action suits the budget pricetag/distribution very well, and it may be more of the latter innovations than one title/"brand name" kickstarting it.
Okay, I think I digressed like 3 paragraphs ago.
01:20 AM
Meanwhile, FPS that involve no strategy other than "Shoot, shoot, shoot" are somehow not considered repetitive and are the most popular thing since sliced bread.
The closest we have to modern beat 'em ups are the Dynasty Warriors/Sengoku Basara games. Many of the elements of the beat 'em up genre have carried over into these games.
I've also just started playing Watchmen, and while it is unpolished and the combat is a bit weak, it still feels like a modern beat 'em up and has co-op play.
(I was actually working on an Open Beats of Rage mod myself - a Darkstalkers beat 'em up.)
11/30/09
12:28 AM
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11/30/09
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11/26/09
This a pretty cheap job, it's just the arcade rom on an emulator.
11/26/09
11/26/09
Final Fight is one of my all time favorite games, I've been waiting for Capcom to re-release it!
Any one who's not played really should at the very least check out the demo!
11/26/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
id pay high dollar for final fight 2 and 3, alien vs predator, punisher, cadillacs and dinosaurs, the dungeons and dragons games, and battle circuit.. especially with onlilne c0-op.
now konami and sega need to bring some of their classic arcade beat em ups to live or psn.
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
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