Let's talk about beat'em ups.

If one is willing to count overheard view games as part of the genre, Gaiapolis is a very good brawler slash RPG.

Yeah, Code Of Princess is one. I quite liked it.

ALL CREATURE WILL DIE AND ALL THE THINGS WILL BE BROKEN. THAT'S THE LAW OF SAMURAI.

Because I am an unapologetic masochist, I bought another Beat 'em Up of... Questionable quality. This time it was Knights Contract.

Suffice is to say I'll be doing a breakdown of it like Death By Degrees. It's a lot like that game, in that it's got a strong scaffolding holding up polished walls built on a foundation that is fundamentally broken beyond all measure.

Senran Kagura Burst will be localized for 3DS.Another beat-em-up to enjoy soon.

Was unimpressed by the anime*

, but the trope page indicates the game is a lot better and the anime suffered from Adaptation Distillation by way of tuning up the fanservice and ignoring most of the more serious story elements the game has.

Hopefully a demo will be released so I can try it. I'm still on the fence about Code of Princess since I wasn't terribly fond of how Guardian Heroes played.

edited 6th Aug '13 4:32:32 PM by Customer

Awesome. Lookin' forward to it!

ALL CREATURE WILL DIE AND ALL THE THINGS WILL BE BROKEN. THAT'S THE LAW OF SAMURAI.

Good. More non first party 3DS stuff is always nice.

x4 "Burst"? Is that some sort of Updated Re-release or is it a sequel?

edited 6th Aug '13 7:46:03 PM by PhysicalStamina

It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.

It's a sequel with some newer things that were meant to be implemented in the first game but weren't due to constraints (such as the ability to play as the rival school's characters and 3D dressing rooms).

edited 6th Aug '13 7:57:46 PM by Customer

Hmm. Interesting... I guess.

It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.

Well, at least it's not pretending to be anyting else.

@ Post 277: Oh god, this. I find to Streets of Rage 2 to be the most overrated beat 'em up of all time. Partly for this reason, but upon playing it again, I was reminded of other things that annoyed me about this game:

• 1. You can't preform those tag team moves or break free from enemy attacks. It's so annoying when an enemy grabs you from behind and you can't throw them off.
• 2. Mania difficulty is cheap to a fault. Enemies attack absurdly fast and the bosses are too cheap. It's almost as hard as the third game to the point where it's unplayable, because like Vertigo High mentioned, there's too much input lag.
• 3. Only two characters are good in this game - Axel and Blaze. Skate's okay, but later levels he's a chore to play as and Max is useless because he moves TOO DAMN SLOW. I know you can slide, but you shouldn't even have to do that.
• 4. More personal opinion, but I found the soundtrack overrated. For every good track like Go Straight and Under Logic you had crap like Ready Funk.

Of other note, I said eariler that I feel that the NES TMNT beat 'em ups haven't aged well. I'm starting to think that the original arcade hasn't either. That hit detection is so floaty... at least on NES versions I can hit enemies.

edited 11th Jun '14 4:52:25 PM by Psychopulse

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

According to SOR Online, you break from hold by pressing b or c 10 times. I remember being able to do it pretty consistently when first playing Sonic's Midly Adequate Rom Dump, though not so much anymore.

Funny, I remember regulars on the game's gamefaqs board agreeing that either Axel or Max are the best while Blaze is the worst. Max's slide makes him the fastest and his back suplex/drop does an insane amount of damage.

Won't comment on Mania as I haven't played much in that mode. I'll just say I found the default difficulty way too dull and easy after a while.

I very much agree with you about TMNT, though. Like X-Men, it strikes me as a game that's fondly remembered for its production values and the strength of its license rather than any merits it might have.

Because that's exactly the point; the people who're fond of the original TMNT arcade game (and The Simpsons, and ''X-Men, though I feel the latter gets it due to being cheesy) are mostly those who grew up around the original 80s cartoon and around arcades. Not to mention that playing a game with three other friends cooperatively was rarer in those days.

Neither the NES game nor the arcade game have aged well, but I still prefer the NES version since it was the first time I've played the "arcade game".

...I believe we're gonna have to fight.

Also

Special moves take care of that real quick.

I still think 2 is the best of the series. Probably mostly because of nostalgia, but the other two games just didn't... click with me the way 2 did. 1, being the first, obviously, felt like it was missing something. It's like going back to Sonic 1 and having to adjust to the lack of a spindash, just didn't have that... spark 2 did. I dunno if it's the far less memorable soundtrack, or the bleaker environments, or even the significantly harder difficulty, but I just felt "eh" about it when I played it. When I think of Streets of Rage, 2 is the one that sticks out in my mind.

edited 18th Nov '13 10:47:31 AM by PhysicalStamina

It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.

@ Glowsquid and Physical Stamina: We must not be playing the same game then, because this never happens ever. They grab you and there's nothing you can do about it. It's cheap and removing it was a dumb idea.

Also, Listen to Battle Circuit, Violent Storm or Undercover Cops (Japan or Alpha Renewal Version) if you want soundtracks that blow Streets of Rage 2 out of the water. You'll thank me later.

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

I'm just going from memory. I can recall getting grabbed from behind, doing Blaze's backflip kick move and shaking him off.

Also, I checked out those other OSTs you mentioned. Out of the two songs from Battle Circuit I could find, only one really clicked with me, mainly because it reminded me of Parliament. Violent Storm was gloriously cheesy, but I don't think I'd go back to listen to its OST. Undercover Cops kinda reminded me of Gunstar Heroes, but besides that, it was just decent. I've yet to hear anything else that can stand up to jams like "Expander", "Back to the Industry", "In the Bar", or the unused "Walking Bottom".

edited 18th Nov '13 10:59:03 AM by PhysicalStamina

It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.

Seriously, get MAME and a Battle Circuit ROM to see what you've been missing out on. That's not even the full soundtrack.

I never held Streets of Rage 2 in high regard as the best beat 'em up ever, mainly because I found the first two games to be extremely cheap, especially when it came to bosses.

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

1CC run of Arcade Turtles in Time, the American version. I'm learning things about this game I never would've imagined that were even possible.

edited 31st Jan '15 7:22:26 AM by Psychopulse

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.

Superplays: Adding depth to your game since '89.

ALL CREATURE WILL DIE AND ALL THE THINGS WILL BE BROKEN. THAT'S THE LAW OF SAMURAI.

it's a shame X-Men Arcade and Simpsons Arcade were removed from digital stores without any warning.

That's digital for you...

edited 22nd Dec '13 1:47:16 PM by johnnysasaki

Aw really? That's a shame (and it reminds me of when they suddenly removed the ''Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled" game from PSN).

Has anyone heard any news on what's going on with Senran Kagura? I haven't seen anything since it was said that it'll be localized...

Yeah,most people hated Re-Shelled,but if you don't try to compare to the original versions of both the Arcade and SNES the whole time,it was still a fun game. Senran Kagura was released in November for the 3DS digital-only,and apparently it sold well.

FUCKING Konami.

ALL CREATURE WILL DIE AND ALL THE THINGS WILL BE BROKEN. THAT'S THE LAW OF SAMURAI.

Huh? -goes to check-

Weird, I never saw it advertised on the eshop at all, can't find it without having to search for it. Ah well, if I get an eshop card for Christmas, I'll be getting it and another game on the cheap. Thanks for answering.

And yeah, I actually enjoyed Re-Shelled when I played it, though at first I was annoyed at the lack of music from either the arcade game or the SNES port. Once I realized it was based on the arcade version, I had more fun with it. Unfortunately, I had to replace my PS 3 and I couldn't find the game again to redownload.

Now I wonder if that Out of the Shadows Turtles game (the one where the turtles look off, not the one based on the recent cartoon) is any good (I saw Proton Jon's critique of it, but still, it didn't seem that bad when I played the demo).