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Splatterhouse Developer Bites Back

Last year's announcement of a new Splatterhouse game was unexpected, but exciting; the revival even got an EGM cover, for crying out loud. But recent developments for the slightly-obscure franchise have been less than promising; with developer bottleRocket losing custody of the game to Namco-Bandai due to a "performance issue" claimed by the developer, the fate of Splatterhouse isn't looking so good. With such a vague explanation of why the game was literally ripped from bottleRocket's hands, it's hard to remain optimistic about the future of the Friday the 13th-inspired brawler.

But it may be a little misguided to blame bottleRocket for the state of Splatterhouse; a recent statement from the developer given to the fine people at GamaSutra indicates that Namco's issues with their work on Splatterhouse have been greatly exaggerated--or just plain made up.

Posted Mar 16 2009, 09:05 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: retro, namco bandai, remakes, bob mackey, brawlers, splatterhouse, revivals

Trailer Review: Watchmen: The End is Nigh

"I think Watchman is a pretty cool guy. Eh cashes in on decades of nostalgia and doesn't afraid of anything."

Alan Moore is someone for whom I have long had a deep admiration. In my mind's Artistic Integrity Roundtable, he holds court right between Steve Albini and the Coen Brothers. Moore has always distanced himself from film adaptations of his work. The filming of From Hell, V for Vendetta, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen left him wanting nothing to do with Hollywood, so I'm guessing the same goes for the upcoming film and video game adaptations of Watchmen. Here we have a couple of new "vignettes" released today. They look terribly mediocre, but I won't let that stop my from enjoying the original comic.

What bugs me the most about this portrayal of the characters is that they were never big, dumb brutes.The reason why the comic was so revolutionary is that it was one of the first to reveal the underlying humanness inside every super hero. These trailers do little to convince me that the game will communicate that sentiment as well. Wouldn't it have been wonderful if the franchise had been treated with the moral ambiguity of Bioshock, for example?

Oh well. Biff bang pow.

Videos after the jump:

Posted Mar 03 2009, 04:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: trailer review, cole stryker, brawlers, beat-em-ups, watchmen

Bare Knuckle 3 Translation Puts the Rage Back into Streets of Rage

While the Streets of Rage series is mostly a forgotten relic these days, Sega's answer to Final Fight is fondly remembered by many as the superior alternative to Capcom's brawler--especially since the home version of Final Fight didn't even have friggin' multiplayer. But it's recently come to my attention that the changes made in the translation from Bare Knuckle (the Japanese name for the series) to Streets of Rage are mostly unknown to the gaming public. So thank heavens we now have Twilight Translation's Bare Knuckle III translation patch in our lives to right Sega's 15 year-old wrong of inexplicably changing the game's story.

Posted Feb 24 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: final fight, streets of rage, translation, bob mackey, brawlers, fan translations

Brawler Theory

We've come a long way since TMNT II, folks. You might not think that brawlers are the most cerebral of genres, but there's a surprising amount of theory that goes into the creation of games that allow players to do little more than smack NPC's around.

Gamasutra has posted an interview with Creative Director Tom Smith from THQ, who discusses different beat-em-ups, and how they managed to occupy specific niches within the genre.

Posted Feb 23 2009, 05:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: cole stryker, god of war, heavenly sword, brawlers, beat-em-ups, mark of kri, genji

Trailer Review: Prototype

Back in October, John asked, "Where is Prototype?" Here's his answer. It sure hasn't been toned down for a Teen rating. This brawler is looks great, and gets my juices flowing a lot more than Madworld. Developed by Radical entertainment, this original IP features a shapeshifting protagonist in a sandbox NYC that wields superhuman strength, agility, flight and some gnarly mutations. It looks as though players will have the option to stealthily move in and out of crowds and alleyways, take to the rooftops and skies with gliding powers or go full-on run 'n gun with an array of devastating combat moves. Glad to see that the development team has managed to survive Activision's series of layoffs and mergers. Prototype has been pushed back till summer.

Posted Feb 06 2009, 03:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: madworld, cole stryker, brawlers, prototype, delays, layoffs

A Perfectly Cromulent Beat-Em-Up

Were you aware that newly-released XBox Live Arcade game Castle Crashers is a revival of the old arcade genre known as the beat-em-up (or brawler) that flourished in a roughly five-year period? Of course you are. You're reading a gaming blog, for Christ's sake.

But you might not be aware of this absolute fact: The Simpsons, Konami's take on the genre--seemingly perfected a few years earlier with their own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--is the best damned beat-em-up to ever exist. Here's a brief reminder:

Capcom would eventually move things to the next level with their Dungeons and Dragons arcade games, but no beat-em-up was more fun than The Simpsons.

Posted Aug 27 2008, 10:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 7 comment(s)

Filed under: simpsons, arcade, bob mackey, brawlers, beat-em-ups

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.