Video game/Beat em ups
Beat 'em ups are video games in which players fight each other or computer enemies with martial arts. Along with shoot 'em ups, they are traditionally at home in the arcades, and are considered separate from wrestling, boxing and "ultimate fighting" video games, which are concerned with sporting events and often tied to a real-world sports franchise.
The term "beat 'em up" can refer to either of two similar but distinct kinds of game.
Side-scrolling beat 'em ups
In this type, one or more players (most often two, but sometimes as high as six) each choose a unique character, and team up to punch, kick, throw and slash their way through a horde of computer-controlled enemies. The fighting happens in a series of side-scrolling stages, some with a powerful 'boss' enemy at the end. In the most common variation, players can move away and toward the screen as well as left and right, although earlier beat 'em ups such as Kung Fu (1984) were more likely to allow only one-dimensional movement plus jumping.
Capcom revolutionised the genre with Final Fight (1989), and continued to produce some of the most popular games from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. At the its height, the side-scroller was one of the most popular kind of arcade game (a Simpsons beat 'em up was released in 1991), but they have since fallen out of fashion.
One-on-one beat 'em ups / Fighters
In the other kind of beat 'em ups, also called 'fighters', two players each choose a character, then fight against each other over three rounds. The winner of a round either knocks out his opponent, comes closest to knocking him out, or (in 3D fighters) sends him out of the ring. In contrast to beat-em-ups, fighters are competitive rather than cooperative.
One of the main attraction of fighters is the large number of characters each game has, all of whom have a distinct appearance and fighting style. Characters are usually unarmed or armed with close fighting weapons (swords, sticks, nunchaku, etc).
The 2D/3D difference
Fighters are either two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D).
Characters in 2D fighters (Street Fighter, Guilty Gear,
Killer Instinct,
Mortal Kombat) are hand-drawn/digitized and animated sprites, and can move left and right and duck and jump, but in most games they can't sidestep or move 'closer to the screen'. The player's viewpoint scrolls in various directions but stays at a fixed angle. The 2D fighter's characteristic gameplay mechanics are exaggerated jumps, projectile attacks, and an "air/ground/low" attack/block system.
In 3D fighters (Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Tekken), the characters and stages are 3D polygon-based models. The player's viewpoint is not fixed and can rotate and move in any direction, and the characters can sidestep as well as ducking and jumping. In contrast with the gameplay of 2D fighters, jumping is a minor element, there are few if any projectile attacks, and a "high/mid/low" attack/block system is used.
Notable developers
- Capcom are best known for the Street Fighter (1987) series, whose hugely innovative second incarnation (Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, 1991) virtually invented the modern fighting game. They have since released a plethora of sequels, spin-offs, remakes, movie tie-ins and 'versus' games. Their most recent significant contributions to the genre are Capcom vs. SNK 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
- Midway caused an incredible amount of controversy with 1992's Mortal Kombat, a 2D fighter with semi-realistic sprites and gratuitous, cartoonish gore. The most recent games, Mortal Kombat IV and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, are in 3D. The Mortal Kombat franchise is the best selling video game franchise of all time, and Mortal Kombat 2 was the best selling individual fighting arcade game.
- Namco, the creators of Tekken and Soul Calibur (1998), are the other major player in the fighter world. They are the most popular 3D fighters, but many fighter enthusiasts consider Virtua Fighter to be a 'deeper' game.
- Sammy, a pachinko company, are responsible for the Guilty Gear series, a 2D fighting game renowned for its strange character design and unique gameplay, also featuring the highest resolution 2d graphics in a fighting game.
- SEGA's AM2 team are the developers of the 3D Virtua Fighter series (1993), which has seen four versions. It is considered by many fighter enthusiasts to be the deepest of the 3D fighters. Fighting Vipers was a similar game by AM2 with a glam rock theme, but did poorly in the US and Europe.
- SNK were the makers of the long-running King of Fighters series for Neo Geo consoles and arcade machines. Almost as prolific as Capcom, they declared bankruptcy in 2002. However, the company Playmore has acquired the rights to the SNK name and much of its intellectual property.
Glossary of common fighter terms
; Aerial Rave : Marvel VS. Series terminology for a combo that is entirely performed while a character is airborne.
; Block : When a character is blocking, he is in a defensive state that protects him from being damaged by his opponent's moves. Usually there is more than one kind of block (most often 'high' and 'low'), each of which protects against and is vulnerable to different classes of moves. In most games, blocking can be countered by a throw. The same term is known in Japan as guard.
; Buffering : 1. Entering the commands for one move while your character is still in the animation of another move, so the second move comes out as soon as the animation ends. 2. In Capcom games, buffering a special move into a non-special move so quickly that the special move comes out before the normal move ends (often making a combo).
; Chain Combo : A combo that involves only normal punches and kicks.
; Combo : A string of attacks that cannot be blocked if the first hit is not blocked.
; Command Move : A simple move, usually performed with a simple combination of joystick and button action. Not quite a special move, but not a normal attack.
; Deadly Rave Super Combo : A super combo in which a player must hit press a series of buttons (traditionally, eight button presses and a quarter-circle move) after execution in order to complete the move. Each button press must be performed with precision timing. Named after the first combo of its kind, Geese Howard's (from Fatal Fury) Deadly Rave.
; Dramatic Battle : A type of fighting game match where two teams of characters are fighting each other, all of which are fighting at the same time.
; Double KO : Both players are knocked out at the same time. Double KOs may give wins to both players or losses to both players. However, both players will lose the match if there are too many rounds played without a clear winner.
; Enhanced Special Move : A special move where attacks can increase in power by using power stored in a super combo gauge. Also known as an ESpecial Move or an ES Move.
; Finish : The method in which a player is knocked out. For example, a player knocked out by a special move is called a special finish. In Mortal Kombat, a finish is also the method of finishing your opponent when the match is won (also known as an -ality).
; Four-Button Fighter : A type of fighting game controls that uses punch and kick buttons of two different strengths, typical of The King of Fighters games.
; Guard Break : The action of performing an attack which is blocked, but leaves the blocking player open to further attack. Also known as a guard crush.
; Guard Meter : A gauge that drains as a player blocks attacks. When it completely drains, the player is guard crushed.
; Hunter Chain : In a 2D fighting game with controls similar to Street Fighter, this is a type of chain combo where any punch can combo into any kick, and an attack of lower strength can be comboed into an attack of higher strength. The name is obtained from Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge (Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge in Japan). This is sometimes known as "the chain combo".
; Juggle : A combo in which the victim is hit multiple times in midair. The move used to start the juggle is called a 'launcher' or 'floater'.
; Life : (Also called energy, health, or vitality) A character's life is how much more damage he can take, represented by a bar at the top of the screen. When a character's life is reduced to 0 or below, he is knocked out and loses the round.
; Overhead Attack : An attack that hits players who are crouching, and must be blocked standing.
; Protected Block : A block made just as an attack is about to hit. Protected blocks generally have advantages over normal blocks.
; Pursuit Attack: An attack that hits a character who is lying down on the ground. A combo that contains a pursuit attack is known as an off-the-ground combo.
; Rage Gauge : A super combo gauge where the only way to gain energy is to get hit. Most commonly used in the Samurai Shodown series of games.
; Ring out : A victory achieved by sending the opponent out of the ring (in 3D games).
; Shotokan Character : A character whose primary moves involve a fireball projectile and an uppercut attack. Named after the supposed fighting style of Ryu from Street Fighter.
; Six-Button Fighter : A type of fighting game controls that uses punch and kick attack buttons of three different strengths, much like that of Street Fighter.
; Special move : A move is simply a fighting technique such as a kick or a throw. Each character will have many moves, each performed by a different combination of joystick movements and/or button presses. A special move is a unique, sometimes difficult-to-perform move that often has an exaggerated or supernatural effect. Some games also include super combos, powerful but costly special moves.
; String : A sequence of attacks. Usually used to refer to strings that aren't combos.
; Stun : 1. A temporary state of helplessness caused by taking a lot of damage quickly. The opponent is usually guaranteed a free hit. Also called daze or dizzy. 2. Block stun: a short frozen state after blocking a move or performing a blocked move.
; Super Combo Gauge : A gauge that stores power that can be used for later. Named this way as the most common way to use this power is by performing a super combo.
; Super Stock : Once enough super combo gauge is collected, it becomes a super stock. A stock gauge is a guage where a visual indicator exists to indicate the number of stocks collected. A levelled gauge is a gauge where a portion of the super combo gauge represents a super stock. Super stocks allow players to use super combos and other moves requiring super combo gauge power.
; Survival Battle : A type of match where a player must defeat as many opponents as possible (using the same life bar) before being knocked out.
; Time Over : Typically, players have under a minute to try to knock each other out. If time runs out before one player does enough damage to the other, the player who has done the most overall damage wins the round. This is a time over.
; Weapons Fighter : A fighting game where most or all characters have weapons, and there are gameplay rules that involve these weapons (such as how to disarm and rearm weapons).
; Whiff : A move that misses the opponent completely.
- See also : Video game
Referenced By
Rise of the Robots
|
