Side Scrolling Beat ‘em ups. Many of us that were conscious of the gaming world in the 80's to mid 90's know what they are. Those games where you and a buddy trade fists with the dopes that either killed a relative, ruined your city, or stole your woman (sometime all of the above) in hopes to set things straight. There are many of them in the time of their glory days: Double Dragon, Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Captain Commando, River City Ransom, Aliens VS Predator, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Comix Zone, the list can go on and on. Side Scrolling Beat ‘em Ups were all the rage teaming with licenses from comic books to cartoons.
Final Fight 2 Commercial (SNES)
SSBU's were where it's at. But where are they now? What happened to the short attention spanned button mashing pipe wielding war cries of the once established genre?
Alien VS Predator (Arcade)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)
Over the years arcades have been closing and Home Consoles have been technically advancing by leaps and bounds. Games also had to change to stay relevant (and sellable) to the advancing market. Sprites have slowly been evicted and replaced by polygons. Forcing franchises stuck in side-scrolling formulas to quietly find homes on the less advance handheld systems.
Final Fight One (GBA)
With visual marvels like Gears of War and Resident Evil 4 behind us with their respective sequels on the way SSBUs seem to be a thing of the past only older gamers that want to rehash old memories would fantasize about. There have only been a few attempts to revitalize the genre and it's franchises including Viewtiful Joe and Final Fight Streetwise- with less than stellar results when compared to the sales of their forefathers.
Luckily there is a small glimmer of hope. One of which is the loophole called downloadable games. For some reason downloadable games have a completely different set of "standards" that regular games have. You can download a cool side-scroller for any of your consoles and say "it's cool, it's a downloadable game." Whether it's a brand new experience like the fun and addictive Castle Crashers, or a timely classic like Golden Axe- The door to SSBUs seems to be creeping open again for another go. Some titles even look to innovate on foundations older games have set.
Castle Crashers (XBLA) this game rules!
The next glimmer of hope is a big one Street Fighter IV is setting to the table. That faithful wish is called 2.5D. If SFIV continues to be successful and explodes once it hits home consoles 2.5D can be the potential and fertile ground for new and returning SSBUs to shine again.
Street FIghter IV (Arcade)
With Final Fight's 20th Anniversary coming up, maybe we can hope Capcom's ready to dish something out too!
