Bookmark This Page; the great fantasy fighting games

I love fighting games of all types, some of the most unique were fantasy inspired. If you want to learn about some of the best then Bookmark This Page.

Golden Axe the Duel, the great fantasy fighting games part 1...

Dragon's Heaven, the great fantasy fighting games part 2...

Warzard, the great fantasy fighting games part 3...

Asura Blade Sword of Dynasty, the great fantasy fighting games part 4...

Asura Buster Eternal Warriors, the great fantasy fighting games part 5...

Chaos Breaker - Dark Awake, the great fantasy fighting games part 6...

Battle Fantasia, the great fantasy fighting games, final part...

Did you get a chance to play any of these fantasy fighters? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Street Writer Podcast, episode 10

As always if you enjoyed this podcast and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better entries!

Golden Axe the Duel, the great fantasy fighting games part 1...

The fighting game genre is as broad and colorful as any adventure or action game that’s ever been made. Many people think that fighting games are simply about two martial arts masters going at each other. Long time fans of the genre know that there is much more to it than that. Fighting games took off at the start of the ‘90s and by the middle of the decade every major studio was experimenting with the format. Early on the developers tried to copy the framework set up by Capcom with Street Fighter II. The more successful companies experimented with control schemes, graphics and gameplay mechanics to try to stand out from the rest. Over the next decade there were fighting games about giant monsters, superheroes, robots and even serial killers. One of the rarely discussed themes in the fighting format goes back to the earliest types of games. Before there were video games there were tabletop games. Titles like Dungeons and Dragons took their inspiration from fantasy literature. Books like The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia, as well as the older faerie tales from the Brother’s Grimm and even the legend of Arthur and the Knights of the Round table all helped shape tabletop games. Pop culture was also colored by the heroes from ancient tradition. Comics, movies and cartoons based on fantasy characters made their way into the open. In the mid ‘90s when fighting game developers were looking for some new themes to explore they looked to to those fantasy titles. What they created was a series of unique titles that deserved a second look. This new series will highlight some of the most unique games in the fantasy genre.

 

The first fantasy fighter of merit was Golden Axe The Duel. It was developed by Wow Entertainment and published by Sega in 1994. The game was important for many reasons. Sega, just like every major publisher at the time, wanted to create a hit fighting game. Virtua Fighter, released in 1993, was a moderate hit but it did not generate the buzz of Street Fighter II. AM2 developed Virtua Fighter and would focus on trying to represent realistic fighting styles in their 3D engine. It didn’t quite have all of the elements that made Street Fighter II work. By contrast Wow Entertainment thought that by creating a cast of stylized characters, and allowing magic and realism to co-exist in the fighting engine they would be able to capture lighting in a bottle. They came close to doing just that.

   

Sega was following the template laid out by Capcom very carefully. It was apparent in the earliest stages of the game design. The original poster sketch for The Duel looked very familiar. It would be changed by the time the game was released in the arcade and later the Saturn home console. In case you are not old enough to remember the original Street Fighter II poster from 1991, it featured Ryu in a side profile. Behind him were the rest of the World Warriors. The poster concept for The Duel featured Kain Blade in the same pose with the other characters around him. Capcom’s painting was such an iconic piece that Nintendo would reproduce it almost 25 years later to celebrate the inclusion of Ryu in the Smash Bros. game.

 

Every fantasy game that I bring up over the course of this series will have a few things in common. The fantasy elements in each game will have a decidedly western theme. Even though the majority of the games will be from Japan, they will be using mostly western images. This goes with literal dungeons and dragons, skulls, faeries, orcs, ogres, castles, swamps, basically anything that’s ever been referenced in a western fantasy world. In some cases the studio might mix in a few Eastern fantasy characters and demons but for the most part they will be reflecting the themes explored by western writers. For example in Golden Axe The Duel, the audience will be brought into the world of Yuria. Just about every fighting game in the early ‘90s featured some sort of map. The fantasy ones were no different.

Some of the maps were animated, featuring floating castles, sea serpents and other mythical characters decorating the edges. Each stage featured in the various titles brought forward some unique locations. Golden Axe The Duel had some of the most memorable visuals of any fighter. Sega wanted to create a world with some consistent elements. This was not a strictly medieval world but something with steam elements to it as well. The more advanced kingdoms, such as that of Windwood, harnessed the power of the wind, whereas Dark Island were a twisted place where magic reigned supreme. Depending on where you were in the world there was often a mix of fantasy and realism.

 

The industrious dwarfs lived in caves, drank heartily and mined for their resources, yet this didn’t mean that they had sole dominion over the metallurgical arts. The human fighter Panchos was also a steampunk inventor. His stage, set near a gigantic boiler, featured some mechanical creations, including a feminine robot that was ironing some clothes. These were whimsical details but they all added layers to the world Sega was trying to present. They helped frame the characters and show the the world of Yuria was just as interesting as any other fantasy video game world.

 

Some of the villages featured in The Duel were trading outposts. They were filled with many colorful characters and weird monsters. These things often called out to earlier games in the series. The towns ranged from open and welcoming to secluded and backwards. Any artist studying level design should take apart the stages featured in The Duel. They might learn a few things about storytelling through the environment.

   

For example look at two of the most exotic places in the game, the Crystal Haven and the Urupagu Forest. There are no places like this on Earth, nor have places like this even been featured in most fantasy movies. Look at the colors used in the stages. The transparencies, lighting, and layers of detail. How long have these places been around? What magic or curse turned them into hideouts for the most desperate villains? How did the stages reinforce the theme applied to the character? The Crystal Haven was an oddity, there were inventions, ships and even people frozen in crystal. It was the stage for Keel, a mysterious Dark Elf that had mage control over water and ice and could even shape shift into liquid. Did he create the stage or did he discover some form of magic while exploring it? Urupagu Forest seemed equally exotic and just as dangerous. There was a cloud of swamp gas floating in the background, the settlement in the background seemed to be made of a giant husk covered in poisonous barbs. Its resident fighter was a savage man named Green who was also covered in poisonous barbs.

 

Golden Axe The Duel had an advantage over Virtua Fighter when it debuted. Sega had been in operation for decades and they had name recognition on their side. Although they did not create the first fighting games Golden Axe the Duel was part of a legacy almost as old as Street Fighter II. The Duel was borrowing characters and canon from one of the most influential brawlers of all time. Of course I am referring to the original Golden Axe. In 1989 the brawler, sometimes called the beat-em-up was growing by leaps and bounds. That year saw the introduction of three important games, Golden Axe, Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (River City Ransom) and Final Fight. Of the three games Golden Axe was the only one based in a swords and sorcery world. It had influences, including audio cues pulled directly from the film Conan. The game featured three adventurers, Ax Battler, Gilius Thunderhead and Tyrus Flare. The three warriors were on the hunt of the giant known as Death Adder. The game was considered a godfather of the hack-and-slash sub-genre.

 

Golden Axe was one of the first brawlers to feature mounts as well as branching paths. Players could explore the world of Yuria, the tiny outposts, small villages, castle ruins and even find themselves riding atop a giant eagle or sea turtle. It was very much ahead of its time. The game was very popular in the arcade and would get released on multiple consoles and the PC. It would get a number of sequels that expanded on the canon established in the first game. Some of the sequels featured just one or two of the original characters yet all of the games were related in some way.

   

Sega hoped that the Golden Axe name would bring fighting audiences around. It worked for the arcades that did have the title. Despite pulling influences from Street Fighter, it was closer to Samurai Spirits/Shodown games from SNK in that the characters all fought with swords. The fighters all had unique special attacks using their specific fictional martial art. The “super” attacks were the results of using magic vials. The magic system had been established in the early brawlers and this simply carried the tradition over. Characters that were not wizards or spell-casters could still use magic, they did this by using bottles of magical potion that summoned dragons, monsters and even earthquakes. It was a unique gameplay mechanic that hadn’t been explored in any other fighting game.

   

The game used a sprite-based graphics engine, as did the majority of fighting games of that era. Where Sega separated it from the crowd was in the scaling of the sprites and stages. There was some scaling technology used in the Samurai Spirits titles as well. The engine used for The Duel allowed for an extreme degree of scaling. It also allowed for transparencies and other effects to be rendered in layers on screen. This graphics engine was superior to the one that Capcom had used in Street Fighter II. The artists at WOW Entertainment tried to make the most out of the extensive color palette. They tried to preserve the design aesthetic of the series, based loosely on the fantasy paintings by Frank Frazetta. When Kain performed his flame attack for example the colors used on the sprite created the illusion of shadows, and reflections on his skin. It was a brilliant detail on the otherwise two dimensional character.

   

Despite the bold sprites the cast was filled with tropes. The first three characters mirrored the heroes from the original brawler. Which was fine but some of the other characters were a little bit questionable. The feral, jungle-girl character Jamm debuted at about the same time as Cham Cham from Samurai Shodown II. Few people could say they ever saw Jamm in a game but an entire generation remembers Cham Cham. The amazonian character was revisited again with Rila Estansia from Breakers, a Visco title from 1996. Again, not many fighting game fans remember these wild women, save for Cham Cham. 

 

Golden Axe The Duel made a critical mistake. It broke one of the cardinal rules of fighting game design and stole the look of a character. This was obvious with Green, a wild man that wanted to become human and be with his own kind. In look and temperament he was almost a dead-ringer for Blanka, the Brazilian wild man from Street Fighter II. This blatant rip-off hurt the credibility of the publisher.

 

Sega tried to create a diverse cast with different moves and abilities to appeal to the fans of the genre. They even made the main villain of the original game, Death Adder into a boss character. They were acknowledging the Golden Axe legacy while creating a lineup that appealed to everyone. Where they really surprised audiences was with the true final villain in the game. Death Adder was a powerful opponent but he was subservient to the magical Golden Axe.

 

It turned out that the axe could manifest itself as a golden armored warrior. The magical creature was even bigger than the already gigantic Death Adder. Every character had their own reason for wanting the Golden Axe. Some craved its power, some feared it. Others wanted to seal it away or use it as an ingredient in a magical spell. Whatever the reason it pushed the plot of the game forward and helped add more dimension to the universe that Sega had created.

   

Sadly it would be the only fighter based on that universe. The majority of the characters, locations and canon featured in The Duel would not return in other versions of the franchise. Those that enjoy emulated fighting games should check it out and see how it stacks up to other fighting games from the era. Those that enjoy diverse themes and presentations might also get a kick out of this game.

   

Did you get a chance to play this in the arcade? Were you a fan of the Golden Axe series? I'd like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Abridged History of the Brawler, part 4

The games featured today were the best examples of how the brawler was shaping the game industry and creating sub-genres in its wake. 1989 was the year that showed it was not simply enough to follow the trend, studios had to innovate and change the genre in order to keep the momentum going. The first title was a sort of high water mark for the brawling sub-genre better known as the hack-and-slash.

Golden Axe developed by Sega was a sword and sorcery take on the brawler. It featured three characters, a barbarian like warrior known as Axe Battler, a dwarf named Gilius Thunderhead and a female warrior named Tyris Flare. All three fought with weapons instead of their bare hands across a medieval fantasy setting. They could take down rogues, bandits and monsters. In several portions the characters could even mount dragon-like creatures and burn down opponents. The trio of fighters were set to defeat a barbarian lord named Death Adder (which always was a cool name) before he could claim the Golden Axe and the kingdom that followed it.

The game was important to the history of the brawler for the design and magic system that went along with it. Although it was infamous for a sound bite or two they ripped off of the movie Conan the Barbarian. The characters were fun but for the adolescent boys playing, the warrior Tyris was the memorable one. A perfect tan, a toned figure and a tiny white bikini weren’t quite the things people thought of as suitable for a warrior until Tyris came along. Tyris also sported the most powerful magic attacks in the game making her a practical choice and not just a sex object.

The fantasy themes worked well for the genre but were cemented by the exotic locations featured on the travels to find Death Adder. One level, which appeared like an island actually took place atop a giant sea turtle as it moved from port to port. Another branching path was set on the back of a giant eagle. Branching paths was a new feature in video games and Golden Axe was among the first, if not the first arcade title to use them. Incorporating a tremendous sense of scale had not been done in any previous brawler. The magic system itself was completely unique among brawlers. Players collected magic vials by hitting tiny thieves. Each level of magic required a set amount of vials. Once the player had collected them they could activate the magic at any time. The more vials required to activate a spell then the more damage it did to opponents. Players learned to save a magic attack for when they were surrounded by opponents or the final boss himself.

By this point the industry was clearly interested in the brawler and they were trying to bring the experience to home systems. Technos released a variation of the brawler with a Japanese High School theme titled Downtown Nekketsu Monogata. It was set in the same continuity as the arcade title Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun. For a while Technos actually had Kunio-kun act as a mascot. When that game came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America we knew it better as River City Ransom. The limited processing power, color palette and memory of the NES meant that there was no way that the 8-bit console would be able to match anything the arcade had.

Technos succeeded in creating a memorable brawling experience by creating small stylized figures out of the Japanese high school characters. The smaller figures required less details and animations and the memory saved on limiting the detail on each character meant that more rivals could be drawn on screen by the processor. To keep the NES from being overworked the environment was limited to a strict, flat battleground while still allowing for backgrounds to change and show that characters were advancing through the city. In the end it was a pocket version of the brawler and proof that consoles were capable of carving their own niche with the genre.

With that said Konami was going to point out how the arcade brawler could get away with things not allowed by Nintendo’s policies which were a form of game censorship. In the arcade they released Crime Fighters. It was a large 4-player cabinet featuring generic characters wearing white shirts and four different colored pants. Talk about taking the quick road to character design! The game was notable for a few reasons. The designers created large, detailed environments for the four players to fight in an around. The characters were smaller than those featured in other brawlers but proportional unlike the River City Ransom figures.

The game pandered to just about every adolescent boy’s fantasy. It was a cool version of New York with plenty of brightly colored graffiti covering the walls and lots of fighting. It was extremely violent as well, more so than even Double Dragon. Rivals could knee the player in the groin players could hit opponents with lead pipes and even use a handgun, which was against the code of fair fighting for most brawlers. There was also a bit of sex appeal with a lot of cleavage shown in a billboard early on in the game, not to mention that rival female gang members were dressed like dominatrix’s and used whips on the players. Crime Fighters would never have been released on a Nintendo console without some serious retooling.

The game itself was fun but very difficult. Every credit gave players a set amount of health and that health counted down slowly. Taking damage from opponents caused the energy to drain faster. Thankfully some of the damage could be recovered at the end of the level based on how many opponents were defeated. That was of course if the player managed to beat the boss characters. The bosses were larger variations on the gang members, each boss having a gimmick like wielding a chainsaw or fighting with wrestling moves.

The hardest part of the game was the end in which all of the bosses had to be defeated in a battle royal. Konami wasn’t mincing things, they wanted one of the most difficult and quarter-hungry games of all-time. It did fairly well in arcades, however there was another brawler released that same year which took the lion’s share of profits.

Final Fight by Capcom was the heir apparent to Double Dragon. In fact the producers went into the project trying to dethrone the game. For the most part it was mission accomplished. Visually the game was a great leap ahead of the Taito brawler. The sprites were larger, more detailed and better animated. The designs of the heroes and rival Mad Gear gang members would become brawling archetypes. For players there was a large and powerful character that moved slowly but could deal great damage with his wrestling moves. There was also a smaller martial artist that struck very quickly and whose quick punches and kicks could stun opponents approaching from any direction. Then there was a character in the middle that had strength and speed at his disposal. For the gang members there were character types that mirrored the heroes. The world that they inhabited, a certain Metro City, would become part of Street Fighter canon.

The plot was familiar, a girl was kidnapped and a team had to come to her rescue. Arcade players were treated to a shot of Jessica Haggar in her bra tied to a chair. This bit of skin already made the game more mature than other brawlers. This show would be toned down and even removed in future revisions and home versions. It turned out that she was the daughter of Mike Haggar the mayor of Metro City. The former champion pro wrestler recruits Jessica’s fiancé Cody and his martial arts trainer Guy to go into battle. The rest of the game was a lesson in flawless design and execution.

Players were taken through the boroughs of Metro City on the way to rescue Jessica from the crime lord Belger. The Mad Gear gang members hanging out, seemingly every few feet, waiting for their chance to take on the advancing heroes. Along the way new boss characters were introduced. Sodom, Rolento and Andore, that would become legendary in future Capcom fighting games. The game had the right amount of difficulty and challenge. Patient players could pick off most opponents and use all the time available to them to clear each stage with a minimal amount of health lost. Those that wanted to go all out and have all three players on screen at once for some mayhem could do the same at the risk of wasting plenty of quarters. Those that went full tilt into the game experienced the best that the brawler had to offer.

The arcade was the original social gaming experience. Players did not have the luxury of being connected to a network and having players across the country or around the world be able to drop into the action. If a player needed help clearing a stage then a friend or family member would have to be standing with them, fighting the good fight. Ask any player that remembers clearing a fighting game how much fun was had when the battle was a shared experience. Memories were made and bonds grew stronger when players could say that they fought from beginning to end with a good friend. It was that way for my brother and our friends when we visited the Cal State Long Beach campus while still in high school.

We were on a school field trip and Final Fight had been released earlier. A brand new cabinet was waiting in the campus arcade. Instead of enjoying our lunch my brother and friends decided we were going to beat the game and earn the bragging rights among the other gamers at school. The risk of not eating was not as big as missing the bus back to school. We were determined that nothing was going to stop us and played through level after level. Frantically running back and forth between the change machine and the cabinet to keep us engaged when the lives started running out. Defeating wave after wave of the relentless Mad Gear gang members with a combination of shoulder throws, jumping piledrivers and spinning back kicks. Surviving the cheap shots by bosses and their countless minions. Getting a small group of classmates gathered around the machine rooting us on and at long last kicking Belger out of a window and reuniting Cody with Jessica. Those memories would never be replaced in our collective consciousness. It was more than 20 years ago today yet the memories remain vivid as ever. Proof that gaming could have a profound impact on our lives. Yet the brawler would not be done shaping our gaming tastes The new decade would see the genres pulled in many different directions all at once. I hope to see you back for the next blog which will look at how the 1990s saw some of the defining moments in all of gaming. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!