Brawlin

 This blog comes from my buddy-old-pal Chris Mahood. It's nifty!

I would consider myself a video game historian, not in the way Tony Robinson and the guy with the sideburns are historians, digging up things from the past and speculating what they were. No, I am a living historian, for example, the things many kids nowadays consider “old school” (or even worse) “retro” are the things I grew up owning and playing.

When the word retro is thrown around many people hark back to a time before they played games, or games they never owned. Like Pong, asteroids, space invaders, Galaga, even to the early introduction of Mario and Donkey Kong in…well “Donkey Kong.” The geekier and nerdier elders   would maybe mention text based adventures played on the floppy disks that were actually floppy! 

For me however, when that word is mentioned I immediately think back to Bangor Cinema, Portrush or Newcastle. The arcade, in all its glory, the sound of buzzers, bings, bells, beeps, the distant screaming and laughter on dodgems, the tough lad trying to show off on the punching bag, the ten year old white kids with air Jordan trainers, and a Chicago bulls jersey their aunt brought home from her cruise, throwing orange balls and missing the basket. The recognisable sound was always a distant “Hadouken” in the background and the slamming of buttons. The golden age of Arcade, and most importantly the “Brawler.”

Yea, that was my jam! Now here is where we begin to split hairs and the reason for this blog in the first place. A brawler is not to be confused with a beat-em-up!

A beat-em-up is very simply 1 Vs 1. Street fighter, Mortal combat, Tekken, Marvel Vs Capcom (we will get to this gem later) that sort of thing. A brawler is a 2d (or 3d) side scrolling brawler game.

My favourite of all time was Streets of Rage 2. It is a pure classic piece of genius 80s/90s era goodness! Many others were outstanding too such as Golden Axe, TMNT, X-Men, Double Dragon, Metal Slug & many many more. Like the Neanderthal however, natural selection and evolution has bread these game types out, into extinction. Watering down the gene pool until many sub genres have evolved from the once great dinosaur!

Let’s start at the beginning shall we?

Many may argue with my lists but I’m not a historian that gets bogged down with the “facts” ok? It is my word, if you disagree, then you are wrong? Got it? If you understand that and accept that now, this will be a lot less painful to read through! Good.

Tracing back the DNA of the brawler we have to start with “Renegade” the first western release of a brawler with 4 way directional controls. I believe this game was a blatant rip of, of a Japanese game, only with textures and shades changed. (But then again, what wasn’t a rip-off of Jap games then anyway?)

 Renegade paved the way for one of the most famous games! Double Dragon!

A side scrolling action movie that you could control, like an extra violent episode of the A-team, only with people actually dying!

From there we moved to altered beast, where you played as a werewolf, then moving swiftly on to Golden axe. This game moved away from the 70’s inspired Kung-Fu fighting style and brought in a fantasy element! Barbarians, amazons and dwarves fighting the undead skeletons and demons! Great stuff! The satisfaction of hitting tiny gnomes with an axe to get treasure is still as satisfying today, although It is on my permeant record as GBH and assault on a little person. 

Now we entered the wonderful GOLDEN AGE of arcade brawlers. I could talk all day about the amount of genius games that came out in this time, so I will list but a few of my favourite ones (and the only ones that matter)

Golden axe 1,2 & 3 *****

Final fight ***

Street fighter (not a brawler, but just needed mentioned you know?)

Streets of rage *****

Teenage mutant hero turtles ****

Alien storm ***** (Included as FPS segment which was ground breaking)

Captain Commando

Growl (a ridiculous Indiana Jones rip-of)

 

Then onto the superhero games. These games hold a seriously strong place in my heart, along with Pamela Anderson in Baywatch and barbed wire. Games such as X-men, and X-Men Reign of Apocalypse, Captain America and the avengers, Spider man and Batman forever were my gateway into comics. 

Because I played these games at both the arcade and on my friends SNES and my MegaDrive, I became obsessed with comic books and started collecting then!

They were great! The games would be playing levels that were like the TV shows and movies I watched on Saturday mornings! A boys dream! The game style was awesome too because each super hero had different movement speeds, powers and abilities! You could even play as the villains, WAAAT!

Then the PlayStation was released, and the N64, things went 3d. This is when Evolution began. The brawlers were being done away with as they split into subgenres.

Games like Dynasty Warriors spawned the term Hack-n-Slash. (Some may say, Golden axe spawned this, but it was a brawler through and through) Then came games like Devil May Cry, God of War, Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver, Ninja Gaiden and so on! The awesome Joe from “Movies, games Videjoe” (this blog) suggested Bayonetta to be a continuation of the brawler but it most certainly falls under the blanket of Hack-n-slash.

The other side of the coin was the containing rise of Beat-em-ups, such as Mortal combat, street fighter series, Tekken series, Soul Blade, Bloody Roar, Primal Rage, Soul calibre, Masters of Teras kasi (10 points to whoever knows that one.)

The only game that really held true was an absolute diamond in the rough “Fighting Force” it had all the great landmarks of a classic brawler only it had the signature PS1 square and blocky avatars beating up bigger square and almost unrecognisable characters. IT was violent and fun as hell though! My brother and I played that for HOURS in co-op mode!

 For a while this was the end of the brawlers, I consider Fighting Force the last for quite a while. There was a brawler mode in Tekken 3, I loved it, but it was a gimmick really.

The earth was barren for years until a stunning, tongue in cheek masterpiece was released.

CASTLE CRASHERS!

 On the Xbox. Four player co-op fun, brawling your way through a 2d side scrolling wave after wave of enemies and awesome power ups with hilarious gameplay! This game was, and still is, beautiful, and wonderful to play!  Endless hours with again, my brother and two other mates we battled our way, arcade style, to the end of this blockbuster!

There are so many games I didn’t get to mention so I will now, (Just to prove I know them and don’t get tweets about “Hey u forgot this one dumbass”

Alien versus predator was awesome, Bucky O’Hare, The Punisher, D&D tower of doom, another Golden Axe clone but almost better??? Nooo. The Simpsons game too was great as Belfast international airport was only place I could play it! Battle toads and of course He-man!

There have been notable exceptions in modern times. Such as, new Metal slug, Scott pilgrim, Kung fury (a piss take but wonderful) Dustforce, new TMNT, the awesome looking “Mother Russia Bleeds” the well named Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds Overdrive and Guacamelee!

The doorway for indie developers has been so far opened, the hinges have failed and broken off. The new takes on classic games are always blowing my mind!  and as much as I truly hope that a return to the classic brawler is on the way, I like the keep a little piece of the past in my pocket, the nostalgia keeps growing and the feels will never disappear!

Chris Mahood

@thepanicrooms

Games on TV

If you’re not quite aware what the name of my blogs refer too then you must be one of these ‘young people,’ I hear tell of. Movies, Games and Videos was a weekly TV show that provided tiny portions of geekery to its hungry audience. This was back in the olden times when internet news was only digested by myself in limited slots, when the noise of the dial up connection was enough to summon a phone bill carrying  mother from anywhere in the world. 

During that weekly half hour show we were regularly treated to about five minutes of game coverage. Truly spoilt.

If you really wanted to see games on TV then there was only one source. GamesMaster! Stargazer Patrick Moore somehow got roped in to dressing up and talking down to spotty lads as they competed in bouts of Mortal Kombat. Dominik Diamond was also there as the sarky host, perfect for the teenage audience of a hobby that had itself only just hit puberty. If you wanted news (and I did) then again this wasn’t the show for you. It was all about challenges, about competitive gaming in an age before ‘esports,’ was even a phrase. You got the occasional review and those challenges were mostly games I hadn’t saved up enough pocket money to buy yet, but news was never the point. You still had to buy the magazines for that. 

After that ended we were stuck, we were confined to reading about games in the monthly glossies and praying for some kind of wizardry that would bring unlimited internet and a choice of videos chosen by You, watched on the Tube. Someday…. 

The next attempt (that I remember) was Bits. Another show all about games but this time presented by three lady folk. Girls playing games!! Crazy idea for 1999 and 14 year old me was left with weird feelings that Princess Peach had only started to stir. This show had games. I think it had more news. I’ll be honest my memory of it is a bit foggy now but I’m fairly sure it was a bit more hyper than GamesMaster. One of the presenters was American and another one had a large bosom. Oh dear, 14 year old me wasn’t really paying attention much. Let’s move back to adulthood and (kind of) mature me. 

Gaming TV disappeared. The internet became wonderful and my insatiable appetite was fed constantly. My twitter feed is a drip feed of game news and opinions, my phone is used just as much for reading NeoGaf posts as it is for communicating and my YouTube choices tend to be game trailers and watching people sitting round tables talking about games. It never stops, I’ve never had enough. There’s no need for games on TV.

Go 8 Bit has just come along. Airing weekly on Dave, it’s a game show about videogames. Dara O’Briain hosts and folk play games. It doesn’t have news or reviews, it doesn’t even stick to new stuff. So far they’ve used the likes of Sonic 2, Star Wars Battlefront and even Snake. They play games and they crack jokes. If you’re after an in depth and serious show about games then this isn’t for you. It’s light hearted fun, its people who grew up on games having a laugh with games instead of at them. I said before that GamesMasters host was perfect for that time, when gamers were primarily teenage boys. Go 8 Bit is a show that could only exist in today’s time, when an audience of 30 plus gamers have all the gaming news and coverage they need already, when our hobby being a bit of fun is perfectly ok. It's the gaming show i didn't know I wanted.

If you do want more games on TV then I can’t give enough of a recommendation for Charlie Brookers How Videogames Changed World. It talks through both the bad and the good, the brilliance of games and the still prevalent immaturity of an industry that’s still growing. Plus it’s by Charlie Brooker, and features a host of pundits even the non geeky among you would recognise (Jonathon Ross, Dara O’Brien again). The whole things on YouTube. And after you’ve read this and watched that then maybe, just maybe you might play a game. Hurrah!

September 7th: Sony and Apple

Two events were happening on the 7^th that show off new shiny new toys for the tech geeks of the world. Apple showed off the newest iPhone iteration whilst Sony would map out the future of PS4 hardware. Being an Android user and big ol gaming geek, there was only one show I was hyped for and so only the one show I watched.

Got that blooming wrong didn’t I? Skipped the Great British Bake Off to watch the PlayStation Meeting and was filled with more regret than a doughnut has jam. It was dull. They started with the new slim model which everyone has already seen (yes even you non-geek, assuming you read my last blog…) Then they brought out Mark Cerny to tell us in great detail about the PS4 Pro.

Firstly, Mr Cerny has a lovely voice and Sony should start a side business of him reading bedtime stories for kids. Having him stand on stage for 10 minutes talking techy stuff probably had the same effect, but I doubt Sony wanted us nodding off….  Most of the talk centred around 4K TVs and HDR and all that jazz. Don’t know what that means? Me neither but my non-technical guess-timation is super-duper-HD. If you have a fancy new 4K TV then you need this PS4 model to make your games look extra nifty on it.

What I took from the Pro talk was not that Sony were trying to sell me a new PS4, but rather trying to sell me one of them and a 4K TV. It’s not working. PlayStation is Sony’s biggest product right now and with this upgrade it felt they were tapping up that user base to flog more tellies. Nothing was shown that would make me want to buy the Pro model without having a new TV to go with it. If anything I prefer the one I have, because that new model is an ugly brute of a machine. So it’s good news for me as I haven’t been presented with an internal urge to splurge my pocket money on this new toy. Instead I can spend it all on games themselves.

Where were all the games? Maybe I was wrong to assume there’d be some new stuff announced but any kind of teaser would have lifted this show. New trailers for Horizon and Mass Effect were about it. To be fair Horizon looks lush but a 2 minute demo wasn’t enough to save a 45 minute crap show. 

There was one new game announced yesterday that properly surprised me though. At the Apple Event of all places. I checked twitter out of a geeky curiosity to see the iPhone 7 that I won’t even buy and was instead presented with news that left my jaw dropping harder than an Italian plumber in the pits of a giant lizard’s castle. Yes, Mario is coming to iOS.

“What in the what now? But fudging what? Whaaaa??” was my initial reaction. Then I kind of calmed down, stroked my chin and pondered the whole thing. It’s an endless runner, of which there’s loads on phones already. Mario runs automatically and you tap to make him jump. It’s a simple version of the old platformer and Nintendo said they wanted a Mario you can play with one hand. This is a Mario for the Candy Crush generation and one that probably everyone I know will try at least once. Yet they won’t come round to mine to play Super Mario 3D World… 

I like that it’s not a proper Mario game, that you still need a Nintendo console for the full experience. I view it as an advert for the real Mario games, yet an advert that people are going to pay Nintendo to play. Which deserves all kinds of evil genius laughs from the suits in Tokyo. I don’t like the thought that this could lead to a radically different future were controllers are consigned to the bins, but I’m getting worked way ahead of time. For now it’s clever and makes sense.

It’s also really news worthy. Many people are going to hear this news today. More people are going to read about the iPhone 7 than the PS4 Pro and with that they’re also going to see Nintendo’s mascot in all his moustached glory. Even my favourite couldn’t-care-about-games journo dropped it in a news report. Sony had gamers waiting for September 7^th with baited breath whilst Nintendo have gone silent on their next console. Sony fluffed their lines, Nintendo stole the headlines. Bravo.