We reach the end of the “licensed games from Namco and CAPCOM” period of this marathon (ignoring the side-step last week) with one of the best of the lot: Alien vs. Predator from CAPCOM. It’s a game I never knew existed until the days of the ROM in the mid-2000s, and man oh man was I annoyed this never got a home release. Does it still hold up now? Silly question, but let’s have a good look anyway!
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It’s time for the lastest game in this marathon to come from the CAPCOM Beat ‘Em Up Bundle, and also another game to not have a “Then” category, as yes, me and my friend played this for the first time just earlier this year. Armoured Warriors turned out to be a great mix of Mech combat and beat ‘em up that I’m really glad to have ended up playing rather than it just slip into the background of the 1001 other Arcade games I’ve never heard of that are probably good… Anyway, let’s take a look!
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Uh-oh, here we go again! I’m afraid in order to have an actual “Then and Now” thoughts section I have to review a far inferior home version of a great Arcade game once more, in this case the 1993 Punisher game’s Mega Drive port. Maybe when “Scrolling Sundays” comes to its planned end I’ll do some bonus weeks of reviewing the actual good original versions of some of these games… With all that being said, let’s take a look!
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Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is one of the few Arcade games I have very vivid memories of playing the actual Arcade game. A fair arrives in our town twice a year and with it a small portable Arcade with the same 10 or so machines, one of which was Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (and may well still be, I haven’t checked in several years…) It’s your classic CAPCOM scrolling beat ‘em up but set in the bizarre world of the short-lived cartoon of the same name. So let’s take a closer look!
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Continuing with the theme of licensed games we started last week, we now have our first game based on a Marvel Comics property, the first of a fair few. The X-Men arcade game shares a lot with the previous Konami entry, and even expanded up to six players on screen at once, but sadly it’s perhaps best known for its badly translated Magneto dialogue, specifically “I am Magento: Master of Magnet!” and, of course, “Welcome to die!”. What is the actual game like post-dialogue? Let’s find out!
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We now begin a fairly long run of licensed games, mostly made by Konami (like this) and CAPCOM. Funnily enough, despite being a fan of the Hero Turtles, as I sadly knew them as back in the day, I didn’t really play this often, mostly because my brother had the SNES and I had the Mega Drive as I’ve mentioned previously, and he never had the game. I played it a few times around a couple of different friend’s houses though and had a great time. What’s it like now? Well, let’s find out!
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After a three week stay with CAPCOM-like-but-not-quite Rushing Beat games it’s time to return to a good old fashioned CAPCOM scrolling beat ‘em up, one featured on the Beat ‘em Up Bundle no less (which means these screens were taken many months ago at this point!) Warriors of Fate is a unique one in that it’s not only based on a manga that was based on the book that was based on Three Kingdoms era of China, but also the English language version changes all the names and locations, rendering that interesting titbit pointless. Oh well! It’s also a beat ‘em up me and my friend first played via the recently released collection, so no “Thoughts Then” paragraph here! Let’s take a look! Exclamation marks!!
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It’s time to finish what in Japan is the Rushing Beat trilogy, but for us is three games that happen to feature a character that looks similar but has a different name to ones in other beat ‘em up games made by the same company. How does “The Peace Keepers” stack up the two games that came before it? What colossal localisation error ruins the game entirely?! Let’s find out!
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As mentioned in my review of Rival Turf last week I was completely unaware that a personal “guilty pleasure” (not I was aware it was at the time…) had two sequels until me and my friends discovered the shady world of ROMs in the mid-2000s. How did we find Brawl Brothers? Well… We got stuck in the sewer section of the game’s second or third level and gave up. How did I fair this time?! With the help of a guide as to how to pass the sewer level, better… but was it worth it? Let’s find out!
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Rival Turf is probably most fondly remembered by people for the US cover art featuring teenage thugs trying to look cool and tough (and failing!), but for us here in the PAL territories it was just another scrolling beat ‘em up with a rather bland cover. That all being said, my brother had this and we played it a lot, and me and my friends had great fun playing it in the past, though a lot of that was due to the renaming characters cheat… How does it hold up in 2020, especially in the middle of a long marathon of similar games?! Let’s find out!
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Hogan Reviews 