Parsing the backlog. Part 9. Briefly about 4 projects based on OpenBOR or the second life of beat 'em ups and fighting games. 2021-2024
Beat 'em ups. A genre that became widespread in the mid-80s of the last century on slot machines and 8-bit consoles, which later successfully flowed into 16-bit. His life was bright, but not to say long. Various projects continued to appear in the future, some of them even sometimes appeared on the PC, but it was more of a local phenomenon.
Over the past few years, there has been a certain renaissance of the genre. Several sequels and remakes of famous series followed, in particular “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge“(2022)”Streets of Rage 4“(2020)”The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors” (2023), but all of them in one way or another exploit the old formula, tested many years ago.
At the same time, in parallel, according to completely different treatises, a niche of fan projects, based on the project known as “OpenBOR“. Today I would like to briefly dwell on some of them, but first a few words about the selection criteria.
1. As usual, many amateur works often suffer from certain characteristic problems. In this particular case, two main ones can be distinguished. The first is an attempt to embrace the immensity, to contain more content, stretching in the range from a sometimes terrible mishmash of wildly and poorly combined sprites and characters to absolutely inappropriate music. The second is an imbalance of difficulty, from too easy to inappropriately high.
2. Works that are not much different from the original 16-bit projects, that do not introduce any meaningful new component, or in fact are in many ways inferior to the original games, were not taken into account. So, in particular, for this reason, projects on the “Battletoads” series were discarded.
3. In the second part I focused on arcade beat 'em ups. As a result, any transfer to the designated platform of the previously mentioned titles, regardless of their quality level, was not taken into account. In a certain sense, this material serves as a complement to the previous one, which is somewhat more extensive.
4. Some projects, for example the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series, were excluded due to the abundance of ports, including PC, where it is currently available collection of 13 games. Instead, the emphasis was shifted to the analysis of underrepresented topics, in my case flowing into two main ones – comics and conversions of fighting games into the beat 'em up format.
5. By coincidence, 3 out of 4 works in question turned out to be from the same author. At the same time, I note that no importance was initially given to who was behind this or that game.
We've sorted out the criteria, let's get to the heart of things.
1. Mortal Kombat Defenders of The Realm (2021). Build 1.1.0.
Although Mortal Kombat is known to a wide audience as a fighting game, attempts to transfer its specifics to the beat 'em up format have been made more than once. The problem was that most of those that reached the public were not at all successful.
The first try in this context was “Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero”, released on PSX and N64 in 1997. The project could boast FMV inserts, an attempt at a somewhat more complicated presentation of the plot, but all the charms as a whole quickly ended there. The controls were clumsy and the difficulty was high. What was intended to be a potential series of offshoots turned out to be a complete failure.
The situation was no better in the case of “Mortal Kombat: Special Forces”, which was released on PSX in 2000. There was no trace left of the original concept by the time of release, and players received the most mediocre beat 'em up, where the main character was usually not the most popular Jax.
Moderate success finally followed with the 2005 release of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks for PS2 and Xbox. Liu Kang and Kung Lao in 3D projection made their way through the jungle of an intricate plot, combining simple blows with complex combos familiar to the series. At the same time, the developers, apparently, decided not to tempt fate anymore and later returned to the usual outline at that time. Today it is difficult to judge how circumstances might have developed otherwise, but later the company faced bankruptcy, a spontaneous rise from the ashes and a return to its roots.
The project in question set another ambitious goal – to transfer the classics in the form of the first three parts of the series, as well as the Trilogy, into the beat 'em up format. It must be said that there have been a great many attempts to play with such mechanics in different ways, but most of them failed, generally running into typical genre problems, in this context in relation to fan crafts, problems.
The author of this work, in my opinion, came closest to the original goal. The plot is completely consistent with the original outline. We choose a character from a limited roster and hit the road. There are no complex combinations; all combos and strikes can be done by pressing two or three buttons, including fatality, brutality and animality, which can also be performed in regular fights. There are several segments and bosses along the way.
After the last enemy in the first part, Shang Tsung, is defeated, the process smoothly flows into the second game in the series, where a slightly different set of characters is offered to choose from. The player is free to either continue his path or interrupt it in order to continue the process later.
The complexity is quite moderate, the entry threshold is low, which is more of a plus than a minus. In this sense, the work is closer to ports for MS-DOS than arcade releases of the famous fighting game franchise.
2. Marvel Infinity War (2024). Build 100.0.8.
More than one project has been released based on the Marvel comic book series; one of the iconic representatives at one time was “X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse” (1994) for SNES, created based on the now cult animated series “X-Men“(1992-1997), which recently received a sequel – “X-Men '97” (2024).
MIW has become the ultimate compilation in several ways. A huge roster of characters, its own story mode, transfer of several key games of the past in the “Classics Museum” format. Of these, the previously mentioned title was mainly of interest to me, in particular because of the opportunity to play for some key characters who, for some reason, did not have a place in the original game at one time. The choice fell on Rogue.
The author had to trim some sections so that they fit better into the new format,
“Jumping on the X-Men 97 hype train, I decided to test the full X-Men Mutant Apocalypse Remake, this mode is not intended to be identical to the original, the stages are shortened vertically to avoid camera problems when playing with 4 players , and many bosses like the Helicopter from the Gambit stage are impossible to do here, it would be necessary for all characters to have a move that shoots upwards.”.
Otherwise, everything is as expected, the transfer was successful, the complexity feels acceptable. If you hesitate a little, then, most likely, the passage may not work out on the first attempt, but on the second or third it will be fine.
In addition to throwing regular blows, the chosen heroine can gather opponents into an armful and push them into a corner for further beating. One of the interesting options is the ability to call on the help of other squad members, which means that Rogue will copy their key skill. So from Gambit you can take the opportunity to throw cards while in the air. The gameplay periodically moves from the horizontal to the vertical plane, there are bonus stages where you need to knock down opponents on the move.
As for the shortcomings, they are typical. Considering the limited time frame and other aspects, it would be naive to count on the fact that such a large number of characters will be meaningfully depicted. As a result, the key ones look more or less normal, but the more “secondary” ones, not so much. The situation is similar with the story mode and the transfer of other games – some of them look good, others are rather inappropriate.
3. Justice League Legacy (2023). Build 1.4.5.
The project, at first glance, was created according to a completely identical structure to the previous one, with the only difference being that previously we had Marvel, and now DC. In fact, there are three significant differences.
First. As before, you can go through the local story mode, with a limited selection of characters, the set of which changes depending on the current segment, or you can choose a specific location. The last ones here are precisely the locations, which are not a specific re-interpretation of an old title, but a thematic compilation of both original segments and developments from various projects of the past, like the same “The Adventures of Batman & Robin” (1994) with SNES. In this way, you can go, for example, to Gotham or Metropolis in your own way, or you can go to another planet. I settled on the first one.
This approach can be taken in two ways, but specifically in the case of this project, the decision turned out to be successful. The locations look quite uniform, while in the case of “Marvel Infinity War” the situation is not so clear-cut.
Second. Not everyone has the opportunity to play this or that game in co-op with a friend. Here, at the player’s request, an AI-controlled partner can always come to the rescue. Which one specifically? Will depend on the chosen character. Select Wonder Woman – Batman. Poison Ivy – Harley Quinn.
Third. No continue. If you run out of lives, you'll have to start the whole game over again.
4. Streets of Rage X Beta (2023 / 2024). Build 24 (last 27).
The last stop and a series that does not need any special introduction, but in this case not the original, but its OpenBOR version from Brazilian developers.
Since SoR initially formed the basis for a whole series of projects and the concept itself as a whole, the developments in it, against the backdrop of a niche that is generally oversaturated with content of varying quality, are significantly greater than in other franchises. We could talk about their differences for a long time, but I subjectively liked this particular option, with a fairly long history.
SoR X includes all three original games. There are many settings available, including the hit style from which particular title to use, graphic filters, the number of continue and much, much more. After completing any of the games for the first time, additional modes open up, in particular, allowing you to play through a particular project in co-op with AI, or take control of one of the many non-standard characters.
Additional links.
1. ChronoCrash – https://www.chronocrash.com/forum/resources/categories/openbor.2/
2. OpenBORGames – https://openborgames.com/category/games
3. SAOGSH – https://www.speedallonlinegamessiteshere.com/openbor-game-club
