New Games on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg en-us When a ruthless gang led by Big Al invades their turf, it's up to the Brawl Brothers to take back their streets and send their rivals home with their tails between their legs. You can go it alone or team up with a friend for some simultaneous two-player action as you kick, punch, and body slam your way to victory through six stages of no holds barred, hand-to-hand fighting action. There are all kinds of realistic street-fighting techniques to master, including body slams, leg sweeps, jabs, hooks, uppercuts and headbutts. There are also various weapons that may be used throughout the course of the game. The game also includes an "angry" mode where the character becomes temporarily invincible. If you want a fight but aren't feeling friendly, then turn the tables on your friend and go head-to-head for bragging rights and control of the streets. In RIVAL TURF, only the strong survive. Can you take it?

Note: Rival Turf is known as "Rushing Beat" in Japan.

]]> 13 Mar 2007 12:23:18 Mortal Kombat was the first entry in the famous Mortal Kombat fighting game series by Midway, released in arcades in 1992. It was later picked up by Acclaim Games for the home version, then later returned to Midway. It centers on the first Mortal Kombat tournament and the ultimate defeat of the evil Shang Tsung by the monk Liu Kang.

Versions of the original Mortal Kombat game appeared on several different formats, most notably the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Nintendo's SNES. When the first game in the series was released for the SNES in North America, Nintendo of America had a strict "Family Friendly" policy towards the content of the games released on their systems which required the removal of graphic violence, religious imagery and themes, mentions of death, sexual themes, and other sensitive subjects. Hence, the first Mortal Kombat game on the SNES had the blood recolored gray in an attempt to pass it off as sweat, and the various Fatality moves were graphically changed to be less gruesome. The SNES version was graphically superior to the Mega Drive/Genesis port, but all violence was censored.

The game was a response by Midway to Capcom's successful Street Fighter II, which spawned a number of fighting games. However, it used a distinctly different fighting system from the Street Fighter formula, which was used in all subsequent sequels until Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. The controls consisted of five buttons arranged in an "X" pattern: a high punch, a high kick, a low punch, a low kick, and a block button, as well as an eight-way joystick. If the two fighters were standing next to each other, hitting any of the attack buttons would result in a modified strike: a low punch turned into a throw, a high punch turned into a heavy elbow, headbutt, or backhand, and either kick turned into a knee strike. Crouching and hitting either punch resulted in an uppercut, which was the most damaging attack of the game. Jump kicking and crouch-kicking were executed in a similar fashion to Street Fighter, although leg sweeps and roundhouse kicks were performed by holding away while pressing the appropriate kick button.

The blocking in Mortal Kombat I by itself greatly changed the flow of fighting in comparison to contemporary games which used Street Fighter conventions. Characters do not block while retreating or crouching, but only block when the block button is pushed. Even then, characters take (reduced) damage from any hit while blocking. However, successfully blocking moves is simple – a crouching block can successfully defend against all moves, even aerial attacks such as jumpkicks – and blocking characters give very little ground when struck rather than sliding backwards. This style of blocking rewarded dodging to avoid damage but also made counterattacks much easier after a successful block, and the ultimate result was an environment which rewards a more furtive playing style than contemporary games.

Another of the game's innovations was the Fatality, a special finishing move executed against a beaten opponent to kill them in a gruesome fashion. For example, one character (Sub-Zero) would grasp a defeated opponent by the head, then rip out the head and spine while the body crumpled to the ground in a pool of blood.

Finally, Mortal Kombat also changed the way special moves were performed. Street Fighter (and many other fighting games) performed most special moves in fractions of circles (usually full, half or one-quarter) on the joystick followed by a button press (such as a quarter-circle forward, plus punch). Mortal Kombat was the first to introduce moves that did not require a button press (such as tap back, tap back, then forward), and only a few of the special moves required circular joystick movement.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 07:14:32 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters is a fighting game, for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES and Mega Drive/Genesis by Konami. While the title is the same, the game is different for each console. Like many competitive fighting games of the era, Tournament Fighters borrowed heavily from elements contained in the Street Fighter II video game. The Japanese Super Famicom version of the game was retitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Warriors, whereas the Japanese Mega Drive version retained its North American title. The NES version was the only one not released in Japan.

In the Super Nintendo version, a tournament has been organized and many fighters have entered, Shredder being one of them. The turtles decide to participate in order to stop their nemesis as well as proving their strength in the tournament.

This game, instead of following a 6-button attack control like most of Capcom's fighters, uses a 4-button scheme (weak and strong attacks) like most SNK fighting games. A particular feature is the possibility to use a super special attack. In order to achieve this, the player must fill a green bar under the life bar, by hitting their opponents. Once full, the player must press the two strong attack buttons simultaneously.

There is also the option of enhancing the speed of the game, making the fights more intense but also harder to follow.

In addition to the main and versus modes, there is a story mode in which to turtles must rescue April O'Neil and Splinter. Only the four of them can be playable whereas the other characters (as well as a turtle clone) are the bosses. There is also a watch mode, which basically makes the computer control the characters. There are ten characters available, and two bosses.

In the NES version, the turtles (Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo) have been challenged by Shredder, but in order to confront him, they decided to have a tournament between themselves in order to see who is fit for the encounter. There are seven characters. Aside from the turtles, Casey Jones, Hothead (a samurai dragon from the original toy line, based on the Warrior Dragon character from the Archie comics. Nintendo Power magazine once cited his Archie origin, where he was a fireman who later mutated into a dragon like creature) and Shredder. It is the final game made by Konami for this console and the last game made by a third party developer as well. It is also one of the very few versus fighters made for the NES.

In the Genesis version, Splinter has been kidnapped by four purple turtles. When the real turtles realized this, Krang appeared and says that he keeps Splinter with him and that the only way to get him back is that the turtles must go to Dimension X and meet Krang. The player must fight the clones of all the playable characters (see below) as well as the bosses - Triceraton, Krang and Karai.

Besides the turtles, the player can also choose between April O'Neil, Casey Jones, Ray Fillet, and Sisyphus.

This game uses a 3-three button scheme. Two of these are used for standard attacks (in order to do a stronger attack, they have to be pressed along with the d-pad). It doesn't take advantage of the 6-button controller. Because of this, it is considered that this version pales in comparison of the Super NES version.

The game also features (somewhat) destructible environments on a couple of stages where you can fall through the floor.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 05:59:37 Weaponlord (sometimes WeaponLord) is a 1 or 2 player fighting game originally designed for release on the Super Nintendo by Visual Concepts, and published by Namco. During the inception of the title, the development team also began work on a Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version and both were released in October of 1995. Unlike the many other two-dimensional fighters that were being released at the time such as Mortal Kombat 3 and Street Fighter Alpha, WeaponLord introduced many groundbreaking gameplay aspects that many fans of the genre take for granted today. Also unlike other titles, WeaponLord was intended to replicate an arcade fighter, but built from the ground up on home consoles. This was a reverse of the normal trend, which had arcade versions being developed first, then getting ported in home consoles.

At its core, WeaponLord was a standard 2D fighting game experience when it came to its various modes of play and feature sets. Where it differed was in its gameplay mechanics, and in some of its aesthetic choices and presentation. Some of WeaponLord's more original features were: Thrust-Blocking, Multiple Endings, Weapon-To-Weapon, Two-in-One, Weapon Breaking, Deflect, Take Downs, Hair/Clothing Trim, Password System, and Death Combos.

One major aspect of 2D fighting games that WeaponLord really distinguished for itself were its special moves. In most 2D fighters, a character possessing 5 special moves was considered overly-plentiful, but all of WeaponLord's fighters possessed between 9-12 special moves each. This was a huge number of options for a player to have available to them, and really gave WeaponLord its complexity. In addition, special moves were done in 3 completely different ways.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 05:26:18 Batman Forever is a beat 'em up game based on the movie of the same name. The Super NES, Sega Mega Drive, and Game Boy versions were developed by Acclaim Studios London and published by Acclaim Entertainment the Sega Game Gear and PC versions were developed by Probe Entertainment. The player plays as either Batman or Robin. There is also a fighting game mode called "training mode" where the player can play as Batman, Robin, or any of the enemies found throughout the game against either a computer-controlled opponent, against a second player, or cooperatively against two computer opponents.

Unlike most beat 'em up games, Batman Forever's controls are largely based on move lists and key sequences more common in fighting games. Some gadget moves involve moving away from the enemy right before pressing a punch or kick button, which creates problems since the game only keeps the players facing enemies if they're close enough to each other. Those moves would often just turn the player around and cause the move to not execute at all, and while most are close-range abilities anyway, this presents a more major problem with Robin's Heat Gun, which would appear to be intended as a long-range projectile attack to complement Batman's Electric Pellet.

The gadget list is selected by the player each level, with three standard gadgets for each character and two gadgets selected from a list. There are also four hidden "blueprint" gadgets.

The Super NES and Genesis/Mega Drive versions of the game present very glaring differences. The two most prominent ones are the constant load screens (where the game will display "HOLD ON") on the Super NES version, and the much more forgiving controls on the Genesis version. Many reviewers cite such difficulty with the Super NES controls that they couldn't even figure out how to use the gadgets, even with the move list in the manual. The PC version is the same as the SNES and Genesis versions but has superior graphics.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 04:25:01 Killer Instinct is a fighting game by Rare and Nintendo. Initially released in arcades in 1994, and claiming to use an "Ultra 64" hardware engine. The game received a high profile launch on the Super Nintendo, as well as on the Game Boy. It led to a sequel, Killer Instinct 2.

Unlike many other fighting games, especially its contemporaries, Killer Instinct takes place in a modern/futuristic setting. Ultratech is a very powerful company which organizes a tournament called Killer Instinct. Along with regular participants, experimental creatures created by Ultratech also fight in the tournament. Ultratech also discovers a technology to make bridges between dimensions, and to also release from his dimensional prison a two-headed monster called Eyedol, an ancient warrior that was locked away along with his rival.
Developed using SGI computers and 3D modeling software from Alias, Killer Instinct was considered a graphical leader when it was released. It featured animated backgrounds that were pre-rendered movies which changed angles depending on the character location. This technique causes the backgrounds to have an unprecedented three dimensional look — a look far better than was possible at the time in real time 3D rendering.

Killer Instinct plays like many other typical fighting games, in which the player controls a character in order to beat an opponent in a one-on-one encounter. The game borrows Street Fighter IIs attack set (a weak, medium and strong attack for punches and kicks, respectively), but also is inspired by Mortal Kombats graphic violence and finishing sequences. There are several features that distinguish it from other franchises: A double energy bar; Automatic combos; Finishing moves; Ultra Combos; Combo Breaker.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 12:42:09