Category Archives: Non-Fighters

What Happened to 2D Brawlers?

I know i’m not the only one who misses them, because the announcement of Guy and Cody returning in SSF4 brought on a wave of Final Fight nostalgia throughout literally every gaming forum on the internet. Over the past couple years, we’ve seen various classic franchises such as Streets of Rage and Golden Axe ported to nearly all the current gen consoles. Now Capcom is rereleasing Final Fight and Magic Sword on XBL and PSN with GGPO netcode.

sor2-axel-shiva-02ySomeone’s obviously buying these things, yet there haven’t been any new titles to speak of. Why is that? Sure, we have seen a few modest offerings such as the 3D remake of Turtles In Time, but nothing that truly captures the feeling of playing Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Genesis in glorious 320×224 resolution.

It’s almost as if the game industry has forgotten what made the beat ’em up genre so fun to play. This isn’t a 2D versus 3D issue because third-person 3D action game developers still know how to do combat properly, as evidenced by incredibly polished series like Devil May Cry and God of War. For whatever reason, nobody can figure out how to get the hits in a modern brawler to feel right anymore.

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God of War II Combo Video

Back in June of last year, Magnetro and i collaborated on this five-minute combo video for God of War 2, developed by SCEA Santa Monica Studios where a number of oldschool Street Fighter players worked. It’s no surprise then, that many of these combos look like they came straight out of a fighting game.

All of the editing and the vast majority of the clips were performed by Magnetro. Even though we discussed every little detail, i only had time to record three clips: the Barbarian Hammer ToD combo at 0:38, the Spear of Destiny juggle combo at 0:53, and the projectile madness combo at 1:23. It was a lot of fun messing around with GoW2 because Kratos has such an incredible variety of combat abilities and approaches, not to mention a wide selection of enemies to beat up.

Even though i think the combos at 2:56 and 4:07 are absolutely amazing, my favorite clip has got to be the 4:14 crumbling pillars sequence which was cleverly manipulated by activating the Amulet of the Fates to slow time immediately beforehand. Be sure to visit Magnetro’s website for a full transcript explaining all the combos, glitches and extras.

Week-One Combos: Legacy of Kain: Defiance

Here’s a short combovid made up of clips i recorded way back in 2004, when LoKD was new. For anyone unfamiliar with the Legacy of Kain series, it had one of the most astonishing storylines ever told through the video game medium.

Of course, the term combo is used loosely here since most enemies have very weak defense mechanisms. It would be more accurate to call them attack strings but combos isn’t too far off.

The game’s combat system is flexible enough that there are some creative things to do to the generic peons that try to rush you in groups. The command inputs are transcribed using PlayStation 2 default control conventions, but the text explanations refer to all actions by their general names. The PS2 and Xbox versions of LoKD are virtually identical, so everything here works on both versions.

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Week-One Combos: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Not entirely sure what possessed me to do this but it turned out more or less sort of okay:

Every clip was recorded within the bland Simulator Disc training facility, so don’t worry about plot spoilers. During the Basic Training tutorial stage, enemies are immune to (nearly) all kinds of damage except whatever’s listed in the prompt. This is useful because it’s hard to set up camera angles for combos in 3D games. Another benefit to the tutorial is that your teammates (usually) keep quiet so you don’t have to worry about them killing your punching bags.

If anyone wants to try these combos, i’ve written out the Xbox 360 commands below. That’s the version i used, but i doubt the PS3 version is any different, aside from the button labels.

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Ten Things I’ve Tried: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Well, launch day rolled around and i couldn’t resist checking out the game. After playing through it once, here’s a short list of ideas i’ve attempted along with the results.

MUA2 Captain America1) Switching characters during fusions doesn’t work. The other two characters simply disappear until the fusion ends and the point character fully recovers. It’s a shame, because it would have opened up a lot of combo opportunities.

2) Switching between characters after using their powers negates the stamina recharge waiting period. Normally you have to wait a couple seconds before the blue bar starts refilling, but when you switch to another character, the previous one starts recharging immediately. Basically you never have to resort to melee attacks.

3) It’s possible to land all three hits of a triple-hit targeted fusion (such as Spider-Man+Songbird) on a single opponent, by positioning the aiming marker right next to the swinging character. Stand next to a boss and initiate Spidey’s fusion, then aim the target right by him. He’ll swing the boulder over a very small radius, so the backwards swing connects as well.

4) Triggering a story point with the Iceman+Wolverine fusion has the added bonus of giving you a closeup of Wolverine’s ice armor gradually melting off as you listen to Nick Fury tell you what to punch next. Try it on the first stage prior to picking up Black Widow’s intel drop.

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