Future of beat them up in 2d,officials or not

Hello, as many people here i love old school beat them up, especially Streets of Rage, Two Crude Dudes, Renegade, Target Renegade,Golden Axe...

I have always felt frustrated becuse nowdays, such games are scarce.There is of course , Shanks. But other than that, especially on pc, scrolling 2d beat them up are very scarce. Most of times its about finding mods for old games, which is cool too.

There is never a online mode for beat them up that are sold again legally on steam(sega,stronger than you...).
So far theonly one i know that got online multiplayers was the Mystara compilation and yet it had terrible issues(lag/disconnect).

Do you think some devs could programm new, cool beat them up with the "1990's touch"? Could the person who made SoRR develop whole new games, bring us a kind of "challenger" for Streets of rage for example?

I doubt it. Most games are done in 3D nowadays, not much love for the pixel art 2D style.

A 2D Beat Em Up from an official dev seems highly unlikely but as a small indie project, could proooobably work, pixel art projects are somewhat popular among small indie projects on kickstarter or indiegogo.

Check this Earthbound inspired, pixel art project called OMORI for example. It's doin pretty good .w.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/omocat/omori

I'd say the chances are slim but possible in my opinion~

I'm actually not that pessimistic with the likes of Double Dragon Neon, Castle Crashers, Dragon's Crown and especiaaaaaaaally Scott Pilgrim!
It's just a shame those games couldn't be delivered on more platforms but they were successfull nonetheless.
It's only the editors that would not put much attention to them.

I was considering giving a try at Neon Actually, but i dont know what to think about it, is it a good one? It is hard to rely on some reviews since they seem sometimes made by people who didnt play beat them up.

To be quite honest, Double Dragon Neon was some of the most fun I've had with a game in a long time. I really enjoyed it, but it takes a bit to finally get used to its system and overall atmosphere. Just go in knowing that it doesn't take itself seriously at all and that it's pretty much a parody of the whole genre and 80s in general.

AWESOME music though. It is easily one of the Top 5 best soundtracks that I have ever heard in a video game.

Reviews were bad overall. The IGN one is one of the worst I have ever read, the only other one being worse was that original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow review that was posted on the same site that was basically "BAAAAWWWW, THIS DOESN'T PLAY EXACTLY LIKE SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT!!! 4/10!!!" Here are a couple excerpts from this POS review of DDN:

"Much to its disadvantage, Neon never sets out to be anything other than Double Dragon. Yes, it adds new mechanics like unlockable special moves and shops for replenishing lost lives, as well as 3D characters, but at its core this is a loyal retro remake."

So, a remake being loyal to the original is apparently a bad thing now. I always thought that it was good to establish a familiar setting so that the audience that are going to watch or play a remake of a movie or game have something to relate to. I guess I was wrong.

"Let’s address a sad truth nobody wants to hear: The brawler genre is not very good anymore. The beat-‘em-up was built on the back of arcade game design; difficulty didn’t come by design, but by consequence of clunky mechanics meant to scam kids out of more quarters."

Its pretty obvious that this reviewer just doesn't care for beat-em-ups and is apparent that he sucks at this genre. He just went into the game with the mindset that it was going to be crap. If a certain reviewer doesn't like a genre, then why the fuck are they given a game like this to review? Absolutely unprofessional on IGN's part I thought.

One of the funniest things about the review is that he says that the main villain was lame and "smelly-cheesy." He also claims that he grew up in the 80s, but he doesn't know that the main villain is an obvious reference to Skeletor.

So yeah, don't listen to that review. The reviewer got destroyed by the community after it was published and people apparently slammed IGN's facebook shortly after it was published.

Personally, I would give it a try. My only complaint is that after games like SORR, the game can feel sluggish and that it is a bit on the grindy side at the beginning (although it isn't required).

The genre is pretty much dead for established companies. Only indie devs could go for 2D sprite style beat 'em ups. There were still good contemporary beat 'em ups like Scott Pilgrim, the Yakuza series, DDN, etc. But it could never be like the glory days of Final Fight, Vendetta, Punisher, D&D, etc.

Like I say in the other thread, Knights of Valour is a recent/active 2D old school BTU series which start in 1999  "a la D&D Shadow over Mystara" which means experience, inventory and such (Dragon's Crown is the evolution of this kind of game by the way).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Valour
Last episode is from 2011, but arcade taiwanese, and that's why it is not very popular in the world.

I'm agree with Vecta, BTU is almost dead and that sucks...

Just render 3d models into 2d like Broken Sword 5 did.

Everyone wins.

iceweb38 wrote:I'm actually not that pessimistic with the likes of Double Dragon Neon, Castle Crashers, Dragon's Crown and especiaaaaaaaally Scott Pilgrim!
It's just a shame those games couldn't be delivered on more platforms but they were successfull nonetheless.
It's only the editors that would not put much attention to them.

I've gotta agree with this. Although I've only played (and thoroughly enjoyed) Double Dragon Neon of this list, the genre will never be completely dead. There are always new devs popping up who remember the glory days of the genre and want to put their own spin on it.

Honestly, PC is probably the best console for the genre because it's far easier to develop for, and you have a massive backlog of emulation to choose from, most of which feature Netplay. And although legality may be an issue with emulators, a majority of the games will never get remakes, re-releases or sequels (but if they did we'd buy them anyway) so it's safe to assume the companies won't get too fussy about it.

I think the Brawlers definitely have their gems though my question is what makes a beat em up? the 2d ones are pretty easy to see but coming into 3d there's so many hybrids and adventure games that just so happen to have a good fighting system it almost seems as the genre was just split amongst the others.

I am hoping to see the genre grow again, can't stand that IGN guy but I can't entirely argue either, arcades were the golden era of beat em ups, it's hard to replicate that now. Fighting games at least have that competitive aspect if nothing else. But there are ways to expand the genre that I'm hoping to see like story mode, survival, upgrades, more multiplayer oriented modes. I know those things aren't really part of the classic side scrolling BTU style but the give the games a little more longevity.

That being said I'm looking forward to a handful of brawlers down the line
- Project Y
- River City Ransom Underground
- Treachery in BeatDown City
- Shaq Fu (could be interesting lol)
- Wrath against time

If you've got XBL I got some recommendations, some I haven't bought yet but are pretty decent, I'll be checking out PSN as well.
- Final Exam
- Guardian Heroes
- Shank Series
- Foul Play
- Invincible Tiger
- Death Spank series
- Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds

3D beat em ups are an entirely new world that I've been having a blast diving into. Most could be considered "character action games" or something similar. But there's definitely a TON more being done with this portion of the genre and a lot more possibilities to keep it from being monotonous.

Platinum Games has done a lot for the genre in recent years with Bayonetta, Anarchy Reigns and Metal Gear Rising. Even back in the PS2 days when they were Clover Studios they made Godhand, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe. Plus with games like the Arkham Series and the God of War series we have a lot more variety to choose from.

badjab326 wrote:3D beat em ups are an entirely new world that I've been having a blast diving into. Most could be considered "character action games" or something similar. But there's definitely a TON more being done with this portion of the genre and a lot more possibilities to keep it from being monotonous.

Platinum Games has done a lot for the genre in recent years with Bayonetta, Anarchy Reigns and Metal Gear Rising. Even back in the PS2 days when they were Clover Studios they made Godhand, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe. Plus with games like the Arkham Series and the God of War series we have a lot more variety to choose from.

I do agree there, I've had a blast playing the arkham series, lolipop chainsaw, all of platinum/clovers games although I haven't had my chance with godhand yet. Koei has a slew of them but they all feel really same-y, it seems like you have to be really into the story for those. Virtua Fighter Cybergeneration is one game I wish would get a port to psn as well as the 2 shinobi series games (nightshade was addicting) but I think all in all Yakuza and Anarchy Reigns were the only two games that really gave that same addicting feeling as the SoR series.

The Arkham series are departing too much from the normal BTU's, game's an amalgamation of BTU, stealth, free roam, mystery and whatnot. It's more complete in other fields rather than just whooping mooks asses.

Don Vecta wrote:The Arkham series are departing too much from the normal BTU's, game's an amalgamation of BTU, stealth, free roam, mystery and whatnot. It's more complete in other fields rather than just whooping mooks asses.

True, but the combat is better than a majority of standard Beat em ups. Honestly if they made a spinoff Arkham game that only had combat sections I'd totally buy it. Imagine a co-op game using all the playable characters from Arkham City that looked like this...

badjab326 wrote:

Don Vecta wrote:The Arkham series are departing too much from the normal BTU's, game's an amalgamation of BTU, stealth, free roam, mystery and whatnot. It's more complete in other fields rather than just whooping mooks asses.

True, but the combat is better than a majority of standard Beat em ups. Honestly if they made a spinoff Arkham game that only had combat sections I'd totally buy it. Imagine a co-op game using all the playable characters from Arkham City that looked like this...

The freight train stage was definitely a good homage of 2D BTU's and was great. The Arkham series developed a very intelligent and dynamic combat style that require mostly reflexes, coordination, timing and good usage of character skills without focusing too much in player execution. Itmight be easy with the "spider instinct-esque" signals of getting hit but... without it (Expert Mode) it's one of the most challenging and enjoyable combat systems ever.

Blackgate is a straight beat em up but iirc that one comes from origins. It's not bad but I think it doesn't compare to AC's challenge maps.

Mr.Din wrote:Blackgate is a straight beat em up but iirc that one comes from origins. It's not bad but I think it doesn't compare to AC's challenge maps.

Nah, Blackgate is a sidescroller, but it's still not quite a beat em up. Also combat doesn't feel nearly as smooth as Arkham City.

Best beatemups in the last few years have hands-down been Double Dragon Neon and Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Great throwbacks with good gameplay.

Anybody try Foul Play? I LOVED the demo, really mad at myself for missing the sale for it.

Never heard of it, just looked it up and it looks pretty cool. I have a problem with small characters in beat em ups though. It makes it more difficult to see exactly what moves they're doing so I can't appreciate the animation as much. Plus I feel like I have to be really close to enemies to hit them due to lack of range, so much so that I'm practically covering half their sprite or model.

Exactly what badjab said.

badjab326 wrote:Never heard of it, just looked it up and it looks pretty cool. I have a problem with small characters in beat em ups though. It makes it more difficult to see exactly what moves they're doing so I can't appreciate the animation as much. Plus I feel like I have to be really close to enemies to hit them due to lack of range, so much so that I'm practically covering half their sprite or model.

I can dig it, I have the same issue with that as well lol. I still find it pretty enjoyable outside of that issue however, not often 2d beat em ups are so well put together now days.

Not only beat em up games, but pretty much, everything 2D, is panned from ALL modern companies unanimously, nowadays. Unless they are indie devs. Or old and experienced ones who got fame and skill. Hell, even from way back then, like even 1997, most companies weren't really endorsing making games in 2D, with few exceptions, thankfully.

Gamers though, especially old ones, really like, play and demand, both old and retro style modern, games. There is the demand, but companies REFUSE to accept that such an audience exists, or that selling to them would make them any profit whatsoever, viable for their economics, most importantly. Well, they couldn't be more wrong, but it's their loss, really...

Fangames is what all this is at. This mighty damn fine game right here, wasted endless hours of mine and the more i play it, the more i get stuck. In all due honestly, i would gladly purchase it, hadn't it been for free. Or the rare few remakes, like that Double Dragon Trilogy on Steam/GOG. Some newer games of our beloved genre, like "Mother Russia Bleeds", are mediocre and boring, but still fun for one play, especially with a friend.

MAME is your best friend. Get started there and play the hell out of games like: Golden Axe (especially 2, revenge of Death Adder), Altered Beast (arcade version rocks), King of Dragons, Warriors of Fate, Knights of the Round etc.