Who are the beat-em-up kings, and when are we gonna get there?

Have I posted about anything but beat-em-ups in like, a month? That's what I've been playing and I write about what I play. If you don't like it, well YOU CAN JUST GIIIIIIIIIT OUT!

So with the weekly beat-em-up posts covering such eccentricities as Growl and Undercover Cops and more serious posts targeting obscura like Sengoku 3, you may be asking: is he ever gonna talk about a game I've played before? We name-drop Final Fight every two seconds but haven't taken the time to write about it or explain why it's classic - the main reason being that I don't feel like playing it because I don't enjoy it. But we are eventually going to cover some of the beat-em-up kings for context, not because I think they're necessarily better or more important than anything else, but to get a sense of grounding for the seemingly arbitrary selection of titles we've been covering. So who ARE these so-called beat-em-up kings, and what makes them so royal? Are they basically the same thing as a burger king?

Final Fight (Capcom)

Well, if you ask anyone at all to name one beat-em-up, they will say "Final Fight". That's it. That's like asking for "one fantasy trilogy" (Lord of the Rings) or "one crime film" (The Godfather). It's the answer ingrained into the popular consciousness. The classic. Further, if you ask for one beat-em-up developer, you'll probably get "Capcom" (developers of Final Fight). Oddly enough, there's no single other particularly high-profile beat-em-up attributable to Capcom, though they made a slew of other conservative, well-respected arcade and SNES games, many licensed with semi-obscure properties: The Punisher, Aliens vs. Predator (which was just a comic book at the time), Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (yet another comic), Knights of the Round, King of Dragons, so forth. They all play pretty similarly, most are only two or three player, and most are pretty fun, though very similar to Final Fight. The two real gems in the Capcom crown are their later Dungeons & Dragons games, 1993's Tower of Doom and 1996's Shadow over Mystara, featuring complex special attack and defense mechanics, RPG-esque class balance, and great four-player teamwork. To get some Capcom representation into the mix, we'll be featuring Cadillacs and Dinosaurs this very week, chosen because I've heard people like it.

Aliens vs. Predator (Capcom)

Knights of the Round (Capcom)

If you ask for a second beat-em-up after Final Fight, the answer'll depend on who you're talking to. Someone who knows their classic gaming and is more the type to go back and play these games now will most likely say Streets of Rage 2. Ragey Rage 2 is sometimes thought of as the last great beat-em-up [citation needed], the culmination of all the ideas of the genre before it descended into the excess that would characterize its later years (magic systems, combo systems, dungeons). It's refined with just enough special inputs not to be confusing and a steady stream of new and interesting enemies, and decked in great graphics and tunes. The original Streets of Rage was sort of the game that proved original home beat-em-ups could be a thing (and was one of the first great Genesis games) and Streets of Rage 3... well no one really likes that one except Golem. Of course, the Streets of Rage series was developed in-house at Sega, whose name resides on another classic that often transcends the beat-em-up label and is probably best remembered by people who "were there": Golden Axe. Golden Axe is the worst game I've ever played, but people like it, so :shrug:. So Sega: they're beat-em-up king #2. Since the Streets of Rage series deserves a lot deeper than Weekly Beat-em-up coverage and the Golden Axe games are the worst three games ever created by human hand, we'll be taking on a slightly more idiosyncratic Sega beat-em-up: Alien Storm.

Streets of Rage 2 (Sega)

The Worst Game Ever Made (Sega)

People from my generation, kids who grew up knowing superheroes from cartoons rather than comic books or movies, would probably be quicker to name the works of a third developer: Konami. I'm sure if I asked my non-gamer brothers to name an arcade game, they'd instantly respond either "X-Men", "Turtles in Time", or "The Simpsons". At a time when licensed games were largely shit (they still mostly are I guess), Konami took the biggest licenses and turned out faithful co-op games that you could play with three (or even five!) friends or strangers. Maybe it's just me, but was anything bigger for kids in the early '90s than X-Men and Ninja Turtles? These games feature shockingly colorful graphics and a wide cast of characters starring all the cartoon favorites (well, most all... by the time I was playing X-Men Dazzler was a thing of the past and I always wondered why the sixth playable character wasn't a more popular mutant like Beast or Jean Grey (technically I get why after looking it up: Dazzler was in the lineup in the 1989 pilot episode of a cartoon that failed to materialize until 1992, after the game had released). The Konami games are a feast for the eyes and feature simple, easy to grasp mechanics; their challenges are oriented more around huge casts of enemies. There are a few original Konami beat-em-ups as well, but they're pretty seriously obscure. Konami mostly stuck to the arcades, but their TMNT games were lucky enough to see home versions - the lesser-known Genesis adaptation of Turtles in Time, TMNT: Hyperstone Heist is the first game we'll be playing from Konami.

X-Men (Konami)

TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, SNES version (Konami)

We certainly can't complete the Beat-em-up King Final Four without mentioning Technos. Technos is the developer you're least likely to know by name, but who is most significant in the historical development of the genre. And though you may not know the developer, you probably know the games - most of all Renegade, Double Dragon, and River City Ransom. While Final Fight gets the credit for genrefying and mainstreamizing it, it's Technos who invented the beat-em-up. Their 1986 arcade/NES game Renegade is without a shadow of a doubt the first beat-em-up, introducing multi-hit enemies, the X-Y isometric movement plane, grappling, combo attacks, positional attacks, and just about all of the dynamics of modern action combat. We'll talk more about Renegade later in the week. Double Dragon took that a step farther with more complex input mechanics (punch AND kick), picking up weapons, two-player simultaneous co-op, continuous left-right scrolling, and an overall more dramatic and dynamic narrative structure. Double Dragon II further tweaked the formula (creating somewhat of a hybrid between Renegade and Double Dragon), introduced more variety in boss fights, and brought co-op play to home consoles; simultaneously River City Ransom was bringing beat-em-up gameplay to an adventure/RPG structure. Without Technos, the beat-em-up would not be - as far as I'm concerned they are the ultimate King of the Hill. Unfortunately, after Double Dragon II, very few of their games made it outside of Japan (they didn't even develop the wildly unpopular Double Dragon III), and the few that did (like The Combatribes and Shadow Force) struggled to find an audience in the post-Final Fight world. We will be playing a lot of Technos games because A.) they're historically important B.) I like them a lot and C.) unlike the previous three developers, they show substantial internal variety. Most likely the first we'll play will be The Combatribes, as it's fairly accessible.

Renegade (Technos)

Shadow Force (can you not see the logo in the image?)

So those are, as far as I'm concerned, the four "main" beat-em-up developing kings. Are they the best? Are their games the best? That remains to be seen (I'll give you a hint: in some cases yes, in some cases no). Keep watching the Weekly Beat-em-up to find out out!

Update: Since this was a bit of a beat-em-up historiography, it was pointed out to me that maybe it'd be a good idea to list where you can play some of these games today. Here are some legit places to cheaply buy the games mentioned in this post:

On Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network you can find mostly online-equipped versions of:
--Final Fight arcade version (in Final Fight: Double Impact)
--D&D: Tower of Doom and D&D Shadow over Mystara (collected in Chronicles of Mystara)
--Streets of Rage 1, 2, and 3 (separately, no online play, XBLA only)
--Golden Axe arcade version (no online play, XBLA only)
--X-Men
--The Simpsons
--Formerly you could find Turtles in Time, but it has been taken down

In Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and PS3 you can find the Genesis versions of:
--Streets of Rage 1, 2, and 3
--Golden Axe I, II, and III
--Alien Storm
Please - if you own a PS3 or 360, buy Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection! It has 30+ great Genesis games including the entire original Sonic series, all of Streets of Rage, the Shining Force games, the Phantasy Star series, and a couple hidden gems too! It even has save states and full control customization (far better than Nintendo Virtual Console). And it's only ~$15 on Amazon! This is absolutely the best way to play these games.

On the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console you can find the NES/SNES/Genesis versions of:
--Final Fight 1, 2, and 3
--Streets of Rage 1, 2, and 3
--Golden Axe I, II, and III
--Alien Storm
--Renegade
--Double Dragon I and II
--River City Ransom
--The Combatribes

The remaining games can be emulated using MAME. I will leave it up to you to find MAME and discover where to find ROMs - with the power of today's internet, it should only take a minute. So anyway, check em out!

Sunfish Gets Shmupped, is Mistranslated

You know what space shooters need? Smooth scrolling and twitch gameplay. Coincidentally, do you know what computers couldn't provide in the 80s?

But, for reasons I haven't looked up on Wikipedia yet, Konami loved the MSX (itself an 80s gaming computer). Two of their classics, Metal Gear and Snatcher, debuted and each received a sequel on the machine. And heck, Nemesis (Konami's knockoff of their own Gradius series) showed up on MSX, so they weren't unfamiliar with putting space shooters on the machine.

So, it's not entirely bad news that Konami developed Space Manbow for MSX and decided to never remake it ever. It runs remarkably well, competing with the NES; it runs at a speed the NES could've handled, but with less flicker and only slightly less fluidity.

The game's name is explained in a comic provided with the manual, which you can read in English here. Er, here. The enemy's mother ship is a giant sunfish-shaped ship. Basically, Konami wanted "mambo", but ended up with "manbow." Incidentally, Mambo from the Parodius series is a throwback to this very game.

Powerups mark the most noteworthy element of Space Manbow, straddling the line between Gradius and something normal. On one hand, Gradius' red capsule system grants stability. You'll never miss a laser upgrade or an option because you missed a particular enemy; there's only one kind of pickup, and it predictably moves your powerup selector forward on a clearly defined list. Also, you'll never accidentally pick up a powerup you don't want, since you'll only gain a powerup once you hit the A button. If you don't want the tail shot, it's as simple as not hitting A when your powerup selector is on the tail shot.

On the other hand, Gradius loses convenience. Upon starting a new game, half of your attention is devoted to making sure you collect enough red capsules to earn the laser you want. In other shooters, getting a powerup is as simple as crashing into the appropriate icon.

In Space Manbow, powerups appear in a predetermined sequence. First comes the weapon upgrade, then the speed up, then the option, so on and so forth. Each time you spawn a pickup, it will be the next in the line. If you miss the chance to spawn a pickup, no big deal; the sequence of pickups won't advance until you get one to appear. Unlike Gradius, though, you won't have to save up a whole bunch to get what you want. The option is always going to be the third one in the line, no matter what.

Observe:

This video also demonstrates that Space Manbow is open to squirrely gameplay.

I die over and over, and yet the challenge is never unsurmountable. Ric Viper never tarries too long on a single continue point, almost always making decent headway before slamming nose-first into something or other. I've only cleared the first four stages of eight, but from what I've played, a little thought and a good thumb go a long way.  Throw in infinite continues, and you can feel free to ram your head against an obstacle all day with the confidence that you will eventually get somewhere.

But it probably won't take you all day. You can see in the video that my deaths are pretty dumb. There's no need for planning anything in this level. It's obvious what enemies are going to do, and so long as you stay in the middle of the screen, you'll have the time you need to react to anything. Come to think of it, it's even generally safe to hug the back of the screen.

Take, for instance, the elevator portion at 2:21. This looks like a good time for some memorization, but the sequence has enough predictability to avoid that need. Platforms move down at a constant rate, and openings appear on the sides at a regular interval.

Another notable instance of predictability comes in the digging level. Background objects appear and show you where dirt will shortly spawn. The cue gives you plenty of time to put your ship right where you want it.

Anyway, the elevator sequence also avoids the need for any particular equipment. You might think that space is so tight that you'd need options planted backwards to handle bogeys behind you. However, if you corral the enemies properly, you'll have plenty of space to maneuver without shooting a one down. I haven't yet seen a portion of Space Manbow that will always destroy you if you come in with nothing but the shirt on your back.

On that note, Space Manbow is one of the few old school shooters I've played where stages have distinct character but don't require analysis. Enemies aren't mindblowing--there's the guy that spawns cronies, the guy that shoots three ways, and so on--but levels are paced slow enough and designed to emphasize one or two enemies over the rest, granting each its own feel. Stage 2 is the level for guys that shoot three ways but stick to the floor or ceiling. It doesn't hurt that levels generally have a unique asset like level 2's elevators or level 1's docked fighter planes.

Space Manbow may have a bloated reputation, but it's definitely a cool guy. It makes the MSX (MSX2 to be precise) look better than it is, and more than that, it finds a unique place among old school shooters for its powerup system and stage design. While nothing innovative, Space Manbow shows what can be done with smart use of familiar elements.

Wait I didn't notice this was animated when I linked to it

In conclusion, I really like Space Manbow, but there's kind of several different reasons why, so this writeup doesn't have a ton of focus, but I want the Wii Virtual Console version to come out here (although it's doubtful, being four years old as of this writing).

Let's Listen: Sound Samples

On olden game consoles, sometimes synths alone didn't do the trick. In that case, you'd load up a real live sound, compress it to fit on the cartridge, and slap it on in a song.

Snake's Revenge - Metal Gear

When I mention Konami NES samples, you might think of Double Dribble's opening voice clip. However, Konami had some great snare samples that they used in their shmups, brawlers, and, well, this game. Snake's Revenge is the sequel that never should've been to the Metal Gear port that also never should've been. While its soundtrack is rough around the edges (for Konami fare), it's still enjoyable.

This track in particular must understand that all you want to hear is the snare, because at 0:29, it just piles on as much as possible. Aside from that, the track is one of those quick and shallow tunes that keeps your blood pumping with a few really tight bars.

I know I said that it's rough around the edges, but that's not a knock against the soundtrack's production value; that aspect is just as top notch as your standard Konami NES OST, and you can really hear it in this song.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Mid-Stage Boss

Who doesn't like getting to join in music? Maybe you whistle to the Mario Kart Wii tracks that have whistling in them. Or, maybe you listen to the Sonic 3 midboss music and join its voice samples, the Michael Jackson yelps and "come on"s. I've always preferred the funk edge of Sonic 3's soundtrack to Sonic & Knuckles' flavor, and it was a shame that Sonic 3 & Knuckles ditched this track in particular. Anyway, don't let anyone hear you enjoying this song.

Gimmick! - Happy Birthday

Sunsoft has some killer bass samples that create a sense of badassery in Blaster Master and gravity in Journey to Silius. (Also check out Sunsoft's Batman games on NES.) However, I recently realized that they used the same bass in Ufouria, a relatively cheerful game, so I wanted to see how happy Sunsoft got with their bass.

It's harder to get happier than a birthday--in fact, "happy" is in the track name. The bass here doesn't sound bad, since it's well composed and plays a decent role in the song. However, it still feels out of place to have such a deep, gritty bass in an otherwise upbeat, happy-go-lucky song. Maybe I've spent too much time playing Journey to Silius.