I have always been a fan of Beat 'Em Ups since the days of Renegade and Double Dragon on the Spectrum and C64. Arguably the genre hit it's peak in the 16 bit days, with Capcom unleashing a whole host of arcade fighters that were ported to home consoles, Sega releasing the fantastic Streets of Rage trilogy and a host of other companies working on their own violence fests. Lets use this thread to discuss these games (and lets NOT let it descend into console wars). I appreciate a lot of these games will have been discussed fully elsewhere, but I though it would be cool if we can have a thread devoted to this most unfashionable of genres.
First up thanks to the recent re release of the Streets of Rage games on XBLA (complete with all regions versions, and various filters and new challenges) I have spent the last few weeks playing all three games again.
The first game will always be a favorite of mine, and while I accept it feels a little slow and clunky nowadays it's still a great game which is one part Final Fight, one part Double Dragon and one part Sega attitude. It always felt more gritty than Final Fight with it's brutal weapons, pounding music and ability to napalm everyone with the smart bomb that you can use (even inside a factory and on a high elevator funnily enough). Oddly I still think this is the hardest game of the series, with the later installments giving you loads of powerful special moves to overcome the bad guys. SOR stuck to more basic moves but at the time they were still pretty unique, including the ability in two player mode to grab your partner while they boot the enemy.
In terms of levels we have standard beat 'em up fare here, from the urban nighttime scene, through to the industrial themed level and the staple of the genre, the lift section. To it's credit the lift section is a little different here as you can actually throw people over the side if you position yourself near the right of the screen, which makes it a fun level before the onslaught of the final boss rush corridor (where police helpers can't help you).
One last thing that I HAVE to mention is the music. I can't decide if the soundtrack is better than SOR2, but if not then it comes pretty close. Fantastic tunes that suit the game perfectly, and it has the best boss music of the series for sure. Nothing is as cool as hearing that siren type sample as the Freddy Krueger clone appears for the first time. Or the big freaky looking dude in the first level with his boomerang.
First up thanks to the recent re release of the Streets of Rage games on XBLA (complete with all regions versions, and various filters and new challenges) I have spent the last few weeks playing all three games again.
The first game will always be a favorite of mine, and while I accept it feels a little slow and clunky nowadays it's still a great game which is one part Final Fight, one part Double Dragon and one part Sega attitude. It always felt more gritty than Final Fight with it's brutal weapons, pounding music and ability to napalm everyone with the smart bomb that you can use (even inside a factory and on a high elevator funnily enough). Oddly I still think this is the hardest game of the series, with the later installments giving you loads of powerful special moves to overcome the bad guys. SOR stuck to more basic moves but at the time they were still pretty unique, including the ability in two player mode to grab your partner while they boot the enemy.
In terms of levels we have standard beat 'em up fare here, from the urban nighttime scene, through to the industrial themed level and the staple of the genre, the lift section. To it's credit the lift section is a little different here as you can actually throw people over the side if you position yourself near the right of the screen, which makes it a fun level before the onslaught of the final boss rush corridor (where police helpers can't help you).
One last thing that I HAVE to mention is the music. I can't decide if the soundtrack is better than SOR2, but if not then it comes pretty close. Fantastic tunes that suit the game perfectly, and it has the best boss music of the series for sure. Nothing is as cool as hearing that siren type sample as the Freddy Krueger clone appears for the first time. Or the big freaky looking dude in the first level with his boomerang.
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