Your Favorite 3D Brawler/Beat 'em Up

Most of us here know that when gaming moved to 3D, it has struggled with the Brawler/Beat 'em Up genre. It still has not been able to at least match the quality of the Brawlers/Beat 'em Ups of the past (i.e. Double Dragon, Final Fight, Streets of Rage, etc.)

IMO, the only 3D iteration of this genre that I felt did a very good job was the PS1 Import Fist of the North Star Game that came out in 2000. The only other one that comes to mind is Fighting Force on the PS1, and that was just "o.k."

What are yall's opinion on this subject.

Crisis Beat (PS1).

to tell you the truth i haven' t found a 3d fighter that can compare to the likes of final fight etc...

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Originally Posted by neo>all

to tell you the truth i haven' t found a 3d fighter that can compare to the likes of final fight etc...

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Imo nothing can compare to Bare Knuckles 3.

There's a such thing? :conf:

Dynamite Cop :buttrock:

I'm with Magna Flux. Dynamite Cop/Die Hard is a great 3D beat 'em up.... and the only one that's any good, for that matter. The best beat 'em up ever is still SOR2, followed by Final Fight, Double Dragons, AvsP, and Battle Toads. Still, DC is up there with them, but most 3D versions blow.

never saw the appeal of the sor series. when people say sor 2 or 3 are they talking about genesis games? i think only 1 hit arcades?

imo sor cant even touch the likes of final fight or avp or tmnt or battletoads (arcades).

Despite what people say, I really like '"The Bouncer". Its short, its horribly linear, but it has a decent combat system with some nice visuals.

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Originally Posted by genjuro1

What are yall's opinion on this subject.

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I'd say I have to agree with you about...

http://img1.imageshack.us/img1/403/hnkcover5kv.jpg
HOKUTO NO KEN: The Savior's Destiny

http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/8...tops1018qp.jpg

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/1958/hnkps1038qz.png

http://img1.imageshack.us/img1/3012/hokutops1021hf.jpg

this game (not just cause it's HNK either) just got everything right. The fact that it is connected to HNK was all the more better though. I have have high hopes for NAMCO's Urban Reign despite the fact they're making a few Tekken characters playable because it looks like the only one with any grit to it. To this day though nothing tops Bare Knukle 2. *I admit it wasn't FINAL FIGHT, but it was executed properly, had great graphics and slammed it down with the electronica/techno soundtrack on a cartridge. + Blaze Fielding was Hawt.

GRIZZLY KING

I still like Zombie Revenge.

I can t think much other than Die Hard Arcade (SAT) and Fighting Force (PC Version)

My favourite 2D ones were Asterix, Simpsons, TMNT Turtles in Time, Knights of the Round, capcom AD&D brawlers, Final Fight, Mutation Nation, Captain Commando, Cadillac and Dinausaurs, and the best: THE PUNISHER

Spikeout Street Battle

If they made a new Splatterhouse game in the style of Splatterhouse 3 but in 3D, then i might just very well shit myself.

I also liked Zombie Revenge, though I know a lot of people had trouble with its major difficulty level. That was not an easy game.

I would say the best, standard 3D beat-em-up I've played, in recent memory, is Spikeout Street Battle. In a lot of ways, it stays true to the Streets of Rage formula, more than the others, allows players to join in, while still spicing up a lot of *more advanced* moves and such. It's good fun, throws in a few Virtua Fighter-isms for good measure, but is also quite tough to beat.

I don't know what it is with Sega, but while they still seem to show they know what Beat em ups are; they really space out their releases and don't know how to make a comfortable difficulty level with which to attract more than the hardcore with.

Needless to say, I'm only including stuff attempting to be a standard beat-em-up; I'm not including single player only, or games that really are fighting action adventure (God of War, Ninja Gaiden, Rygar (which could pretty much be a less *graphically violent* predecessor of GoW), etc.)

Like others have stated, I don't think there is one that matches 2d era type goodness, but for the sake of the thread:
Zombie Revenge
Dynamite Cop

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Originally Posted by Lastblade

Spikeout Street Battle

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i was waiting for someone to say this. :lol:


biggest letdown/worst game ever. :oh_no:

Zombie Revenge is a solid brawler. I also liked Sword of the Berserk for the DC and Fighting Force for the PS1.

That being said, no game or games will ever be able to replace classics like Final Fight, Double Dragon (S), Bad Dudes and so on. Those games will always be the benchmark for brawlers.

Dead or Alive all of them

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Originally Posted by Pocketgamer

Dead or Alive all of them

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thats like saying final fantasy is the best first person shooter.

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Originally Posted by Buro Destruct

Despite what people say, I really like '"The Bouncer". Its short, its horribly linear, but it has a decent combat system with some nice visuals.

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I agree.

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Originally Posted by SouthtownKid

I still like Zombie Revenge.

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Hah - I will never forget Zombie Revenge, mainly because of that weird afro guy that spoke japanese.

Does the Dynasty Warriors series count?

Otherwise I'll agree with Zombie's Revenge and Dynamite Cop. Fighting Force on the PS1 was OK. Gauntlet Legends was fairly decent as well - "Green Warrior needs food."

I'd say Dynamite Cop and Zombie Revenge.

They really need to update River City Ransom in 3D.

What about Fighting Force for PS1? I enjoyed that game...for awhile.

Was Gekido on PSX any good? Or was it on PS2. I cant remember.

The GBA one was good...... but thats 2D and not whats going on here

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Originally Posted by FeelGood

i was waiting for someone to say this. :lol:


biggest letdown/worst game ever. :oh_no:

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I disagree, I find it to be a pleasant surprise. The only thing is that it is abit tough and the default control scheme isn't that great. With a good joystick, this is a fun beatem up (not that we have alot to choose from in this generation).

dynasty warriors counts and i actually think its one of the few that can compete with oldschool beat em ups. though the concept is extremely tired now and each game gets suckier and suckier because of their unwillingness to add anything new to the series (i actually only plaued the first one. only played the sequels like an hour each). koei or whoever makes them relies on their otaku fanbase to keep buying the rehash sequels.


also, kingdom under fire is prolly my favorite 3d beat em up. i love how they incorporated a strategy/army aspect into it. too bad there are a couple of glaring bugs/problem that really jack the fun factor. im looking forward to the sequel thats coming out soon.

Demolish Fist is kinda decent imo ...

Zombie Revenge.

But I'm really looking forward to Urban Reign, Fists of Vengeance, and the new, poser Final Fight, just to see how it turns out.

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Originally Posted by Diavle18

Crisis Beat (PS1).

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Best 3D beat-em-up EVAR! Well Die Hard Arcade is pretty damn close, but :buttrock: If you guys haven't played it, you guys definetly should. I rarely recommend games because I know we all have our seperate taste and money shouldn't be thrown around just because "some other guy" told you so aka magizine/web reviews. But this is as close as a 2D beat-em-up as you can get in 3D.

http://www.geomatrix.com.br/psx_crisisbeat.jpg

The game consist of four characters or two teams. If you play single player, you can pick anyone, but if you play co-op (the way beat-em-ups are meant to be played ;) ) they have to go in set teams.

The first team is (using picture above for reference) guy on the cover in the brown jacket and the lady in the red dress. This team is for people who like to get up close and personal, good for co-op juggling (we'll get to that later... :drool_2: ). From the get go, you can see he's wearing Terry Bogard's apparel (minus the Fatal Fury hat :drool: ) and he pretty much fights like him also; street style. His special move is a twirling uppercut with flames around it aka Ken, hey its a Japanese game after all :kekeke: The lady in red is a Nina and Cammy combination. Grapple type with that twirling leg thing Cammy does.

The second team is the guy in the tuxedo (my favorite :cool: ) and the girl with the mop. This team is for people who like to keep a distance between you and the baddie. You can't juggle as much, but hey, atleast your alive :emb: ). The guy is a straight up kick boxer, he doesn't use his hands at all. Pretty much your Tekken Hwoang without hands. The girl is your typical "girl" in beat em ups, not very strong, but her broom has twirling moves to keep the bad guy in the air so your friend can have extra time to get ready to continue the juggle.

It says I have too much text, I better continue on the next post~*~

Let's get onto gameplay (had no idea I was going to turn this into a review; sorry :( ). The directional pad movies your character (duh!) and combat uses five buttons. Two types of attacks (weak & strong), jump, dash, and special move (wastes health everytime it connects, defintely something that only applies to beat-em-ups :D ). You can press weak, weak, weak, weak, weak for your basic combo or mix it up. Weak, weak, strong, weak, strong, etc. All the enviroments are usable, chairs, tables, guns, CHRISTMAS TREES :kekeke: , etc You can either pick up the items, or line up the baddie in front of it and knock him onto it for extra style points, the game camera even shifts over when you do it for extra cheese factor! :kekeke: The badguys are you standard melee type, jumping type, gun type, etc. But what I really love is how the bosses really give it that old school feeling by each of them having their own set of patterns or special moves. Like when one boss falls, he likes to dash forward when he gets up, etc :smirk: But as I mentioned earlier, it's all about the air juggles ;) You and your buddy can play vollyball all day with standard enemy or boss. Since theres no max limit on how many hits you can keep them in the air, if done right, you can take out a boss in one massive combo, a guilty pleasure indeed. :emb:

http://www.nlgaming.com/games/972/1.jpg

http://www.ncsx.com/www/ncs052598/crisisb1.jpg

http://www.ncsx.com/www/ncs052598/crisisb2.jpg

This game only comes in Jap and PAL format, It's on ebay right now for a measly 2.99 pounds or $5 on ebay right now. Please check it out, you won't regret it - ENJOY! :buttrock:




- This game has been approved by The Legend Of Speed :cool:

Nice review, thanks! :)

Dynamite Deka series, Zombie Revenge, Fighting Force 64...that's all that comes to mind.

The Japanese Saturn box art for DD is beast because it has Bruce Willis. yus.

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Originally Posted by FeelGood

dynasty warriors counts and i actually think its one of the few that can compete with oldschool beat em ups. though the concept is extremely tired now and each game gets suckier and suckier because of their unwillingness to add anything new to the series

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Well they have been adding new features in every installment but there's only so much they can do. The series is based on the history of China so they can't really change the battles much (somehow they've managed to do it to an extent). They have been slowly balancing the characters though.

There are rip-off ROTK games which take the characters from the series, change the names and play with the enemies to make a completely different storyline and are probably better beat-em up's. They're all in 2D though. You may remember the old "Warriors of Fate" by Capcom - http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...rs_Of_Fate.png http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...1107638864.jpg

and Sammy/IGS released one not too long ago which was awesome.
http://www.system16.com/other/hrdw_atomiswave.html
Just scroll down to Knights of Valour: The Seven Spirits

If Koei decided to ditch the storyline and take the existing characters models they could create something far more superior. In the past people complained about the lack of female characters. Not really Koei's fault, Sun Shang Xiang and Zhu Rong were the only 2 women in history who actually fought in battles. Diao Chan was a songstress who whored herself out to Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo. Zhen Ji was just Cao Pi's wife and the new recruit in DW5 Xing Cai is just Zhang Fei's daughter (possibly made up just to add more female characters).

Oh and whoever mentined Gekido, it's a very poor 3D brawler on the PS1.

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Originally Posted by FeelGood

i was waiting for someone to say this. :lol:


biggest letdown/worst game ever. :oh_no:

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Says the biggest spammer.

Spikeout is a great beat em up and it's good to see it came out. It's a blast on Live.

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Originally Posted by GregN.

I'd say Dynamite Cop and Zombie Revenge.

They really need to update River City Ransom in 3D.

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I'd agree on this only if ATLUS (since they did the GBA version and TECHNOS JAPAN is no more to my understanding) did it justice. I don't know how SD characters with that anime look would carry over into 3-D. Others have tried it and it just looks dumb. Thus I think the game should be left alone to be the classic it is.

GK

Is HOKUTO NO KEN a game based off that anime where some guy would go around poking people in the head then they would explode?

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Originally Posted by Pudding X

Is HOKUTO NO KEN a game based off that anime where some guy would go around poking people in the head then they would explode?

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YEP, that's the one man. And that freggin' anime TV series both HNK and NHK 2 beat down 86% of the crap being released now too. The PSX/PSone game I showcased on page 1 is also the best usage of the license in terms of a "roving brawler" anyhow. The Famicom games are forgetful, the MegaDrive version is okay but only worth it as a collectors item and the Atomiswave game has yet to prove itself. The game could stand on it's own merits but being a Hokuto No Ken game was all the more awesome.

GK

DieHard Arcade last 3d one i played sorry folks.

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Originally Posted by Nesagwa

Was Gekido on PSX any good? Or was it on PS2. I cant remember.

The GBA one was good...... but thats 2D and not whats going on here

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Gekido on PS1 was not good. The GBA one was good, but like you said that one is 2D.

Zombie Revenge is ACE... there still is a cab in a downtown pay-once-play-all arcade (Stage 2000) over here, and I always make sure to stop by and go on Zombie killing once a week after my weekly "IT support day" for one of my customers who happens to reside just a few streets away from the 'cade.

The DC version is just as good as the Naomi original, btw.

I got a kick out of Fighting Force for PSX for a while, my friend Stefan and me used to play it for weeks, but it sort of got stale after a month or so.

There's another PSX brawler that I played for a couple of weeks, it's called Crisisbeat and was a JPN-only release IIRC. Graphics and presentation were so-so, but the engine was quite okay with some interesting string combos.

Also, I like the Dynasty Warriors series, but I guess they're too strategic to be pure brawlers.

Spikeout Battlestreet isn't that bad IMO, but it came too late, given that it was planned to be released on DC...

Zombie Revenge! I got that shortly after getting my DC that oh so sweet christmas. I've never beaten it, but my brother's friend has. He played that game more then I did, but still a fun game.

Dynamite Cop/Dynamite Deka 2 (better than Die Hard Arcade IMO)

it's probably the only 3D beat'em up that I play religiously

To be honest, I'm waiting for a perfect port of Final Fight. I have to locate a copy of that Crisis Beat now, thanks guys

I'm always interested in good beat'em ups

Fighting Force is probably my favorate - despite its brevity and rough graphics. The fact hat you can rip stuff out of the scenery and use it to beat the shit outta people with is really neat (and something too many modern brawlers skimp on)
Its brevity makes it great for replayability as well - excellent for wasting an hour.

Dynasty Warriors 4/5 games are great as well, I probably play these games more than any other genre - though I guess some might not count them as pure 'brawlers'.

Spikeout Battle Strret was pure shite (IMO) - for way too many reasons to list.

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Originally Posted by genjuro1

Gekido on PS1 was not good. The GBA one was good, but like you said that one is 2D.

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I disagree. Gekido on PSone is the only truly good one that I've played, aside from Die Hard Arcade. The Bouncer had plenty of potential, but it just didn't live up to the hype (I don't mind going back to it every once in a while though). The glory days were pretty much the 2D beat'em-ups of the past, especially the SoR series. It's been well over a decade since I played Final Fight 2, and I've never played 3, but the first one, while solid, has enemies that pull so much more BS than any other ones in a game of its type and stages that go on for much too long (possibly a result of the gameplay getting old after a matter of minutes) that it's absurd, with a soundtrack that doesn't even come close to making up for it.

Honestly, the only way I see a great 3D one being made is if by some miracle I'm working for a developer in the near future and leading such a project myself. Otherwise, we're pretty much stuck with crap like Urban Reign, Beat Down, and Final Fight: Streetwise...

EDIT: By the first one, I mean FF1 (can't remember all that much about FF2, but I do remember liking it a bit better).

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Originally Posted by Korigama

Honestly, the only way I see a great 3D one being made is if by some miracle I'm working for a developer in the near future and leading such a project myself. Otherwise, we're pretty much stuck with crap like Urban Reign, Beat Down, and Final Fight: Streetwise...

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:crying:

Oh gawd I had managed to forget about that. I seriously don't see WTF the problem is in a company making the most balls out roving brawler in High Resolution 2-D, multiple paths, 4 or more possible endings, a Bare Knuckles like soundtrack (hell get Koshiro on it) and market the hell out the game where even the most 3-D reared mainstreamer would feel like he/she's missing out if they didn't buy/play the game. Instead though we get Capcom bastardizing their old franchise (and BTW Final Fight Tough [#3] wasn't as bad as #2) into what it is while Namco inserts Tekken characters that don't belong into their game Urban Reign. Shit... now I feel like powering up either some Downtown Nekketsu Story or Bare Knuckles.

GK

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Originally Posted by Buro Destruct

Despite what people say, I really like '"The Bouncer". Its short, its horribly linear, but it has a decent combat system with some nice visuals.

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I agree, too bad it's probably one of the most easily forgotten yet hyped launch games.

Die Hard Arcade fo sho, everything about that game is cool, and even all my friends still dig it till this day.

Chrisis Beat..........Fist of North Star on PSOne, well worth peoples time.

Oh God, not another one...

http://www.konami.com/gs/crimelife/

I just thought of a game, but I think some people would not consider it a true brawler/beat 'em up. I thought Rise to Honor on the PS2 was good.

And just wanted to say one more thing about the Fist of the North Star PS1 Import. The only thing that I thought that game lacked (and this is a very small gripe) is you couldn't use any foreign objects to hit the enemies with. In the manga/anime Ken would (albeit very rarely) use nunchucks on people, or a rail or pipe to wack people with. I wish you could have done this in game, but even without this, it's still, IMO the best 3D Brawler I've played.