Punch Out that Red Steel P3

Punch Out!!, like traditional fighting games do for 2D or 3D, gave us an expansive look at the mechanics that can be used in first-person brawling. It played up the attack/counter and illustrated how to make close-up combat an action-reaction chain, rather than relying on concerted combo strings as in more mobile games. Red Steel 2 brings some of those mechanics to life in an actual adventure, becoming more of a proper brawler than Punch-Out!!.

A quick remark: aside from branding, Red Steel 2 has nothing in common with Red Steel, a totally forgettable shooter from the Wii launch. I'm of the opinion that Ubisoft made a horrendous mistake marketing Red Steel 2 as a sequel, as it's clearly its own game, but that's another discussion. Just be aware that any time I say Red Steel in this article, I mean the second game - I've barely even played the first.

The elephantberg in the room is of course motion controls, but let me save that for the end of the discussion. As soon as the first baddies appear and you see the enemy-tally popup below your health bar, you'll know this game is a brawler. It's even so kind as to remind you with semi-invisible lazer-walls that block your progress until you clear the enemies. There's really no shooter left in this architecture; you enter a room, the foes roll out of the woodwork, and the dance continues until one side is lifeless on the floor. You'll engage enemies individually, but the threat of those surrounding you remains present.

The sword combat is a loose application of what we learned in Punch-Out!!, with horizontal/vertical slashes standing in for high/low punches and dodging becoming more free-form (since you can move in any direction). Attacking from the sides and behind becomes a major strategy, as does protecting your own flanks. The best expansion on the formula is the addition of special moves which translate a quick sequence of inputs into a scripted sequence of blows onscreen. This makes you feel like one of the opponents from Punch-Out!!, lending character and player-determined style to what would otherwise be a vanilla fighting-style.

Where Red Steel 2 really shines is in the immediacy, the sharp viscerality of the battles. Something I alluded to in my recent Dishonored post was the brutality inherent in being so close to your victims. While Red Steel 2 doesn't attempt any intelligent commentary on the violence, it does turn it into a furious whirlwind that flies by your screen so fast that you can't help but feel like a wicked samurai. This is where the first-person identification with your avatar becomes critical - you aren't watching a Dante-esque badass blow through a swarm of nasties, you yourself are bringing each one down individually. The impact this brings to a brawler goes beyond what it contributes to a shooter, because you're right there, speedily dashing and twirling around.

Sorry that I couldn't find a great gameplay video - most people apparently suck at this game or refuse to properly use the motion controls, instead trying to play it as an early Wii "waggle" game and thus not being able to do the moves properly

This would be a blast on it's own, but goes even further thanks to the Wii MotionPlus controls. The validity or usefulness of motion controls as a whole is a sea to sail at another time, but in a game attempting to draw you as close as possible to the violence, their contribution can't be overstated. Are they necessary to make Red Steel 2 work? I don't think so. The FPBing has enough going for it already. But the difference they make particularly to special moves is what sells the game. Especially when returning to a game after not playing it for a while, I'm always annoyed to have to remember that A-X-X-Y-X does the big fancy combo. It's a level of inapproachability. Here all you need to know is that if you want to do a left-right swing followed by a stab, you... do a left-right swing followed by a stab.

I'm gonna wrap up this discussion next week when I bring you up to date on Zeno Clash (which I bought last night) and maybe a bit more of Dishonored.

Punch Out that Red Steel P2: A meditation on First Person Melee

There may not be an established FPB (first-person brawler) genre, but if we wander through the annals of gaming history (okay) we'll stumble upon a few games that approach the notion, or at the very least contain elements of influence for the theoretical genre-to-be. The most outright, blatantly advertised-as-such game is probably Zeno Clash, but because that's pretty obscure and I've yet to play it, you'll have to hold your pants on while I discuss some games that anyone has ever played, Punch-Out!! and Red Steel 2. Please note that I'm more familiar with Super Punch-Out!! than its NES precedent, so I'll be using the franchise name to refer to the games interchangeably. They aren't that different.

So why the hell Punch-Out!!? Not only is the game not first person, but it's clearly a fighting game, not a brawler. It's so close over-the-shoulder though (your character is goddamn transparent!) that I'm willing to use my imagination and call it first-person. Since the camera is static, there's clearly nothing that would fail to translate to a first-person game. As for the dueling nature, come on guy. You know brawlers and action games are just wide-scale implementations of fighting mechanics! In 1992 the terms were completely interchangeable - Final Fight was liberally referred to as a fighting game, and Street Fighter as a beat-em-up. I don't think it's that hard to imagine a Punch-Out!! with three or four fighters in the ring, but the game was so caught up in being a realistic boxing simulation that Nintendo was afraid to cross that line. So let's look at the mechanics.

It's not obvious how to make a fighting game fun without bogging it down in Systems (look at Guilty Gear and it's Super-Counter this and Hyper Roman Mega Greek Cancel), but Punch-Out!! was way ahead of its time. Sometimes it's dismissed as a rhythm game, but that's not any fairer than calling Arkham Asylum the same thing. There are clearly rhythmic elements to the combat, simply because the interplay is reactionary. The player has to observe, look for patterns and openings, and respond with defensive and offensive maneuvers. A pure rhythm game requires fixed responses to cues - when you see an X on the screen, you press X. Punch-Out!! creates gaps for improvisation. If a jab is coming, you can duck, block high, dodge left or right, or counter-punch. Which to do is left to the discretion of the player and his overall strategy. Reflexes are key, but so is strategy. How do you outsmart your opponent and knock him into submission?

I make an Arkham Asylum comparison despite the fact that Punch-Out!!'s combat goes beyond that. It can't simply be transposed into a third-person overhead action game. The strategy of the combat plays up a relationship between the player and his opponent, a direct chaining of relentless action and reaction that keeps them locked face-to-face. There's no backing away, no running for cover - the tension is built because the battle is up-close and personal in a first-person perspective, because every missed opportunity is not just the loss of a hit, but a gained opportunity for the enemy.

This brings us around to the complexity of this enemy. The focused combat needs an opponent worth focusing on, something that can't be taken down by a repeated string of standard attacks. Attacks need to follow some structure in order to allow the player any strategy beyond blind reflex, yet a vast repertoire has to keep him on his toes. Punch-Out!! gives the combatants a flurry of moves to draw on, even more than the player has at his disposal, and distinguishes different opponents by their preference. Learning these preferences also serves to slowly build up the player's own skill-set, his understanding of how to deal with moves in every situation.

What says complex, sophisticated foe better than clown?

Punch-Out!! is a game offering a lot more than meets the eye. It's not a simple rhythm game and certainly not a boxing sim, but rather a first-person fighter that demands the same acuity and alacrity as its side-scrolling and third-person peers. A FPB could stand to learn from the complexity of Punch-Out!!'s opponents and the tension it builds with locked-in head-to-head battles.