My Life as a Gamer: Bring Me Brawlers

So, it's getting to be a broken record at this point. SJW says or does some dumb shit. Hoaxing Media says or does some dumb shit. Sensible folks sigh and point out the fucktards. Double-down, project, repeat.

You'll excuse me if I decline to spend a third day in a row on this topic. Instead I think I'll talk about something else, something fun. I think I'll talk about: Games.

There is one form of videogame I got into as a kid and still adore now in my 40s: the side-scrolling brawler. Double-Dragon, Golden Axe, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Final Fight, Warriors of Fate, Aliens vs. Predator, D&D Tower of Doom/Shadows Over Mystara, and more were my favorite games then and remain so now. The genre got eaten by fighting games, as I saw it, but the genre's been coming back for a few years now.

From where I sit, the big new brawler breakthrough was Castle Crashers, and with it a hit that became a standard to measure others against. About this time came Dragon's Crown, which still is a PS3 exclusive (C'mon, Atlus!), and since then we've seen more come out but nothing yet hit like those two did. (I should give Sacred: Citadel a try, and Viking Squad is on my Steam Wishlist.)

The newer brawlers have done something smart: incorporate persistent character progression, as if it were a proper RPG. So leveling up, buffing stats, improving gear, etc. are all things incorporated (to varying degrees by title) to the genre now. I liked that when I first ran into it with Tower of Doom, so damn right I like it now.

I just wish that more of the classic brawlers would be cleaned up and re-released now, like the two D&D games were. (Got those on Steam.) Especially the Capcom brawlers, which comprise so many of the classics of this genre. While AvP and Cadillacs are licensed from other IP, and thus unlikely to ever come out again, the others are Capcom's property and they are just leaving easy money on the table by not re-releasing them to PC and consoles. Some (like Warriors of Fate) never got proper releases in the U.S. and thus would be new games for a lot of people. Christ, Capcom- release the brawlers already.

Not much more I got to say, so here's a playthrough of another brawler that needs a console release right and proper: Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death-Adder, from 1992.