MEAN STREETS PART 2 - THE HOLY TRILOGY

By 1986 beat 'em ups were becoming increasingly popular. Irem had all but defined the initial concept for the scrolling beat 'em up with Kung-Fu master 2 years earlier and arcade goers were getting a real taste of some decent martial arts action but the latter half of the 80's saw what could be described at the holy trilogy of scrollers with the clear evolution that came with each game although some notable mentions were made around the same time that gave gamers some proper mash fun!

With Renegade in 1986 putting a new twist on the genre with it's depth of field play and all out style of violence new things were cooking bin the brawler pot and even though the game wasn't exactly a smash hit in 1987 Technos took the bare bones of their creation, splashed some superior graphics and sound on it with a real dirty street punk vibe and so was born the most important step forward for the genre probably in history and the first in the holy trilogy -

Double Dragon.

Double Dragon started the two player phenominon

Double Dragon was the landmark that everyone had been waiting for. The graphics were bright, colourful well animated and smooth and the sound contained some of the most legendary game music ever to be composed as well as some amazingly meaty sampled punch and kick sound effects which really added a lot to the impact of the game. Double Dragon's main feature though, was the addition of the simultaneous 2-player mode where you and a friend could play on screen at the same time fighting the baddies (or each other) together. This idea was revolutionary at the time and added an element to the gameplay that just wasn't present beforehand.

  For it's time and even now to be honest, Double Dragon is actually quite brutal. There are a few flowery martial arts moves but this game is a brawler in the truest sense of the word with some proper dirty fighting techniques like grabbing a baddie's hair and kneeing him in the face or a blunt headbutt or elbow to the teeth. Even the opening scene of your girlfriend Marion being punched in the stomach and dragged away was a bold move and when you step back and look at it it really is quite strong stuff. What was also rather refreshing is that the fighting in the game wasn't entirely unlike real life. If you hit an enemy there's a good chance you would get hit back at the same time and as we all now it's rare to come out of a real life fight and not look like you've lost even though you won. The balance of good guy to baddie was pretty even and make no mistake, these enemies were pretty smart so being the baddass hero wasn't enough in Double Dragon, you had to position yourself correctly (as in real life) and judge things like striking distance, enemy movement, the odds that the baddie would move back as you hit and all while two other grunts were pummelling into your back (oo-er!).

Technos went on to make two sequels, the innovative but not-so-very-different Double Dragon II: The Revenge (or Double Dragon 1.5 as I like to call it) and the bunglingly awful Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stones. The sequels never topped the first game's action gameplay but they did both have amazing music. It's easy to see why Double Dragon was so popular at the time and has lasted so well. It's 'guy' appeal is almost overwhelming and it's a tough game to crack too. Later beat em' ups appeared which offered bigger graphics and more impressive moves but for a down and dirty street fight with scars, grubby fingernails and teeth that really bite you just couldn't, and still can't go wrong with Double Dragon.

In 1988 Techmo entered the field with their offering and the second in the holy trilogy. Not only did they take the scrolling beat 'em up formula one step further but they unknowingly started a Nintendo Entertainment System revolution as well. Ninja Ryukenden was released in October 1988 in Japan under the name Shadow Warriors in Europe and Ninja Gaiden in the U.S.. The game did reasonably well and took the concept of Double Dragon where players 1 and 2 control a blue and red ninja respectively and go around more grubby urban settings kicking ass to try and foil a prophecy by Nostradamus (what?).

Shadow Warriors was the first to bring acrobatics and breakable objects to the fights

Shadow Warriors gives the player control of some rather flashy moves, the ninja(s) could perform some stunning acrobatics such as flips and wall somersaults and a few of these could be used to trigger attacks like the neck throw which looked pretty badass at the time. As many will probably recognise by now from the name, Shadow Warriors/Ninja Gaiden was ported to the Nintendo NES in 1989. It wasn't a straight port but converted into an action platformer with a whole new story which spawned two sequels. Ninja Gaiden on the NES became a worldwide phenomenon due to it's ultra taxing gameplay and never before seen Techmo theatre cutscenes which not only made it stand out from other games but sadly also eclipsed the arcade original which made some tremendous leaps forward for the scrolling genre. Shadow Warriors the arcade game was the very first to offer an attack combo instead of just punch and kick buttons. It was also the first scroller to feature breakable objects and scenery which had absolutely never been done before (weapons and such were usually already lying around or brought on by goons!) and became a staple of the genre that disappointingly people forget that this game started.

The Turtles arcade game offered 4 player madness

Konami hit the fun button in 1989 with the Teenage Mutant Ninja (Hero....whatever) Turtles arcade game. Strikingly good visuals and sound for the time, the game offered a then unheard of simultaneous FOUR player mode in which you could control all the Turtles on screen at the same time and although an obvious cash in on the Turtles craze and very much a shallow coin guzzler with not much skill other than frantic button mashing which produced what seemed like random moves it was good fun nonetheless. Konami later updated the engine and cabinet for The Simpsons arcade game which in all respects was really the same game in different garb.

Also in 1989 a new game was released which set the world ablaze and is the third and final instalment in the holy trilogy of scrollers. Capcom were already an established company having created the hugely popular Megaman series on the Nintendo NES in the 80's and their arcade division had already released a string of title on the then mega powerful CPS-1 arcade system but the next one would change everything forever.

Final Fight peaked the genre while breaking new ground in all areas

Final Fight was released in 1989 and put simply there was absolutely nothing like it. Nothing! The graphics were monstrous, with HUGE sprites all cluttered around the screen with some amazing animation and thumping music and sound effects, Final Fight took the concept of the scrolling beat 'em up to it's absolute peak. The game took the two button concept from Shadow Warriors and perfected the attack system with some blistering combos that could be achieved from a simple one button mash and then implemented the now legendary special or panic move, for when the enemies were just too much you could push both buttons at once to give a spectacular spinning attack which floored enemies on all sides though at the cost of some of your energy bar. The biggest distinguishing feature of Final Fight though was one that would make Capcom's 'other' game so popular in that it offered up a selection of different characters to choose to play as, each with his own look and skills. This gave the gameplay tremendous depth as playing with one character was completely different than playing with the rest and the beautiful thing was.....two players could play at the same time with two different characters fighting the bad guys and put simply, words cannot describe the absolute chaos on screen. The action was frantic, full of adrenalin and you just didn't want to stop (an expensive train of thought, even for 20p a go back in the day)

Gang Wars was fun but dated for it's release time in 1989

It's hard to describe just how revolutionary Final Fight was at the time but a good example is a comparison with Gang Wars, another scrolling beat 'em up also released in 1989 by SNK. Put side by side you can see the huge leap forward that Capcom made and how far ahead of the game they were. Gang Wars is essentially a Double Dragon clone with similar sized sprites and moves and although it's a fun enough game it looks incredibly dated when next to Capcom's monster despite being released the same year.

This was the state of arcades for the next two years and Final Fight reigned supreme amongst brawlers. The holy trilogy was complete although many clones were made well up to the end of the century, even by Capcom themselves with such game as Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (1993) and Alien Vs Predator (1994) which tried to replicate the success of Final Fight but never quite topped it. Sega's arcade division made a bold attempt in 1991 with the three player D.D. Crew which featured some awesome funky music and what looked like a 70's cop show feel but was let down by some pretty horrible hit detection leading to tons of cheap deaths. It would be Capcom again who would be the one's that realised the scrolling beat 'em up had reached it's pinnacle and there was only one way to take a mob of players, still hungry for arcade martial arts action.

In 1991 they changed the face of the beat' em up genre once again and probably for all time......

NEXT - Part 3: The Competition Stormblast

Striding forth from his lair at Castle Stareskull one morning, Prototron decided to not reign down terror on the villagers, but instead go back inside, crack open a beer and load up Streets Of Rage 2. One hundred years later, he's still there.  A avid music maker (of TERROR!) and retro gamer, he can be found whooping any and all heroes at all manner of SNK-based challenges.