Where does it says if the game has been updated?, i want to download it but i don't know if it already has the patch that solves the problem with the saving
So, just finished Arcade Mode on Normal with Gal. Died once before the final stage, but seven or so times during it, hah! Here's my toughts:
As fast as possible, get 100 coins, unlock Training Mode and get the Black Belt for your character. This is practically the actual tutorial of the game, and it teaches you what I would consider the core mechanics of your character and the game. Getting the black belt itself isn't all that necessary, but the consistency you build while trying to do the expert moves in under a minute will help you out a lot.
Enemies having too much health or Gal needing a buff... I don't think so. As a comparison for people who have already played the game, if you use your moves properly (as Gal), you can
Kill Electricats in a single combo
Reduce the normal enemy versions of T-Bison to almost-dead in a single combo
Tracy and General Tigar, the bosses from the very first stage, can be killed in three combos. Killing in two combos seems possible, but I have yet to try. On the same note, I have yet to do this as it requires very strict timing, but it looks like you can actually put enemies in a loop and keep hitting them... not even as a glitch, just, straight up. I'll most likely be wrong about this but gotta try it out first. If the most damaging combo you ever did was just the basic combo into special attack... your character can do way more damage than that, believe me! (You gotta learn to pull it off though)
Too many enemies... Once again, I don't think so. The above point helps with this a bit, but going from a hit combo to a throw by holding down or up during it really helps crowd control, and don't forget to go for follow up attacks after you throw them! In specific areas, you can be swarmed by too many enemies for sure, but those are actually somewhat avoidable instances. For example, in Death Island, if you don't go too far right before killing the enemies on screen, you don't have to fight more than two or three Thai birds at once. Same trick can be pulled off in Blades' stage, you can go through it while fighting four enemies at once at most. Against the three Dobermans in the last stage, you can hang out on the left and five mice enemies will come at you one by one, and the last two drop knives. If you use one knife to hit one doberman, then you only need to fight against one doberman at a time, as long as you don't go too far right. This might seem cheap, but three dobermans, two knives... seems intentional from the dev.
Gal needing a range buff... I feel like this feeling is a result of playing this game like it's Streets of Rage and not making use of the game's mechanics, Your running attack, jump attack, jump down attack and forward special are all combo starters, so I don't think she needs it. You can even do a run, and then let go of the direction button then attack to start from your basic combo (but that's mostly showing off, at the correct range doing your running attack into a combo would be better). Throughout all of the game, your very first hit in a combo should not be the hit from your basic attack, at least not against bosses or strong enemies. Always be on the run or be jumping!
Enemies during boss fights aren't all that bad. They can drop weapons, health or a hyper orb but more importantly, they can get in the way of some of the boss' attacks, like projectile attacks (Blade's knives, the final boss' gunshots...) or T-Bison's rush attack. Also, if you throw a boss into them, the small hit-stop thing that happens when the boss hits them allows you to combo the boss easier. Definitely look out against the whip girls though. I love this game and I could gush about it a lot, but I'll also give what I think are the game's bad points:
Tons of stuff that are locked. A lot of things have to first be unlocked to purchase by playing through the game, and THEN have to be purchased using coins. Even the tips have to be unlocked, you can't view them straight away! What the hell!? And you don't even know what add-ons are there until you unlock them. Easy mode is locked, has to first be opened by losing an arcade mode run and then costing five hundred coins to unlock... very stupid. Though I have to admit, I wouldn't have gotten as good at the game if easy mode was available from the start. You can even have CPU allies, but you have to beat the game first, and then purchase it with 1000 coins! Just insane... but I think I'll be replaying the game enough times to unlock everything, eventually.
Thai birds can lock you in the air with their rising knees if there are enough of them. If you don't escape, it's basically one life... so try not to jump as much against them, maybe? Or make sure you only ever fight two or three of them at once.
Some character designs, in terms of gameplay, are... uninspired. Ricardo is just Haggar, Norris is just Guy, General Tigar is very similiar to Vega/Bison/Dictator and Thai birds are just like Adon, both from Street Fighter... hell, the name of the game is probably from Final Fight and Streets of Rage! ...and that's about the only complaints I have, actually Finally, some tips and tricks (once again, these are as Gal):
Against Dobermans, the "trick" I found, is to do a running jump, and if you do it at a certain range (close to them, but not too close), you can catch their backdash with a air down attack. From there, it's a free combo, and they take like three or four combos to kill. Still dangerous enemies though
Against Attary/the two Servants before the boss... if they go for a throw and you notice it, get grabbed on purpose and escape using the jump button (you can just mash the jump button). Their big frame allows you to do a free combo right afterwards.
If you get hit by a bullet of the final boss' machine gun, start mashing left and right, you can easily parry all the other bullets with no timing.
Make sure to go for overkills, especially at the first stages, which give you bonus points, which give you extra lives... you're gonna need those lives if you want to finish the game without getting a game over!
Phew... it's early in the morning, so maybe I answer the wall of text later, but in terms of balancing, here is my oppinion: If I breeze through the game with the Minotaur but need the training mode with the black belt for Gal, just to beat normal mode, than the balancing is 100% off. The kickboxing birds at the beach-area for example: With the Minotaur, they didn't had a single chance. With gal, I lost 1/2 of my health against the first 2 birds. With the Minotaur, the long level-stretch till the knive-throwing rat-boss was really cool and cause his moves doesn't involve jumping around like a maniac, I didn't trigger half of the level at once. With Gal, I gave up at this part, cause it wasn't fun anymore to see enemy after enemy getting triggered and everything takes so long to get taken down. And yeah, like I said, if it involves getting an absolutely combo-pro to have a slightly chance at normal mode, than this char has serious problems. There should be a sign or something: "Only for advanced players who understand the ins and outs of her mechanics.".
Hmm... considering that everything we can say for Gal also goes for Norris, I don't think it's as much a balancing issue as Ricardo just being the way simpler character to play of the three. I had been playing the game for only two hours when I got Gal's black belt, so to me it just never seemed like too high a hurdle to play as her. Not to mention, it's a lot more fun to be pulling off pro combos than to punch with Ricardo two or three times, lol. That being said, I also feel like Gal should be given something, if only because she feels like "slightly worse Norris". Her damage and range is fine (I feel), she just needs something to set her apart from Norris. Thank you for your comment!
I think this game's biggest problem is that it obfuscates its own mechanics. Seriously, if it wasn't for your comments on the training arena I would be in the dark when it comes to what you can actually do. The little tutorial at the beginnig had me believe that that was all I could do and it was far from the truth. Maybe the game over screen should say something along the lines of 'Hey! Getting your ass kicked? Try the training mode!' Thai birds are the most annoying fodder enemies in the game. I just can't deal with them without losing a life, which probably means I have yet to find a trick that works against them. As for the design being uninspired, I'm fairly sure that was intentional just to get more of that nostalgia factor. There's the stuff you mentioned but the list goes on. The surfing stage is lifted straight from Turtles in Time, the bike section I mentioned in my protip below came from Cadillacs and Dinosaurs etc. At this point I don't think it's coincidental. Ultimately, it's a better game than I initially thought (seriously, thanks for that training tip) it just takes time and a few attepts to get there.
Wow, I would love to help you out with the Thai birds but I don't know if I can do that without seeing how you play. I'm glad that I helped you have a better opinion of the game! I love it, and already bought it on Steam!
Already figured them out I think. The dash attack seems to help out a lot. I managed to beat the game on both normal and hard. Unlocked the hardest mode which kicks my butt again lol. Also, apparently there are 56 endings. Holy balls.
lol many comments in just one day for this 2D indie game, it's nice. It shows that despite the critics, it sure generates some "passion", I guess?😋 Oh hey some people talking about the hard difficulty on Steam (and there are a few tips too - and some insults, as usual on Steam XD)=> http://steamcommunity.com/app/674520/discussions/0/1496741765120768635/ I see lots of comments who agree with us. And that Gal needs to be buffed, definitely. (I made the worst choice for my first play XD) I really hope that developers won't just give up their game, it has so much potential to be improved even further!😋
Hey man, I commented my thoughts up above. Would love to hear what you guys think of it, as I definitely think the game deserves a buy! (I know it's the exact same comment but whatever, lol)
Wow... the dev is out of his mind with this game. It's really fun to play, but of course, it has shitty design:
TONS of enemies at once
enemies have a vertical advantage > you can't hit them, but they can hit you
enemies have way too much health
bosses spawn more enemies (basically, crappy boss-design) I'm surely not buying that game till it get's balanced. Also nice, there is an easy-mode... but too bad, you have to unlock it.
With much fewer words, you explained better than me the only big problems of this game. 😉 Thanks for telling me about the easy mode, I didn't know about it. But... It really makes no sense at all that you have to "unlock" it, when you think about it. Usually, in most games (for example, in some FPS), you play FIRST the easy or normal mode, and then you unlock a hard/nightmare/whatever mode. lol It makes more sense. First, we "practice", and then, we have the right to play the hard mode. lol So the developer did some little mistakes like this.
Having the easy-mode locked behind something isn't really THAT bad... but the way how to get it is too long. You have to win or lose the normal difficulty mode AND collect 500 coins. 500 coins are really much for this game. Take "Devil May Cry 3" for example. After dying 3 times on Normal, you unlock the easy-difficulty. It's a way to test out your skills before playing the most simple route. But you don't have to collect 100.000 red orbs to unlock this mode. xD
hmmm not sure what to think... Definitely, among all of the "nostalgic" pixel art games which came out since the past 5 years, I think that this one might be the one that succeeds the most. EVERY little detail has been worked on meticulously so that it would look AND play like a 90s game. Problem is, I played almost all beat-em ups from the 90s, and we had quite incredible ones back then. And this one just isn't good enough compared to them. There are waaaay too many enemies, which make the levels unnecessary long and tedious, and even worse, every enemy needs DOZENS of hits to die... (I haven't counted, but some of them I had to punch them 30 times?? What the...) In Streets of Rage 2, some enemies could be "killed" in just a few hits... So the gameplay was non-stop and entertaining. This game tries too hard. Speaking of which, there's a "normal" and "hard" mode. Both have the same problem. 😥 Also, furries... Well, this depends on everybody's taste, though. But I'm so tired that nowadays, so many games are about furries, or monsters... The thing I liked the most about 90s beat'em ups was fighting HUMANS. lol (there are a few human enemies though) Is it too politically incorrect to beat up humans nowadays? lol Again, the realization is really PERFECT for this kind of game, really. It feels specifically like a NeoGeo/Arcade game. (the music is higher quality though - nice hard rock, btw) And the pixel art is really on CPS2 level, which is quite incredible. (CPS2 was one of the best arcade systems of the 90s) I have to say I played ONLY Arcade Mode. I'll try harder and try to unlock as many things as possible. The game is really worth it, but it's just too repetitive and tedious imho, that's all. But it's actually the BEST beat'em up since... huh well, since 1997, maybe? I don't remember seeing anything good in this genre since that time... List of beat'em ups I enjoyed in the 90s (and they're all better than Fight'n'Rage, I'm afraid) => Alien versus Predator (Arcade) Battle Circuit (Arcade) Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade) Dungeons and Dragons : Tower of Doom (Arcade) Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara (Arcade) Final Fight (Arcade - MegaCD has the best music though) Guardian Heroes (Sega Saturn) King of Dragons /Knights of the Round (Arcade) Nekketsu Oyako (Sega Saturn) Rushing Beat (Super Nintendo) Streets of Rage 1/2 (Megadrive) Vendetta (Arcade) Violent Storm (Arcade) BONUS : Streets or Rage Remake v5.0. lol😅👍 etc. Sorry for long comment, but we don't see games like this anymore, so I still find it quite exciting. lol😋 Edit : The game is just too stupidly hard to enjoy, I gave up. Maybe it's different if you try 2 players mode. Game uninstalled.😡 If you don't believe me, play until you reach the "Doberman" enemies. They're so overpowered it's ridiculous. I'm not the only one, I see somebody complaining about this enemy on Steam. I really hope the developers will do something about it.
Sorry for doublepost. ^^ So... I've beaten the game... not a single "Game Over". I've used the minotaur and holy shit, he just wrecked stuff. ^^" So... "Gal" needs to be buffed.
I feel you. The Doberman-enemies were ok once I figured them out... but they cost me 2 lives. And after the wrestling-boss, every screen gave me a "Game Over" cause the dev thinks "Hard is good!". Then, there was the long stretch with more enemies than in a "Dynasty Warriors" with several bosses mixed in multiple times... and at the end, another boss. Died at the boss, had to restart the whole section again (not just the boss), but nope... life is too short.
I haven't even played the game yet, but did you explore the combo system/combat mechanics to their fullest? If the player was stronger than you tought, that would kinda fix your biggest problem with it. Might reply again after I check the game out, brb
Nope! I kept the game after all so I think I want to learn about these combos better later. Sometimes I managed to "block" some enemies jumping at me, and also I learned to use the special attack in mid-air, etc. But most of the time, I felt like I unleashed these attacks randomly, without mastering the timing... (it seems that many bosses are ALL about perfect timing... like that big "bull" enemy, I thought he was hard... then it became very easy when I stopped jumping and took him very slowly. Still haven't found the "trick" to beat the Doberman enemies without losing all of my energy bar though...) Oh, there's something I didn't mention. I played with the "gal" character. And I read some people complained that her range (reach? I don't know the word) was very short. I should try to play with another character now. (It's not possible to keep my save with this character, right? : / ) Btw, I see a growing number of reviews on Steam of people who do say that the game is really hard, so at least it's not just me. lol These reviews are still positive though. :)
I wrote a reply and refreshed the page, and then my reply disappeared? So I'm using this as a test Edit: Okay so, this comment didn't disappear so I'll just write a shorter version of what I said. 2 to 3 hours of playing the game (as Gal also) and it seems I was right. Don't be offended, but if you played the game, wrote a review, erased and reinstalled it only to discover you could do air specials after all that, then I think there are some things you can do that you haven't found out yet, lol. A tip to anyone that plays this game, get 100 tokens and unlock the Training Mode as soon as possible. Gives you a good display of what your character is capable of! I don't think Gal's short range is that big a deal considering you can throw people from a combo to keep them in check, and she does have great combo potential so I don't think she lacks power either. Didn't play the other characters yet though, so I'll check them out too!
Oh did see your previous reply. Maybe you should reload the page? One time I had to reload a page two times cos my comment disappeared, that was weird. Well, don't you get overwhelmed with too many enemies though? And what do you think about them having way too many hitpoints? (or whatever it's called lol) Yeah I didn't do the training, I'll try it later. Usually I try to figure out special attacks on my own, in any fighting game. Maybe it's a bad idea for this specific game though. I'm kinda against the idea of having a tutorial for an arcade game though. I did use Gal's "throw" attack a lot, very useful in many situations. And yes, I often delete games when I rage too much. XD And then I reinstall them. XD But well... I STILL think that some enemies have to be "nerfed" a bit. (still not convinced that Gal can take out Doberman enemies)
I don't really agree with too many hitpoints, the damage-to-health ratio seems similiar to other beat'em ups if you properly combo them, and I mean with simple combos (Basic combo into back throw, cancel into run then immediately jump, down-attack in air, normal attack in air, and if done with proper timing you can do the basic combo again, that kind of thing). But even if they had too much health I don't think I would mind, so maybe ignore my bias :D Do try again when you do the training mode! As I said in my removed comment, there aren't that many special attacks, you just have a lot of opportunities to go from one attack to another. I don't really get overwhelmed when there are lots of weak enemies, and the only non-boss enemy I would consider as "not weak" are Dobermans and non-boss versions of bosses you beat, like General Tigar's and the bull's normal versions. Speaking of Dobermans... yeah I don't know the trick to them either, they're super difficult to deal with, and from what I've seen of the other characters' training modes, it doesn't feel like a character specific problem, they're just tough. Beat two of them by losing two whole health bars, lol. I think double tapping up or down to evade might be useful to avoid their wind-up punches. Really wish I could just choose a stage and practice against them to see what's up. Your comment about tutorials is odd to me, but I guess it's just a generation difference. For me, you should never expect to get everything out of a game before playing the tutorial and seeing every tool you have, so that you know whether the game is unfair or you just haven't learned your tools good enough yet. If the game was simple enough that you didn't need a tutorial, then everybody would play the old beat'em ups you listed instead That being said, I fought the battle turtles boss fight once and don't know how the hell you're supposed to beat them... but I'll find out eventually xD
lol yeah my comment about tutorials was a bit extreme. But I guess it's because I've been so used since a young age that when I start an "arcade" game, I usually can play it right away cos the gameplay is so simple... lol (don't worry, I don't do this with more complex games!🤣) But unlike what I thought, there are a few "mechanics" in this beat'em up which do require to play the training mode, I think. Oh god...I think I know who you're referring to when you say "turtle boss". I did beat him, but I don't even remember how... I think I tried to turn around him like crazy, like I did with the previous boss... lol my hand was hurting a bit after this one. I never tried that "double-tapping down" (or up) thing... lol So I guess I did miss something in the training mode... Btw, one thing I do respect about this game is that despite the nice amount of different attacks, it uses only a few buttons. So it seems easy to remember them all.
Playing the game (also as Gal), and as far as I can see, I was right on the mark; you as the player character are friggin' STRONG. Frail, too, can't take too many attacks, but you can definitely lay a pounding down. If you only just learned to use the special attack in mid-air, then oh boy! I'm just guessing this but it seems like you have a lot of fun stuff to discover yet! There aren't a vast number of attacks you can do, but there are more opportunities to chain them together than you'd first think. The block you mentioned is a parry, btw. Press right or left just as you're about to get hit and you won't take damage. Can be done in the air also. Very tight timing though, don't rely on it. But if you could master it, could be pretty useful in some boss fights. My first advice to anyone playing this game: Get 100 coins as soon as possible (I got it in two arcade runs, only six stages total, so it's pretty easy), go into extras and unlock Training Mode, and do all of it for your character; basic, advanced AND expert. You don't need to get a black belt like I did (requires you to do the expert training combos in under one minute), and I don't think the game expects you to be accurately pulling those moves off constantly, but it shows what you're capable of for sure. If you want some variety, do make sure to go left when the opportunity presents itself (like in the beginning "Escape?" arrow), you get different stage, music, bossfights and everything! I strongly disagree that this game isn't good enough compared to other beat'em ups, it's pretty awesome! But you really need to press a lot of buttons to take full advantage of everything you can do.
Damn, Quite the diatribe you wrote there, man. To address some of your points:
You really shouldn't expect much out of a pixel art game. I'll be honest here. There was a time when this approach was fresh an all but when you've seen a thousand or so games attempting to tickle your nostalgia bone it's just pathetic.
The whole furries thing - it's not politically incorrect to beat up humans, so long as they're white and male, but then we end up with a game that has too many white males - cue politically correct implosion lol.
As far as old beat'em ups go you might wanna try a few others as well
Denjin Makai
Gaia Crusaders
Sengoku 3/Sengoku Densho 2001
Zombie Revenge I'm sure others will be able to suggest a few more games but this is what I can come up with off the top of my head. BONUS: Double Dragon Neon - just don't play the pc version - the port is shit, as in you can't beat it because of crashes, freezes, hang-ups shit, not as in there are minor keyboard control issues shit. I can't really comment on the game at hand since I haven't played it but seeing as you're a fellow beat'em up fanatic I have little reason to doubt your judgement. Cheers and happy gaming.
Thanks for your insight, You might be right, it's possible that I expected too much. (and also maybe I've seen it all now... "Ironico Ortega" is right, I'm kinda old... lol ..Rude though XD) Yesterday I tried to give it a last chance, just taking as it is, a good "little" beat'em up, and I guess it's the best way to enjoy it. I really need to try it again with a friend though. ha ha gee this racial thing is a catch-22 situation, huh.😄 Maybe using furries or monsters is the easiest way to avoid trouble, huh... Oh I knew about Sengoku 3, I remember being very impressed with its graphics. I'll try the other games you mentioned! "Denjin Makai" is the one that interests me the most, cos I'm surprised I never heard about it yet... even if it's from 1994... Or maybe I forgot. lol And it looks great! I hope you'll still give Fight'N Rage a chance soon, and I'm curious to hear how you feel about it.😉 (btw, you called me "man" but I'm a girl - and no, not the one in my profile pic, sorry XD)
It's not us being too old. It is him/her being too young. :P "For children everything is new and amazing. For adults everything is a slight variation of stuff we alread know." Clippy is right too. Too many of these so called "Pixel Art" games that are boring crap, trying to sell by exploiting nostalgia. Most of them don't even get it right and can't hold a candle to games like Lionheart for Amiga from an artistic point of view. And gameplay wise many are also lackluster too. I'm burned out by these games and prefer going back to the real deal. Guardian Heroes is one of the best. Screen filling explosions causing the Saturn to slow down. xD Another one not being mentioned here before: Die Hard Arcade / Dynamite Cop for Saturn and Dreamcast Btw: Golden Axe is missing too. Remember first playing it on the C64 of my brother.
ha ha yeah I remember when I launched lots of "spells" very quickly in Guardian Heroes, the slow down was really strong. The music was so great in this game... In the mid-90s, I listened to a lot of CD music from Saturn games... XD I've got to admit, you got a point about the artistic point. Whenever I check old games, despite the low resolution, I feel like colors were more harmonious, level design was more sophisticated, and characters were more charismatic. It's like when I play RPGMaker games... Some are good, but overall they don't come close to the 90s rpgs we had on Super Nintendo, for example. (ask the moderator Gabster about it lol) Lionheart looked incredible, like many Amiga games, anyway. :) It had some unforgettable style, unlike many pixel art games nowadays. I'm checking some pictures now and it reminds me of a game I enjoyed on Megadrive in 1995, Flink, which happened to be on Amiga too. ;) Thanks for mentioning Die Hard Arcade, it sends me back to the good old 90s and reminds me of good memories! :) Just hearing about it, I feel like playing it now. lol And you're right, I'm afraid that every time I play old games, I realize that the "real deal" still feels better. Sonic Mania feels great though, but maybe cos it doesn't change the old formula at all? C64? wow you might be even older than me then.😁 I discovered "Golden Axe - Revenge of Death Adder" on Arcade only a few years ago, and it's really one of the best of the series, imho. Back then, I played only the ones on Megadrive and had lots of fun with friends.
I might not be so much older as I started playing the C64 (my brother's) quite late in it's life (around '89/'90). Always wanted an Amiga but only had the chance to play with one of my friend's. My first own machines were Megadrive and Game Gear and then moved on to PC and later SEGA consoles. Flink is also one of the games I remember from back then. Psygnosis games in general had their own style even if they were only the publisher. Shadow of the Beast also was published by them. What you are saying about RPG Maker games is true too. I used to be interested in RPG Maker when it was still something new, many years ago but now I'm avoiding RPG Maker games. Always wanted to make my own game though and even got RPG Maker 2000. ^^ PS: The 3DS is a let down compared to the amount of RPGs for the DS.
Yeah, I know, I actually have downloaded lots of roms for the Nintendo DS, and the 3DS doesn't come close, unfortunately. (emulation is still bad, btw) Also, I'm afraid that maybe we've seen it all by now... It seems that Nintendo has recycled only old titles for this console... There's nothing really exciting on it... And this is why I'm going back to old games. Maybe I don't even need something new anymore. My first console was the Megadrive too! ;)
The one huge problem with C64 and Amiga was that the controls were always gimped due to the fact that the joystick only had one button. I remember playing Mortal Kombat II and it still fills me with dread and I actually beat it back then too (a fact that astonishes me to this day). As for Psygnosis I wouldn't praise Shadow of the Beast too much frankly. The series looked amazing but it was ball-crushingly hard. BTW didn't Psygnosis also publish Lemmings way back when? A much better experience and still one of the best Amiga games ever alongside greats such as Mega-lo-Mania or Worms.
Ah the times of the Competition Pro. ^^ I never had the "pleasure" to play a fighting game with one button. But I was never really into the genre even though I owned games like Street Fighter, Eternal Champions, Virtua Fighter and countless Neo Geo ones when Neo Rage X arrived. But even certain Megadrive games didn't use all 3 buttons but instead had you press down and the jump button to charge Sonic's spin... Just meant the graphical style of Psygnosis games as gameplay is another story. SotB had some major flaws in this regard. Lemmings was indeed published by Psygnosis. Mentioning Flink before, there was even a Lemmings spin-off called Lomax that looked very similar to Flink. I actually played Mega-lo-Mania on Megadrive and it was fun. Also enjoyed Populous II but never really got into Powermonger. Worms is a game everyone should have played (in multiplayer) of cause.
On the subject of retro games, I think nostalgia is sort of blinding us a bit there. Don't get me wrong, the classics were great at the time and the fact that the genre has been pretty much dormant for the last 20 years means that there are very few so called quality of life improvements that we have now but weren't around back then so even though it's been a while, the games are not horribly dated like old rpgs for instance. The problem here is that no brawler ever will get the recognition the originals got. To make an analogy, it's kind of like music. Think about it - there's tons of great bands releasing awesome music today but will any of them be as big as Metallica? Probably not, despite the fact that Metallica hasn't released anything worthwhile since the 80s. It's actually kind of sad and unfair to the devs that no matter how good their game is, it will never be 'one of the classics from the golden age/of the current generation'. But that's the way it is I suppose.
Well, I did notice something recently, in relation to what you're saying. I looked at all the games I downloaded from IGG since a few years and most of them are little indie games, and a lot are in 2D. (I did get a few "AAA" 3D games too) And well, even the BEST 2D games don't get as many sales as the 3D ones. Not even close, actually. It's kinda sad, cos I'm interested ONLY in making 2D games. lol But well, nowadays, the big stars are 3D FPS, realistic looking games in general, and mmorpgs, I guess...? Oh maybe there are exceptions... Well, they're not "indie", but in Japan, sales of 2D RPGs on the DS, and even now on the 3DS, are still great, I think. Well I know you were talking about brawlers, not 2D games in general though. And what you meant is that basically, "first come, first served". And it's now too late for the current era developers to try to compete with some genres which were popular 20 years ago... It does feel unfair cos the gameplay has aged well, in some genres... Like, I don't even play recent fighting games (Street Fighter 5...) I'm perfectly happy with NeoGeo and CPS2 fighting games... lol The game I enjoyed the most this year has been "Streets of Rogue", and it got a few thousands reviews on Steam, I think... Not bad, for a 2D game.. But yeah, it doesn't even come close to some average 3D games. Btw, I have all vinyl albums of Metallica of the 80s. 😄 (and also Garage Inc., I mean the one from 1998 ;)) But yeah, I never liked their sound after the 2000s... Speaking of music, some great NewRetroWave artists get a few thousands views on Youtube... While Lady Gaga gets billions. And there are countless examples like this. Well, this is depressing. lol
I'd say that this is because technology has advanced. I mean 3D is the bread and butter today so it makes sense that big budget games would go for that. And I'm not saying that 2D should just crash and burn, no. But I do have complaints about 2D games and how they are approached these days
The retro pixel art flood - I mentioned that in another comment but seriously, after you see a 'look how 8bit our game is' platformer for the nth time you tend to lose faith in the point of the entire revival movement.
Saying that you don't need great graphics to make a good game. Now don't get me wrong, I believe this statement to be true but more often than not I see it used to defend bad games whose only saving grace is that they look retro. Another use of this argument which baffles me is when people say that, for instance Super Mario Bros looks like crap but it's still a great game. And yes, it is a great game, yes it does look like crap by today's standards, but in 1985? That was AAA, that was state-of-the-art graphics and sounds outside of your local arcade. What I'm trying to say is that in order to create a new legendary game you'd need both great gameplay and technology. Though then again modern devs seem to emphasize technology way too much which results in stuff like Final Fantasy XIII which looked pretty but boy was it a borefest.
Let's face it, brawlers are no longer viable these days. Trying to market a game which lasts barely an hour or so for 60 bucks would be suicidal (vide Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes fiasco). Also, we all know that brawlers didn't turn out too well when they jumped to 3D barring very few exceptions, so they'd have to make a 2.5D one or whatever it's called (you know, with 3D models but 2D gameplay) and somehow, I just can't imagine a Streets of Rage reboot with Crysis 3-like graphics.
Marketing is a thing - Lady Gaga had a huge corporate machine promoting the hell out of her - same thing is going on in video games - Ubisoft or EA show off their games at E3 and get most major publications to write previews and articles about them. I doubt indie devs have that kind of budget. The reason games like Streets of Rogue have so few reviews is because not many people have heard of them in the first place, so the audience is way smaller than what Battlefield has. It's not all doom and gloom though. At least these days seemingly anyone can make a game and sell it via digital distribution. 15 years ago the market was a much more hostile place for small devs, so at least there's that. Cheer up maybe? :D
So I gave the game a go. This comment also partially goes out to @Marco Funke and everyone else involved but here's the rundown of my experience. First of all, I like the music. Quite a bit. Those instrumental metal pieces really fit in well although I tend to disregard them when in the heat of the action. The one thing that could've been better about music is if they did some silly metal songs with over the top vocals like 80s hair bands used to. Kid of like that scene in Saints Row 4 when you're escaping from the alien spaceship and 'What is Love' plays. Though then again I can see how that approach could be annoying. Maybe save it for the final boss or something I dunno. As for everything else - I get your criticism about there being too many enemies at once on the screen. However, the dev did something to offset that. The thing is that they usually don't try to swarm you. I should link this to another criticism here. Enemies have a bit of an advantage over you and if you can't notice it initially it really becomes apparent when you meet the doberman enemies. The thing is that their punches or whatever have longer range than your attacks and the AI is fully aware of that and tries to capitalise on that fact. Instead of swarming you they just run around until they can attack you without you being able to do much about it outside of using your special which might cost some of your lifebar. Whether you consider this clever AI programming or just plain cheap is up to you, though it certainly ramps up the difficulty, even on normal which is what I played. One thing I noticed is that you can dodge most of these attacks by double tapping up/down which is something I didn't realise was an option at first since the little NeoGeo-esque tutorial they have at the beginning doesn't actually mention that. The graphics are what they are - not much to say here that we haven't already said - though I'll give them credit for being better than what Double Dragon IV had - I think they actually ripped the NES sprites for that one and it just didn't look good. The bosses - oh dear. The first few are a piece of cake really. The good old tactics that worked in the 90s still pretty much work here. The fact that they spawn enemies isn't actually too much of a problem. In fact, some of those enemies can drop apples of throwing knives so if anything, they actually make the bosses easier. The problems begin around stage 4 or so when bosses get some super armor or something which means that you can wail on them all you want and the'yll still be able to unleash a combo which takes half of your life away. For something similar see the latest Oneechanbara game (ZII Chaos I think it was called?). I hated it there and I hate it here. All in all, as it stands I think the game is a bit flawed, though I really need to get a pal of mine to play this with me - after all, beat'em ups are at their best when enjoyed with a friend. Another thing to consider is that we don't really get spoiled with great beat'em ups these days. I mean how many great titles did we get in recent years? We've already mentioned Streets of Rage Remake and Double Dragon Neon. Code of Princess and Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds also come to mind (both inspired by Guardian Heroes, especially the former). Other than that I can't really think of any great brawlers. Bottom line - I think this game is worth a shot, but it has issues which hold it back from being great. Bonus round for all of us into nostalgia. If you want to see (I don't recommend playing) a laughably bad game from the good old days, check out Franko The Crazy Revenge. They used to have a pretty good writeup on that game over at hardcoregaming101. I'm not sure if it's still there. Also - Damn considering all the comments here we could turn this into a bonding experience lol. Alright, EDIT and addendum time: I've played the game a bit more, especially keeping in mind what @copperhell144 said about the training mode and I've got to say he was right. I'm not sure why the initial tutortial shows what little it does, maybe the dev thought it would be overkill to show everything at once but the end result is that the minotaur guy stands out as the best character initially simply because his basic combo and throws are superior to the other two characters. However, when you learn that both Gal (or should we say, Mai Shiranui XD) and the ninja are all about chaining attacks you can get some sick combos going, so what they don't have in raw power they make up for with the amount of hits they can dish out in a single string. So there is a learning curve which is fairly unique for a game like this. That doesn't mean that the game suddenly became easy, no. It still kicks my butt, especially the final boss, though that's mostly because if you lose your last life on him you have to repeat the entire section of the final level and it's pretty tough too. TL;DR - the game gets better as you get to know it. Protip: If you want to rack up some extra lives and points to unlock things faster I recommend going to the left at the very beginning (toward the 'escape?' arrow) and when you get a chance to join a character after a cutscene later, don't do it. It leads to a bike section where you'll score a ton of points.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/674520/discussions/0/2595630410178225963/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/674520/discussions/0/1796278072844347199/
https://youtu.be/pgnm85DbZHU
I'd rather not wait an hour for 290~ meg download.
totally worth it
On the same note, I have yet to do this as it requires very strict timing, but it looks like you can actually put enemies in a loop and keep hitting them... not even as a glitch, just, straight up. I'll most likely be wrong about this but gotta try it out first.
If the most damaging combo you ever did was just the basic combo into special attack... your character can do way more damage than that, believe me! (You gotta learn to pull it off though)
In specific areas, you can be swarmed by too many enemies for sure, but those are actually somewhat avoidable instances. For example, in Death Island, if you don't go too far right before killing the enemies on screen, you don't have to fight more than two or three Thai birds at once. Same trick can be pulled off in Blades' stage, you can go through it while fighting four enemies at once at most.
Against the three Dobermans in the last stage, you can hang out on the left and five mice enemies will come at you one by one, and the last two drop knives. If you use one knife to hit one doberman, then you only need to fight against one doberman at a time, as long as you don't go too far right. This might seem cheap, but three dobermans, two knives... seems intentional from the dev.
I love this game and I could gush about it a lot, but I'll also give what I think are the game's bad points:
Easy mode is locked, has to first be opened by losing an arcade mode run and then costing five hundred coins to unlock... very stupid. Though I have to admit, I wouldn't have gotten as good at the game if easy mode was available from the start.
You can even have CPU allies, but you have to beat the game first, and then purchase it with 1000 coins! Just insane... but I think I'll be replaying the game enough times to unlock everything, eventually.
...and that's about the only complaints I have, actually
Finally, some tips and tricks (once again, these are as Gal):
If I breeze through the game with the Minotaur but need the training mode with the black belt for Gal, just to beat normal mode, than the balancing is 100% off.
The kickboxing birds at the beach-area for example:
With the Minotaur, they didn't had a single chance.
With gal, I lost 1/2 of my health against the first 2 birds.
With the Minotaur, the long level-stretch till the knive-throwing rat-boss was really cool and cause his moves doesn't involve jumping around like a maniac, I didn't trigger half of the level at once.
With Gal, I gave up at this part, cause it wasn't fun anymore to see enemy after enemy getting triggered and everything takes so long to get taken down.
And yeah, like I said, if it involves getting an absolutely combo-pro to have a slightly chance at normal mode, than this char has serious problems.
There should be a sign or something: "Only for advanced players who understand the ins and outs of her mechanics.".
That being said, I also feel like Gal should be given something, if only because she feels like "slightly worse Norris". Her damage and range is fine (I feel), she just needs something to set her apart from Norris.
Thank you for your comment!
Thai birds are the most annoying fodder enemies in the game. I just can't deal with them without losing a life, which probably means I have yet to find a trick that works against them.
As for the design being uninspired, I'm fairly sure that was intentional just to get more of that nostalgia factor. There's the stuff you mentioned but the list goes on. The surfing stage is lifted straight from Turtles in Time, the bike section I mentioned in my protip below came from Cadillacs and Dinosaurs etc. At this point I don't think it's coincidental.
Ultimately, it's a better game than I initially thought (seriously, thanks for that training tip) it just takes time and a few attepts to get there.
Also, apparently there are 56 endings. Holy balls.
It shows that despite the critics, it sure generates some "passion", I guess?😋
Oh hey some people talking about the hard difficulty on Steam (and there are a few tips too - and some insults, as usual on Steam XD)=>
http://steamcommunity.com/app/674520/discussions/0/1496741765120768635/
I see lots of comments who agree with us.
And that Gal needs to be buffed, definitely. (I made the worst choice for my first play XD)
I really hope that developers won't just give up their game, it has so much potential to be improved even further!😋
You started it and you know it.
It's really fun to play, but of course, it has shitty design:
I'm surely not buying that game till it get's balanced.
Also nice, there is an easy-mode... but too bad, you have to unlock it.
Thanks for telling me about the easy mode, I didn't know about it.
But... It really makes no sense at all that you have to "unlock" it, when you think about it.
Usually, in most games (for example, in some FPS), you play FIRST the easy or normal mode, and then you unlock a hard/nightmare/whatever mode. lol
It makes more sense. First, we "practice", and then, we have the right to play the hard mode. lol
So the developer did some little mistakes like this.
You have to win or lose the normal difficulty mode AND collect 500 coins.
500 coins are really much for this game.
Take "Devil May Cry 3" for example.
After dying 3 times on Normal, you unlock the easy-difficulty.
It's a way to test out your skills before playing the most simple route.
But you don't have to collect 100.000 red orbs to unlock this mode. xD
Definitely, among all of the "nostalgic" pixel art games which came out since the past 5 years, I think that this one might be the one that succeeds the most.
EVERY little detail has been worked on meticulously so that it would look AND play like a 90s game.
Problem is, I played almost all beat-em ups from the 90s, and we had quite incredible ones back then.
And this one just isn't good enough compared to them.
There are waaaay too many enemies, which make the levels unnecessary long and tedious, and even worse, every enemy needs DOZENS of hits to die...
(I haven't counted, but some of them I had to punch them 30 times?? What the...)
In Streets of Rage 2, some enemies could be "killed" in just a few hits...
So the gameplay was non-stop and entertaining.
This game tries too hard.
Speaking of which, there's a "normal" and "hard" mode. Both have the same problem. 😥
Also, furries... Well, this depends on everybody's taste, though.
But I'm so tired that nowadays, so many games are about furries, or monsters...
The thing I liked the most about 90s beat'em ups was fighting HUMANS. lol
(there are a few human enemies though)
Is it too politically incorrect to beat up humans nowadays? lol
Again, the realization is really PERFECT for this kind of game, really.
It feels specifically like a NeoGeo/Arcade game. (the music is higher quality though - nice hard rock, btw)
And the pixel art is really on CPS2 level, which is quite incredible.
(CPS2 was one of the best arcade systems of the 90s)
I have to say I played ONLY Arcade Mode.
I'll try harder and try to unlock as many things as possible.
The game is really worth it, but it's just too repetitive and tedious imho, that's all.
But it's actually the BEST beat'em up since... huh well, since 1997, maybe?
I don't remember seeing anything good in this genre since that time...
List of beat'em ups I enjoyed in the 90s (and they're all better than Fight'n'Rage, I'm afraid) =>
Alien versus Predator (Arcade)
Battle Circuit (Arcade)
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade)
Dungeons and Dragons : Tower of Doom (Arcade)
Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara (Arcade)
Final Fight (Arcade - MegaCD has the best music though)
Guardian Heroes (Sega Saturn)
King of Dragons /Knights of the Round (Arcade)
Nekketsu Oyako (Sega Saturn)
Rushing Beat (Super Nintendo)
Streets of Rage 1/2 (Megadrive)
Vendetta (Arcade)
Violent Storm (Arcade)
BONUS : Streets or Rage Remake v5.0. lol😅👍
etc.
Sorry for long comment, but we don't see games like this anymore, so I still find it quite exciting. lol😋
Edit : The game is just too stupidly hard to enjoy, I gave up.
Maybe it's different if you try 2 players mode.
Game uninstalled.😡
If you don't believe me, play until you reach the "Doberman" enemies.
They're so overpowered it's ridiculous.
I'm not the only one, I see somebody complaining about this enemy on Steam.
I really hope the developers will do something about it.
So... I've beaten the game... not a single "Game Over".
I've used the minotaur and holy shit, he just wrecked stuff. ^^"
So... "Gal" needs to be buffed.
The Doberman-enemies were ok once I figured them out... but they cost me 2 lives.
And after the wrestling-boss, every screen gave me a "Game Over" cause the dev thinks "Hard is good!".
Then, there was the long stretch with more enemies than in a "Dynasty Warriors" with several bosses mixed in multiple times... and at the end, another boss.
Died at the boss, had to restart the whole section again (not just the boss), but nope... life is too short.
Might reply again after I check the game out, brb
I kept the game after all so I think I want to learn about these combos better later.
Sometimes I managed to "block" some enemies jumping at me, and also I learned to use the special attack in mid-air, etc.
But most of the time, I felt like I unleashed these attacks randomly, without mastering the timing...
(it seems that many bosses are ALL about perfect timing... like that big "bull" enemy, I thought he was hard... then it became very easy when I stopped jumping and took him very slowly. Still haven't found the "trick" to beat the Doberman enemies without losing all of my energy bar though...)
Oh, there's something I didn't mention.
I played with the "gal" character.
And I read some people complained that her range (reach? I don't know the word) was very short.
I should try to play with another character now.
(It's not possible to keep my save with this character, right? : / )
Btw, I see a growing number of reviews on Steam of people who do say that the game is really hard, so at least it's not just me. lol
These reviews are still positive though. :)
Edit: Okay so, this comment didn't disappear so I'll just write a shorter version of what I said.
2 to 3 hours of playing the game (as Gal also) and it seems I was right. Don't be offended, but if you played the game, wrote a review, erased and reinstalled it only to discover you could do air specials after all that, then I think there are some things you can do that you haven't found out yet, lol.
A tip to anyone that plays this game, get 100 tokens and unlock the Training Mode as soon as possible. Gives you a good display of what your character is capable of!
I don't think Gal's short range is that big a deal considering you can throw people from a combo to keep them in check, and she does have great combo potential so I don't think she lacks power either. Didn't play the other characters yet though, so I'll check them out too!
Maybe you should reload the page?
One time I had to reload a page two times cos my comment disappeared, that was weird.
Well, don't you get overwhelmed with too many enemies though?
And what do you think about them having way too many hitpoints? (or whatever it's called lol)
Yeah I didn't do the training, I'll try it later.
Usually I try to figure out special attacks on my own, in any fighting game. Maybe it's a bad idea for this specific game though.
I'm kinda against the idea of having a tutorial for an arcade game though.
I did use Gal's "throw" attack a lot, very useful in many situations.
And yes, I often delete games when I rage too much. XD
And then I reinstall them. XD
But well... I STILL think that some enemies have to be "nerfed" a bit.
(still not convinced that Gal can take out Doberman enemies)
Do try again when you do the training mode! As I said in my removed comment, there aren't that many special attacks, you just have a lot of opportunities to go from one attack to another.
I don't really get overwhelmed when there are lots of weak enemies, and the only non-boss enemy I would consider as "not weak" are Dobermans and non-boss versions of bosses you beat, like General Tigar's and the bull's normal versions.
Speaking of Dobermans... yeah I don't know the trick to them either, they're super difficult to deal with, and from what I've seen of the other characters' training modes, it doesn't feel like a character specific problem, they're just tough. Beat two of them by losing two whole health bars, lol. I think double tapping up or down to evade might be useful to avoid their wind-up punches. Really wish I could just choose a stage and practice against them to see what's up.
Your comment about tutorials is odd to me, but I guess it's just a generation difference. For me, you should never expect to get everything out of a game before playing the tutorial and seeing every tool you have, so that you know whether the game is unfair or you just haven't learned your tools good enough yet. If the game was simple enough that you didn't need a tutorial, then everybody would play the old beat'em ups you listed instead
That being said, I fought the battle turtles boss fight once and don't know how the hell you're supposed to beat them... but I'll find out eventually xD
But I guess it's because I've been so used since a young age that when I start an "arcade" game, I usually can play it right away cos the gameplay is so simple... lol
(don't worry, I don't do this with more complex games!🤣)
But unlike what I thought, there are a few "mechanics" in this beat'em up which do require to play the training mode, I think.
Oh god...I think I know who you're referring to when you say "turtle boss".
I did beat him, but I don't even remember how...
I think I tried to turn around him like crazy, like I did with the previous boss... lol my hand was hurting a bit after this one.
I never tried that "double-tapping down" (or up) thing... lol
So I guess I did miss something in the training mode...
Btw, one thing I do respect about this game is that despite the nice amount of different attacks, it uses only a few buttons.
So it seems easy to remember them all.
If you only just learned to use the special attack in mid-air, then oh boy! I'm just guessing this but it seems like you have a lot of fun stuff to discover yet! There aren't a vast number of attacks you can do, but there are more opportunities to chain them together than you'd first think.
The block you mentioned is a parry, btw. Press right or left just as you're about to get hit and you won't take damage. Can be done in the air also. Very tight timing though, don't rely on it. But if you could master it, could be pretty useful in some boss fights.
My first advice to anyone playing this game: Get 100 coins as soon as possible (I got it in two arcade runs, only six stages total, so it's pretty easy), go into extras and unlock Training Mode, and do all of it for your character; basic, advanced AND expert. You don't need to get a black belt like I did (requires you to do the expert training combos in under one minute), and I don't think the game expects you to be accurately pulling those moves off constantly, but it shows what you're capable of for sure.
If you want some variety, do make sure to go left when the opportunity presents itself (like in the beginning "Escape?" arrow), you get different stage, music, bossfights and everything!
I strongly disagree that this game isn't good enough compared to other beat'em ups, it's pretty awesome! But you really need to press a lot of buttons to take full advantage of everything you can do.
But With those games Just Installed them all and i love them Thank you so much.......... and Bye
Also, have you reached the Doberman enemies?
Quite the diatribe you wrote there, man.
To address some of your points:
I'm sure others will be able to suggest a few more games but this is what I can come up with off the top of my head.
BONUS: Double Dragon Neon - just don't play the pc version - the port is shit, as in you can't beat it because of crashes, freezes, hang-ups shit, not as in there are minor keyboard control issues shit.
I can't really comment on the game at hand since I haven't played it but seeing as you're a fellow beat'em up fanatic I have little reason to doubt your judgement.
Cheers and happy gaming.
You might be right, it's possible that I expected too much. (and also maybe I've seen it all now... "Ironico Ortega" is right, I'm kinda old... lol ..Rude though XD)
Yesterday I tried to give it a last chance, just taking as it is, a good "little" beat'em up, and I guess it's the best way to enjoy it.
I really need to try it again with a friend though.
ha ha gee this racial thing is a catch-22 situation, huh.😄
Maybe using furries or monsters is the easiest way to avoid trouble, huh...
Oh I knew about Sengoku 3, I remember being very impressed with its graphics. I'll try the other games you mentioned!
"Denjin Makai" is the one that interests me the most, cos I'm surprised I never heard about it yet... even if it's from 1994... Or maybe I forgot. lol
And it looks great!
I hope you'll still give Fight'N Rage a chance soon, and I'm curious to hear how you feel about it.😉
(btw, you called me "man" but I'm a girl - and no, not the one in my profile pic, sorry XD)
"For children everything is new and amazing. For adults everything is a slight variation of stuff we alread know."
Clippy is right too. Too many of these so called "Pixel Art" games that are boring crap, trying to sell by exploiting nostalgia. Most of them don't even get it right and can't hold a candle to games like Lionheart for Amiga from an artistic point of view. And gameplay wise many are also lackluster too.
I'm burned out by these games and prefer going back to the real deal.
Guardian Heroes is one of the best. Screen filling explosions causing the Saturn to slow down. xD
Another one not being mentioned here before: Die Hard Arcade / Dynamite Cop for Saturn and Dreamcast
Btw: Golden Axe is missing too. Remember first playing it on the C64 of my brother.
The music was so great in this game...
In the mid-90s, I listened to a lot of CD music from Saturn games... XD
I've got to admit, you got a point about the artistic point.
Whenever I check old games, despite the low resolution, I feel like colors were more harmonious, level design was more sophisticated, and characters were more charismatic.
It's like when I play RPGMaker games... Some are good, but overall they don't come close to the 90s rpgs we had on Super Nintendo, for example.
(ask the moderator Gabster about it lol)
Lionheart looked incredible, like many Amiga games, anyway. :)
It had some unforgettable style, unlike many pixel art games nowadays.
I'm checking some pictures now and it reminds me of a game I enjoyed on Megadrive in 1995, Flink, which happened to be on Amiga too. ;)
Thanks for mentioning Die Hard Arcade, it sends me back to the good old 90s and reminds me of good memories! :)
Just hearing about it, I feel like playing it now. lol
And you're right, I'm afraid that every time I play old games, I realize that the "real deal" still feels better.
Sonic Mania feels great though, but maybe cos it doesn't change the old formula at all?
C64? wow you might be even older than me then.😁
I discovered "Golden Axe - Revenge of Death Adder" on Arcade only a few years ago, and it's really one of the best of the series, imho.
Back then, I played only the ones on Megadrive and had lots of fun with friends.
Flink is also one of the games I remember from back then. Psygnosis games in general had their own style even if they were only the publisher. Shadow of the Beast also was published by them.
What you are saying about RPG Maker games is true too. I used to be interested in RPG Maker when it was still something new, many years ago but now I'm avoiding RPG Maker games. Always wanted to make my own game though and even got RPG Maker 2000. ^^
PS: The 3DS is a let down compared to the amount of RPGs for the DS.
Also, I'm afraid that maybe we've seen it all by now...
It seems that Nintendo has recycled only old titles for this console...
There's nothing really exciting on it...
And this is why I'm going back to old games.
Maybe I don't even need something new anymore.
My first console was the Megadrive too! ;)
As for Psygnosis I wouldn't praise Shadow of the Beast too much frankly. The series looked amazing but it was ball-crushingly hard. BTW didn't Psygnosis also publish Lemmings way back when? A much better experience and still one of the best Amiga games ever alongside greats such as Mega-lo-Mania or Worms.
I never had the "pleasure" to play a fighting game with one button. But I was never really into the genre even though I owned games like Street Fighter, Eternal Champions, Virtua Fighter and countless Neo Geo ones when Neo Rage X arrived. But even certain Megadrive games didn't use all 3 buttons but instead had you press down and the jump button to charge Sonic's spin...
Just meant the graphical style of Psygnosis games as gameplay is another story. SotB had some major flaws in this regard. Lemmings was indeed published by Psygnosis. Mentioning Flink before, there was even a Lemmings spin-off called Lomax that looked very similar to Flink.
I actually played Mega-lo-Mania on Megadrive and it was fun. Also enjoyed Populous II but never really got into Powermonger. Worms is a game everyone should have played (in multiplayer) of cause.
I looked at all the games I downloaded from IGG since a few years and most of them are little indie games, and a lot are in 2D.
(I did get a few "AAA" 3D games too)
And well, even the BEST 2D games don't get as many sales as the 3D ones.
Not even close, actually.
It's kinda sad, cos I'm interested ONLY in making 2D games. lol
But well, nowadays, the big stars are 3D FPS, realistic looking games in general, and mmorpgs, I guess...?
Oh maybe there are exceptions...
Well, they're not "indie", but in Japan, sales of 2D RPGs on the DS, and even now on the 3DS, are still great, I think.
Well I know you were talking about brawlers, not 2D games in general though.
And what you meant is that basically, "first come, first served".
And it's now too late for the current era developers to try to compete with some genres which were popular 20 years ago...
It does feel unfair cos the gameplay has aged well, in some genres...
Like, I don't even play recent fighting games (Street Fighter 5...)
I'm perfectly happy with NeoGeo and CPS2 fighting games... lol
The game I enjoyed the most this year has been "Streets of Rogue", and it got a few thousands reviews on Steam, I think...
Not bad, for a 2D game.. But yeah, it doesn't even come close to some average 3D games.
Btw, I have all vinyl albums of Metallica of the 80s. 😄
(and also Garage Inc., I mean the one from 1998 ;))
But yeah, I never liked their sound after the 2000s...
Speaking of music, some great NewRetroWave artists get a few thousands views on Youtube...
While Lady Gaga gets billions.
And there are countless examples like this.
Well, this is depressing. lol
It's not all doom and gloom though. At least these days seemingly anyone can make a game and sell it via digital distribution. 15 years ago the market was a much more hostile place for small devs, so at least there's that. Cheer up maybe? :D
First of all, I like the music. Quite a bit. Those instrumental metal pieces really fit in well although I tend to disregard them when in the heat of the action. The one thing that could've been better about music is if they did some silly metal songs with over the top vocals like 80s hair bands used to. Kid of like that scene in Saints Row 4 when you're escaping from the alien spaceship and 'What is Love' plays. Though then again I can see how that approach could be annoying. Maybe save it for the final boss or something I dunno.
As for everything else - I get your criticism about there being too many enemies at once on the screen. However, the dev did something to offset that. The thing is that they usually don't try to swarm you. I should link this to another criticism here. Enemies have a bit of an advantage over you and if you can't notice it initially it really becomes apparent when you meet the doberman enemies. The thing is that their punches or whatever have longer range than your attacks and the AI is fully aware of that and tries to capitalise on that fact. Instead of swarming you they just run around until they can attack you without you being able to do much about it outside of using your special which might cost some of your lifebar. Whether you consider this clever AI programming or just plain cheap is up to you, though it certainly ramps up the difficulty, even on normal which is what I played. One thing I noticed is that you can dodge most of these attacks by double tapping up/down which is something I didn't realise was an option at first since the little NeoGeo-esque tutorial they have at the beginning doesn't actually mention that.
The graphics are what they are - not much to say here that we haven't already said - though I'll give them credit for being better than what Double Dragon IV had - I think they actually ripped the NES sprites for that one and it just didn't look good.
The bosses - oh dear. The first few are a piece of cake really. The good old tactics that worked in the 90s still pretty much work here. The fact that they spawn enemies isn't actually too much of a problem. In fact, some of those enemies can drop apples of throwing knives so if anything, they actually make the bosses easier. The problems begin around stage 4 or so when bosses get some super armor or something which means that you can wail on them all you want and the'yll still be able to unleash a combo which takes half of your life away. For something similar see the latest Oneechanbara game (ZII Chaos I think it was called?). I hated it there and I hate it here.
All in all, as it stands I think the game is a bit flawed, though I really need to get a pal of mine to play this with me - after all, beat'em ups are at their best when enjoyed with a friend. Another thing to consider is that we don't really get spoiled with great beat'em ups these days. I mean how many great titles did we get in recent years? We've already mentioned Streets of Rage Remake and Double Dragon Neon. Code of Princess and Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds also come to mind (both inspired by Guardian Heroes, especially the former). Other than that I can't really think of any great brawlers. Bottom line - I think this game is worth a shot, but it has issues which hold it back from being great.
Bonus round for all of us into nostalgia. If you want to see (I don't recommend playing) a laughably bad game from the good old days, check out Franko The Crazy Revenge. They used to have a pretty good writeup on that game over at hardcoregaming101. I'm not sure if it's still there.
Also - Damn considering all the comments here we could turn this into a bonding experience lol.
Alright, EDIT and addendum time: I've played the game a bit more, especially keeping in mind what @copperhell144 said about the training mode and I've got to say he was right. I'm not sure why the initial tutortial shows what little it does, maybe the dev thought it would be overkill to show everything at once but the end result is that the minotaur guy stands out as the best character initially simply because his basic combo and throws are superior to the other two characters. However, when you learn that both Gal (or should we say, Mai Shiranui XD) and the ninja are all about chaining attacks you can get some sick combos going, so what they don't have in raw power they make up for with the amount of hits they can dish out in a single string. So there is a learning curve which is fairly unique for a game like this. That doesn't mean that the game suddenly became easy, no. It still kicks my butt, especially the final boss, though that's mostly because if you lose your last life on him you have to repeat the entire section of the final level and it's pretty tough too.
TL;DR - the game gets better as you get to know it.
Protip: If you want to rack up some extra lives and points to unlock things faster I recommend going to the left at the very beginning (toward the 'escape?' arrow) and when you get a chance to join a character after a cutscene later, don't do it. It leads to a bike section where you'll score a ton of points.