|
In the late 80's and early 90's a certain genre of video game was rather popular, particularly in the arcade but with notable entries on home consoles of the time. Double Dragon and Final Fight are the pillars of this genre's arcade success, with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Simpson's, and Captain America and the Avengers being other respectably remembered titles. Final Fight saw some apparently superior sequels on the SNES (which I am unknowledgeable about thanks to eBay lurkers), while the Sega Genesis saw my personal favorite beat-em-up series in the Streets of Rage trio. All of these games, along with other quality titles such as The Ninja Warriors (and lower quality titles such as the Peace Keepers) that I should not list for reasons of space, belong to this genre that has faded from its onetime luster in the gaming world.
At first my writing regarding this type of game would seem completely out of place on RPGamer. After all, the beat-em-up and the RPG are dissimilar genres. For those unfamiliar with the beat-em-up type of play, it goes a little something like this: encounter enemies onscreen, pummel them into submission, move to another screen, rinse and repeat. The formula is quite simple and lends itself nicely to cooperative play, a big reason the games were so popular in arcades. Story is barely extant: Final Fight had a kidnapped daughter of the mayor (though this particular mayor wasn't about to go through official channels, instead opting to personally wipe out the scum who took her); Streets of Rage had first a city threatened by evil, then the city threatened by the same evil, then the city threatened one more time by the same evil (and Mr. X is a truly fiendish villain name); TMNT had Shredder kidnapping April and Splinter; etcetera. Nor is one of the central components to RPGs present, since characters grow no stronger as the game goes on save through extra lives granted by high scoring. There was, however, a rather successful effort to meld the RPG with the beat-em-up in 1996, courtesy of a developer not usually discussed in RPG channels: Treasure.
Treasure is known for creating games that prize unique fighting engines and player reaction abilities above all else, though usually with a difficulty setting to allow enjoyment by the less apt (though not the completely incapable) at action games. Guardian Heroes on the Saturn certainly feels like a Treasure game: its combat engine is unique, its story line is somewhat humorous and frequently bizarre, and the game is most assuredly not easy. But how does it manage to meld the RPG and the beat-em-up? Through several means, the most prominent being experience. Beating down those waves of fools in your path (and the occasional unfortunate item in the landscape) nets experience that, at the end of each level, translates into points that can be assigned to beefing up statistics of your warrior. It also translates into HP and MP that rise with level gains. As to the MP: beat-em-ups frequently incorporate special moves, but magic is not a common thing. Selecting a magic spell is quite dangerous when foes will not stop coming after you, so fast reactions are vital. There is even a character with a healing spell, which is unheard of in the beat-em-up world: only items and clearing the stage can replenish health. Branching storylines so different as to mandate multiple playthroughs in order to see all of the game are also unusual in a beat-em-up, though this particular element is not intrinsic to an RPG either.
There is a sequel to Guardian Heroes on the GBA, but it is a lesser game. The increase of HP and MP with leveling-up is gone, though the raising of statistics after each stage remains. There are no branching paths either. The major caveat to this game is the GBA's inability to match the Saturn's hardware prowess, resulting in slowdown most foul (and slowdown was not absent on the Saturn). Advance Guardian Heroes is not absent of positive merits, since even a lesser Treasure game is at least interesting, but definitely not the place to start. Which is unfortunate when one considers how many more people are capable of playing GBA games than Saturn games.
The chances of Treasure porting Guardian Heroes to another system are very slim; the developer has an avowed stance against using its resources on old games when it could create new ones. But where one success has been achieved, more could await. Streets of Rage 3 features a laughable story and four different endings, but recreating the series in this fashion could be just what is needed. TMNT games in recent years have not garnered the acclaim of their NES/SNES heyday, and perhaps this method might prompt Konami to do the Turtles justice. Final Fight: Streetwise does not seem to have made much positive impact, but that should not relegate the series to being ignored. Or an entirely new series, as Guardian Heroes was, could be started.
All I am saying is: give violence a chance.
|
RSS feed
iTunes
