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Quick run through of Gate of Doom. Gratuitous credit-feeding. Gonna make a more honest attempt now that I have the basics down. Played as the wizard to utilize magic spells, but it turns out everyone has spells! I guess hers are stronger, allegedly? Interesting game, though it just barely qualifies as a beat 'em up. There's no punching, kicking, hacking, slashing, grappling, special moves, etc. Just long-range weapons and plenty of button mashing. Ultimately, the game feels kinda like an isometric Cadash, though it's not nearly as good.

Another shoot/beat-'em-up is the arcade version of Bucky O'Hare. I figure I'll give that one a shot at some point during this month.

I know noise has mentioned a Genesis collection for Xbox One that just came out. Is it the SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics collection? I'm asking because they just had a console launch, and the Steam version had a bunch of new features added, including achievements and challenges to try out for games that you own.

Today I knocked out the challenge for Streets of Rage 2: Beat level 2 without picking up any items. It's completely counter-intuitive, and it knows it. I actually failed it once for comboing a couple of guys while standing on an apple. That was dumb. But with that one mishap to push me forward, I tried again and managed to clear it successfully. I have yet to try the challenges for Streets of Rage or SoR3, but I may give them a go after putting more time into them.

There are also challenges for Golden Axe, Golden Axe 2, and Golden Axe 3 that I tried, and I suck at. Golden Axe 3 has you take on two minotaurs without the ability to continue, which actually wasn't so bad once I started dash-kicking into them. But Golden Axe 2 requires you beat a boss without continuing or using magic, and you have no lives...and he has two skeletons to back him up which are apparently either invincible or really tough. And the first Golden Axe has you using the dwarf to fight two skeletons in a duel, but you die if you get either rushed twice or comboed once, which means you basically can't be hit. It's made me realize just how much I dislike the Golden Axe games.

Ack wrote:Today I knocked out the challenge for Streets of Rage 2: Beat level 2 without picking up any items. It's completely counter-intuitive, and it knows it. I actually failed it once for comboing a couple of guys while standing on an apple. That was dumb. But with that one mishap to push me forward, I tried again and managed to clear it successfully. I have yet to try the challenges for Streets of Rage or SoR3, but I may give them a go after putting more time into them.

So you beat SoR2 before going back to SoR1? I read earlier in the thread. So the twins in level 8 at the end can be very easy if you get one locked up against the left wall. You should be able to trap them in a way so you can constantly knock them back down and get hits in whenever they get up. Otherwise yeah, the first encounter with them being able to go off screen on both sides is brutal. SoR2 is a nice breeze and more balanced in comparison. SoR3US is tough but I've beaten it back in the day, though I can see how the Japanese Bare Knuckle 3 has a lot of fans here and it's difficulties are more balanced, I think the US versions Normal is technically Hard, lol.

Blaze freaking rules in all of them! I like her the most in 1.

It's a new but similar collection, Ack. Came out this week.

I also have Rare Replay which has online co-op and Battletoads hah.

Xeogred wrote:

Ack wrote:Today I knocked out the challenge for Streets of Rage 2: Beat level 2 without picking up any items. It's completely counter-intuitive, and it knows it. I actually failed it once for comboing a couple of guys while standing on an apple. That was dumb. But with that one mishap to push me forward, I tried again and managed to clear it successfully. I have yet to try the challenges for Streets of Rage or SoR3, but I may give them a go after putting more time into them.

So you beat SoR2 before going back to SoR1? I read earlier in the thread. So the twins in level 8 at the end can be very easy if you get one locked up against the left wall. You should be able to trap them in a way so you can constantly knock them back down and get hits in whenever they get up. Otherwise yeah, the first encounter with them being able to go off screen on both sides is brutal. SoR2 is a nice breeze and more balanced in comparison. SoR3US is tough but I've beaten it back in the day, though I can see how the Japanese Bare Knuckle 3 has a lot of fans here and it's difficulties are more balanced, I think the US versions Normal is technically Hard, lol.

Blaze freaking rules in all of them! I like her the most in 1.

Haha, no, not yet. I just tried out Streets of Rage 2 after nearly getting through Streets of Rage 1, though with the way things are going, it's likely I'll beat SoR2 pretty soon. Instead I beat a challenge for SoR2 that is offered in the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Collection. The challenge for Streets of Rage is to beat the first level without taking damage, so I think I'm gonna need some more practice before I attempt that one.

There is also an achievement for beating SoR3 on Normal or higher difficulty. We'll see if I can pull that one off when I get there.

Arabian Fight looks great, but the fighting is some of the jankiest I've seen in a brawler of its vintage. 3/10.

EDIT: Here's the HG101 writeup. Don't let the pretty pictures fool you, the game plays like junk.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/arabian-fight/

Huh I thought I recalled playing that and enjoying it.

I was thinking of Arabian Magic.

Yeah, Arabian Magic is actually pretty fun. I definitely recommend it over Arabian Fight for all your Middle Eastern brawler needs.

I put thirty minutes into Jet Li: Rise to Honor on PS2 tonight. The only thing it rose to was the top of my garbage can.

After that I put an hour into Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone also on PS2, and had a decent time. I'm cautiously optimistic about it.