Top Ten Fighting Games And Beat-Em-Ups:

Top Ten Fighting Games And Beat-Em-Ups:

Final Fight is probably the first beat-em-up game I remember playing in the arcade. It was just so cool. Waves of punks coming after Haggar and Cody and they just beat the crap out of them with wrestling moves and karate. It didn't make much sense, but it was so cool. The continue screen with the dynamite was so dramatic that it still sticks in my mind as one of the greatest continue screens of all time.

Next up is probably Street Fighter II. It combined everything that was awesome about karate movies and action movies, then made it into an international fighting tournament. Each fight was different, and the fighters had such personality and cool moves that I always enjoyed seeing how each fight would play out, even if it was just me holding forward and heavy punch, it all just looked so badass and became a cultural phenomenon.

After that, I'd have to say X-Men the Arcade Game was top-tier. It was like playing a version of the 90s cartoon. Nobody cared that the characters were actually from the 1989 pilot episode. It was enough to trash sentinels and then stomp on them, and use your mutant power to clear the screen. The mutant powers always felt so impactful and powerful, especially if you were low on health, and cleared the screen to save the day.

Number 6 is a tough call, but I think I'm gonna have to give it to Peacekeepers on SNES. It's cool for the same reasons X-Men Arcade was cool, except ramped up to 10. So, there's a superhero team, and they're taking on monsters and mutants with karate moves and huge wrestling slams. Even bigger if they're in “Angry Mode” and they just launch the bad guys. Plus, each character has their own attacks, special attacks, and super special attacks, so it's all really satisfying to keep beating on baddies, which is important because that's all you do in beat-em-ups.

This one probably a little more obscure: Saturday Night Slam Masters for SNES. It was a wrestling game that combined wrestling with beat-em-up mechanics, instead of the total clickfests that most wrestling games were at the time. The grapple system was still a clickfest, but they were on their way out. Cool special moves, tournament fighter-style and a memorable cast meant that I could keep playing. It probably started my love of wrestling games.

Number 4! Oh well, that's gotta go to Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. I can still play this game and enjoy it. Plus, it introduced some of my favorite characters like Cammy and Fei Long! It blew my mind that they just put the boss characters in there. It's like they said forget it. Just put everything that made Street Fighter cool into one game. And the world is better for it.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was the same next-level kind of insanity. Only now they let two characters tag-team together and unleash all kinds of crazy special moves, assist attacks, and hyper combos with a few easy button presses. This game was always pure eye candy. Did it make sense that little Mega Man could body slam Captain America? No, but it was so cool nobody cared. It was worth it to see them all on the screen together.

Oh, gosh. What's at Number 2? Super Street Fighter 4! I love that on the touch-screen version they let the player unleash super moves and super combos with a simple poke! Sure, it was the same animations over and over, but it meant there was a level playing field and wasn't a combo and clickfest. Plus, it still has most of my favorite characters like Cammy and added Juri Han! I can always still pick up and play this one.

Number 1 is BlazBlue: Continuum Shift! A great cast of colorful characters, big colorful attacks, and a complex, crazy anime-style narrative make this game my favorite. They put a lot into this game, including story modes, tournament modes, and branching visual novel-style presentation. This many ways to play plus such cool moves for each character means I never get bored of it!

Bonus: Lastly, the perfect way to end the 90s fighting game craze! In 1999, there was Tekken Tag Tournament. The inputs were easier, the characters were cool (You could play as a dinosaur!), it was easier to do combos, they let them tag between each other, each with their own crazy moves. Plus, they even added an unlockable bowling mode, which automatically makes it my favorite. How many other fighting games have a bowling mode?

Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (1993 Sega Genesis):

Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (1993 Sega Genesis):

“The Mega Drive/Genesis version, titled Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition and released as Street Fighter II Dash Plus (stylized as Street Fighter II′ Plus) in Japan, was released on September 27, 1993 in North America, September 28, 1993 in Japan, and October 29, 1993 in Europe. It is the first of two Street Fighter II versions for the console and is in a 24 megabit cartridge. A six-button control pad was made primarily for it.” -Wikipedia

Ok, so, the classic experience of Street Fighter II for me was always on the Super Nintendo. I wanted to try something different. So, I went for Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition on Sega Genesis. Well, right off the bat, you can tell things are compressed down. The graphics are a bit smaller. The sound palette is a bit more “farty”. I mean, you'll get blips and squeals where some music and sound effects cut out.

Other than that, the name of the game here is speed. Just like in Street Fighter II Turbo, it introduces a speed mechanic which can be toggled up or down in the main menu. It's called hyper here, instead of turbo. I ran a basic E. Honda play-through, because his moves are easy for me to do. Anyone can press punch fast. It was ok, other than the farty sound palette.

This was right before my favorite game in the series. Just a year later, Street Fighter II: The New Challengers would release. In Champion Edition, you do get to play as the 4 bosses. Sagat, Balrog, Vega, and M. Bison are all available. They didn't introduce Cammy, T. Hawk, Deejay, or Fei Long until 1994.

Overall, they're some good ideas were here. I just prefer the Super Nintendo experience. Although, I get that they were going mostly for speed. The playable bosses are nice. But, knowing that The New Challengers would include both them and new fighters makes the game feel a little limited. I'll bet it was good for its time. In my opinion, you can probably skip this one and play either Street Fighter II Turbo or Street Fighter II: The New Challengers.

Here Comes a New Challenger (2023):

Here Comes a New Challenger (2023):

“The origins of the gaming phenomena that is Street Fighter II and how it impacted the lives of kids worldwide. It explores not just the aspect of the series, but what made it special to players that played at the comfort of their own home.”

I'm a big Street Fighter fan. So, if you have about an hour, you should watch this documentary on the unprecedented success of Street Fighter II. They interview game designers, and take you through Street Fighter I's game's movie inspirations that are mostly Bruce Lee's “Enter The Dragon”, and Sonny Chiba's “The Street Fighter”. Street Fighter had the basic ideas of Street Fighter II, but with wacky controls, bad hit detection, and limited characters. (1 player had to be Ryu. 1 player could be Ken, but only if he joined to fight Ryu.)

By 1991, Street Fighter II did everything bigger and better. 8 characters, 4 bosses, each with their own fighting styles. The 2-Player vs. mode revived a stagnant arcade industry, and made it ripe for in-home videogame consoles. It took off in a way Street Fighter never did. The meat of the documentary I think, is going through the old character designs (They knew they wanted an international fighting tournament, but who would represent each country?) and music decisions.

There's an interview with the game's composer Yoko Shimomura who confesses that for some countries she had no idea what music should sound like. She'd been to Spain, and was a big fan of American rock, so those countries were no problem. (And from that, we got the iconic Guile Theme for the USA stage.) But, for a country like Brazil...she didn't have a clue. In the documentary, she says she was taking the train home one day, and just filled in the train sounds with jungle drums, which became the iconic Brazil theme music for Blanka, the Brazilian fighter.

After the music, we finally get to explore fighting game tournament culture, a staple of Street Fighter II and all that came after. Championship Editions were released, along with re-makes and new characters like Cammy from England, and T. Hawk from Mexico in 1994's aptly named Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. Some versions like Street Fighter II Turbo added increased speed and really made use of the “combo” system, where players could hit more than once, and string attacks together; which became a classic feature.

But, it's not all just classics. There's a lot in the documentary about the cheesy merchandise that Street Fighter II brought with it. Of course, anything that gets big gets toys. I didn't really like this part of the documentary. If you're a fan, you know some of the toys and games (Even a boardgame!) were cheap cash grabs. Of course they were. It feels like...the director mocking toys and games that fans probably loved at the time. Yes, even the Street Fighter movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme. It felt a little out of place to praise Street Fighter II and then say “But, look at how stupid this stuff for kids was.” We know. We were those kids.

The documentary ends with Street Fighter II spin-offs and its influence on later games like Mortal Kombat, and Killer Instinct, up to Street Fighter EX and the anime-style Street Fighter Alpha series beginning in 1996. If you have an hour or so to kill (Ha!), give it a watch. It's really cool to see how Street Fighter went from one clunky arcade game, to its sequel becoming a cultural stable of the 90s, and an inspiration for the genre for years to come. Check it out!

Liberty or Death (1993 SNES):

It's an American Revolutionary War Strategy Game! Well, Calling Liberty or Death a strategy game is a bit generous. It's much more a resource management game with a historical framework. Every move you make takes a certain resource, whether its food, gunpowder, or troops. The battle system is really limited. You move one square at a time, and troops need to be right next to each other to attack. For this reason, it doesn't hold up. I always wanted to like this game more than I actually do.

It's quite literally just whoever has the most things wins. For a historical game, I understand this. It puts the pressure on the players to launch quick and smart attacks, but the one move at a time mechanic really limits your paths to victory. For the British, you want to use your Navy to quickly cut off America from Europe, and capture Philadelphia, or the American General. (Washington)

Now, if you're the Americans, you want to seize Boston to cut off the English Navy immediately, and send delegates to Europe to gain support and allies. Just like Washington did. You can also capture the English General. (Cornwallis.) If you can gain enough support/denial for American independence by running newspapers and delegates to states, they can switch sides from the British to the American army or vice versa.

The resource management and delegate processes can actually be pretty fun, and it's always satisfying to gain support from such-and-such new state. However, the battle system is just tedious and not fun, when it should be the focus of the game, because you'll be doing it a lot. Like I said, everything moves one square, and everything has to be close up to attack. Even the guns. Add to this that you need to manage each resource before battle (Troops run out of food and powder.) and it makes the gameplay very dull...you'll have to use bayonets if you run out of powder, or the battle just ends if you don't have enough food.

In spite of this, I just thought I'd write about this weird historical strategy game because it had so much promise. Some of the resource management is fun! It's always fun to get new troops or new support. But, the part that should be fun, battling, isn't. If you don't end the game before 1800, the game ends with British victory automatically, and Thomas Gage becomes Lord Governor of the 13 Colonies. It's a shame then, that America only has a small path to victory. It's historical, but that also means it's limited.

Surprisingly, I thought the strongest point of the game was also it's biggest weakness...the music. The same 1-minute battle ditty plays on loop for every battle, which gets annoying when you're moving square by square. Now, during the resource management phases you get rousing midis with flute noises and drums, and even “The Star-Spangled Banner". An upbeat continenntal theme which calls America “The Land of Liberty and Justice” plays in the event of an American Victory.

Overall, “Liberty or Death” is a nice educational resource management game. There's sort of an idea of a strategy game there, but it falls flat and the most exciting parts quickly become the most tedious. I'd say unless you really like historical tactics games, you're better off skipping this one. It has some cool ideas though, as sort of a historical “what if?”. Unfortunately, as much as I want to wonder “What if the Spanish had helped American independence instead of France?” I just keep wondering “What if this game were more exciting?”

Robocop 2 (1990):

Robocop 2 (1990):

“RoboCop returns to protect the citizens of old Detroit but faces a deadly challenge when a rogue OCP member secretly creates a new, evil RoboCop 2.”

A new drug called Nuke is in the city, and Robocop has to take out the cult distributing it. The drug dealer turns out to be a kid, and he can't shoot him. When Robocop finally does track down the cult, he's dismembered and out-gunned. This leads to some silly scenes where they re-program Robocop to not be violent (Still not safe for kids!), police bad language, and smoking.

It's a pretty funny Robocop. A good mix of action-comedy. Meanwhile, scientists are creating a new Robocop program: Robocop 2. Unfortunately, the candidates are psychos and murders, not good citizens like Officer Alex Murphy. There's even a lot of debate over if he's company property, or an officer.

This is just good satire and action movie fun. Robocop unites the cops finally, but it's his human side that wins out. He's not just a company machine, and he has free will. It's a pretty fun watch, and ends with a pretty good shootout between Robocop and Robocop 2. Give it a watch, if you have time!

Read my review of Robocop 1 here: https://bit.ly/3A4alSn

Read my review of Robocop 3 here: https://bit.ly/3lULR7c

JUDGE DREDD (1995):

JUDGE DREDD (1995):

“In a dystopian future, Joseph Dredd, the most famous Judge (a police officer with instant field judiciary powers), is convicted for a crime he did not commit and must face his murderous counterpart.”

I totally forgot Rob Schneider was in this as a geeky hacker. Anyway, in the future, people live in oppressive cramped Mega Cities ruled by ruthless law enforcement called “Judges”. After stopping a “block war” in an exciting opening scene that shows off Dredd's “multi-purpose ammunition” (missiles, rapid fire, flare gun, grenade etc.) the movie slows to a crawl as Dredd is accused of a crime using DNA evidence.

Later, Rob Schneider's character and Dredd get shot down in a prison plane. They're kidnapped by cannibal cyborg yokels. This is just good action movie fun. After that, they escape and one of the Judges that sentenced Dredd tells him he's a clone. And also he has a brother, who was his ex-partner. He's also got a reprogrammed war robot. Pretty cool.

Dredd's psychotic clone/brother Rico (who looks nothing like Dredd.) plotted a revolution against the Judges, so he sentenced him. Now, Rico is trying to start a new generation of Judges that obey him, and his DNA (except it's also Dredd's...so how's that work?) If you can turn your brain off, it's a good pew-pew action movie.

Honestly, some of the technobabble hasn't aged well. Dredd gets most things to work by hitting them. Also, I just don't see how Rico's plan was bad, since they established that Judges are ruthless and corrupt. Don't think too hard on it, and it's fun. You just can't help but giggle when Judge Dredd shouts about the “LAW!” Overall, I'd say watch it with some snacks, don't expect it to make sense, and you'll have a good time.

VIRTUOSITY (1995):

VIRTUOSITY (1995):

“When a virtual reality simulation created using the personalities of multiple serial killers manages to escape into the real world, an ex-cop is tasked with stopping its reign of terror.”

Virtuosity is free on YouTube for now, so I figured, what the heck? Might as well watch it. I'd like to mention a few things for wider cultural context first. I think in scifi (ostensibly what this blog is about, along with cultural issues.) you have more leeway with what can look dated, because it's more about imagination. That said, it's a very good cyberpunk crime thriller.

Denzel Washington plays Parker Barnes, the only cop who's gotten close to taking down Sid 6.7, an amalgam program of the worst killers, meant to train cops. One day, Sid tells his programmer that he wants out. The programmer tricks another researcher into constructing him an android body, and bringing the villain to life.

Now, Parker chases him through pretty much a landscape of 90s media culture. A techno club (where Sid takes hostages.), a store, a UFC ring, and a TV station. During the chase and shootout, we learn that one of Sid's personalities is the terrorist Michael Grimes, who killed his wife and daughter. Using this, Barnes tracks him down to the TV station.

Sid constructs a “Death TV” game show and takes hostages. Barnes realizes since Sid is a VR training program, he only enjoys playing the game with his favorite opponent. So, he accepts his showdown challenge. Meanwhile, a programmer's daughter is being held hostage with a bomb, just like when his wife and daughter were killed.

After Sid and Barnes fight, the policeman takes out Sid's program, and makes him believe he actually won, sticking him back inside VR. He diffuses the bomb. Cops run over Sid's program with a car. One thing I will say is, I like how the programs look. They're like little orbs. Both Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington add an air of drama to the action.

That is to say, I enjoyed the performances by both Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Denzel is usually always a good action hero. Russell Crowe is intense and wacky in this early role. Lastly, I think its amazing what they could do with 90s CGI; essentially screensaver graphics. It's cool to imagine a world where VR and digital technology could immediately become physical.

I'd recommend the movie because it explores cool scifi ideas, stars two talented actors, and is free on YouTube. I can see influences of William Gibson and the Neuromancer trilogy in the writing. (I don't think Idoru was written yet, but it dealt heavily with VR. Seriously, check out those books.) In the end, I think it was an awesome crime movie from a time when we didn't yet know what the Internet would become. Check it out.

Dead Space (1991):

Dead Space (1991):

"A deadly virus attacks the crew of a Saturn space station."

Here's a weird film. When a flesh-eating virus nearly kills everyone in a space station, a scientist (Bryan Cranston/Dr. Frank Darden.) gets the idea to combat it with a metamorphic virus that can shapeshift and take on biological forms.

Meanwhile, a shipwrecked mercenary (Commander Krieger/Marc Singer.) and his robot companion help investigate the murders going on at the station, trying to restore power to his own ship. Great use of puppets, and music.

My only complaint is, they keep shooting at the creature, after saying several times that bullets can't hurt it. Other than that, a decent sci-fi horror/mystery. It keeps you guessing how they'll defeat the creature. Watch it if you have time.