|
|
Post by Xeogred on Jun 4, 2024 11:08:03 GMT -5
I couldn't stick with the D&D games. Although item shops/currency you can spend in these games adds some extra spark and variety to them, I don't think I'm much of a fan of those types. For me I liked Cadillac and Dinosaurs a lot and would put that one above Final Fight 2-3. Although it was also extremely easy on the default settings at least. But it feels great and similar to Final Fight 1, with an insane OST. I think I've beaten Battle Circuit and AvP but I'm not sure...
|
|
|
|
Post by toei on Jun 4, 2024 12:33:26 GMT -5
Their D&D beat-'em-ups are some of their worst to me, and the only ones I could never stick with, along with Dynasty Wars if it counts (the sequel Warriors of Fate is pretty good though). Just very limited fighting, slow and with barely any moves. Can you even throw in those games? Or dash? I don't like Knights of the Round or King of Dragons much either, for the same reason, but I think Knights is the best of those. I'll take Golden Axe (and GA3, and Revenge of Death Adder) over them any day. Or even Taito's Warrior Blade / Rastan 3. Xeogred Have you beaten The Punisher though? If not, you should. The Genesis port is fine but the arcade version is obviously better. The twist in that one is that it gives you tons of weapons, including lots of guns of different types, so the action is more varied. You even get several grenades per life (jump then A+B) which lets you firebomb the whole screen. It's great. |
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Jun 4, 2024 13:07:31 GMT -5
I'm not sure if I've really played it, I know I've jumped in and sampled some of it at least. These 90's beat em' ups on arcades start to blend in a bit after awhile. I'll have to prioritize that one.
Big fan of the Golden Axe games myself. A little chunky and primitive, but just really fun and well paced. Revenge of the Death Adder was an interesting one, don't think I'll ever revisit that one after beating it once. But the Genesis trilogy is fun to hit up over the years.
|
|
|
|
Post by toei on Jun 4, 2024 13:41:47 GMT -5
One thing in Golden Axe's favor is that it has lots of memorable little moments. I can picture specific scenes in my head, which isn't true for a lot of beat-'em-ups where they're almost just an amorphous ball of mook stomping with a few scenery changes. Even the little elves stealing your food and magic vials when you're sleeping, the weird animals you can ride, that gives the game a distinct flavor. I need to replay Revenge actually, I think it's better than I gave it credit for based on playing about half of it again recently.
The original is definitely clunky and old-school - it came out a few months before Final Fight, so it was actually a fantasy, weapon-based evolution of Double Dragon/Renegade instead. But I still think it's pretty cool. I don't like 2 because it's such a quick rehash of the first game - it does nothing new at all, and even reuses a ton of sprite. I like 3, it brings cool new moves to the formula, blocking, etc. And Revenge is this ambitious System 32 game with wild effects and a character that can even heal you. You can ride an animal, then load a catapult on it, just lots of cool touches.
|
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Jun 4, 2024 14:03:47 GMT -5
I can picture and even hear all those scenes. Those damn elves (maybe it's gnomes actually stealing your stuff?)...  I can briefly remember the early Genesis window before Sonic was out and the main mascot. I had a neighbor friend who had Golden Axe, Altered Beast, and Ghouls n' Ghosts. Some other stuff, but those are some of the earliest Genesis games I remember playing. Never got to play Streets of Rage 1 growing up as I mentioned lately. But I did have another neighbor a little later who had Streets of Rage II and Shinobi III. Safe to say those gems stuck with me forever. Unironically one of my favorite things about Golden Axe back then was the color swaps on enemies. Even though I had already seen that on NES games as well. But something about this golem having a read cloak instead of the green one, oh man he was tougher! I honestly thought this palate swap trick in gaming was pretty harmless until the internet and grumps called it out for laziness. lol, it's extremely rare to see in modern gaming. But when it does happen I get a kick out of it. |
|
|
|
Post by toei on Jun 4, 2024 14:30:25 GMT -5
Yeah I had the same experience with palette swaps, to me it was cool to see the new, obviously stronger version of that monster. I still don't mind most of the time in old-school games, except when there are just not enough enemy types (like Brawl Brothers, which as you said recently only has like 4 different enemies the whole game or something) and it gets boring.
I also didn't know "fetch quests" were supposed to be a bad thing until I began spending more time online. To me 16-bit RPGs were all about the adventure and I didn't mind whether the reason you went on a quest was to get something for somebody or not. I'd say they only bother me when there's a real core story (and not a series of substories tied together, which is the old-school DQ formula a lot of 8 & 16-bits RPGs adhere to) and you get too much obvious filler that doesn't move things forward.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jun 4, 2024 15:10:20 GMT -5
Can you even throw in those games? Or dash? Dashing is done by double tapping the direction you want to go. If you run into an enemy you normally knock them down. There's also a special attack per character you can only do when dashing. You also jump higher when dashing. You can also crouch and move while crouched, and perform a slide evade from your crouch. You can also do a "back roll" out of a crouch as a different evade maneuver. I can't remember if you can pick up enemies and throw them. But there's so many ways to attack that hardly matters. You have a standard attack, a slam (charged) attack, jump attack, ground attack (stand and downward hit enemies laying on the ground), crouch attack, fast rolling attack (you do this coming out of a crouch). There's also a defend attack called riposte, where you hold up a shield and retreat away, then block an attack with your shield, then quickly press towards the enemy and press the attack button, you'll do a riposte. This doesn't touch on the magic casting system, which is it's own thing. I usually use a magic user when I played the D&D arcade beat 'em ups. Love those massive offensive spells.   There's also a shopping system where you can buy helpful items. And you level up through the game. There's choices about where you want to go, you can also talk to NPCs sometimes, lots of interesting stuff like this. And that's just talking about Tower of Doom. The sequel Shadow over Mystara has even more depth to it. But! I do realize most people don't want this much depth out of a beat 'em up. So these D&D ones don't appeal to your average beat 'em up fan in that regard, fair enough. Those folks are better off with the simpler but still fantasy Golden Axe beat 'em ups. |
|
|
|
Post by toei on Jun 4, 2024 15:14:11 GMT -5
I'll probably give them another shot. Blocking alone can really change the dynamic. Honestly, they and King of Dragons run together in my mind, and I don't remember being able to do much of anything in that game.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jun 4, 2024 15:16:54 GMT -5
Yeah The King of Dragons is a much simpler beat 'em up, arguably too simple. But I like that one too, gave it an 8/10 when I beat it back in 2017. I don't think it's as good as these D&D games, though.
|
|
|
|
Post by toei on Jun 4, 2024 16:11:01 GMT -5
Also, forgot to mention that crouch walking is an underrated move that not enough games have. The first game I know that lets you do this is the original Shinobi, I often use it to dodge the first boss' attacks and it also lets you approach enemies to hit them close range with the sword while still avoiding high attacks.
|
|
