1) Which is the richest/deepest beat em up you've played? I'm not talking philosophically but more about being able to do a lot within the game.
While I'm sure there are deeper beat-'em-up experiences out there (the aforementioned
D&D games definitely fit), I still think from a mechanical perspective that Technos' output is my favorite balance between complexity and fun.
Double Dragon II on NES is one of my all-time favorites (I even think the platforming is fine now!), and of course
River City Ransom provides lots of RPG-lite depth to the proceedings and still feels fantastic to play.
2) What is the most fun as an experience?
I'm not sure this has a single answer. While I tend to not like games modeled on
Final Fight as much, I'm absolutely willing to say
Streets of Rage 2 sits at the pinnacle of that style. I also love
Double Dragon Advance for expanding on the arcade-style games. It's an absolute joy to play through.
3) What, for better or worse, is the most experimental beat em up you've played?
I've probably played more odd stuff, but
Crimson Tears just popped into mind, a sort of rogue-lite brawler hybrid. Oh, wait, speaking of hybrids, how about
Hybrid Heaven? Now
that's what you call experimental. Kind of a beat-'em-up RPG thing that is really hard to describe without playing it.
4) I remember a LOT of the games I played in the early 90s were licensed. What IP would make an awesome licensed game?
Even though they got one SNES game, I think
Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.s could have had a much better outing. I actually read through the entire series recently, and it starts kinda meh, gets a lot better, and then when they started rebooting it they went way too edgelord for my tastes.
I could also see another
Avengers game doing gangbusters now.
5) What out of print licensed game would you be happy to buy? There's a specific one that comes to my mind but I feel like there are a few.
They already did
Ninja Warriors, but another that popped into mind is Technos'
Shadow Force.
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Yeah, not licensed, but that's mainly because I can't really think of much that I
have to have for licensed games.
TMNT III is probably a good one, though.
6) What genre or genre elements would you like to see mashed up with the beat em up?
I mean, I'm all for well-done RPG stuff, but you know what would be cooler?
Zelda-style shenanigans. Puzzle-solving dungeons. Tools to navigate areas and find upgrades. It's part of the reason I like games like
Beyond Oasis or
Dragon View so much. And actually, yes, Octo mentioned
Guacamelee, and those games do a fantastic job of integrating exploratory platforming in with the brawling.