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