What Makes a Beat em Up "Good" or "Bad?"

Konchadunga · 01-16-2013, 05:18 PM

This is hardly irrelevant to the Turtles, because this franchise, more than any other, has prompted me to ponder this. Most people are aware of how beloved the 2-D beat-em-up games based on the Fred Wolf cartoon were, and most critics and some fans slammed the 3-D games based on the 4Kids cartoon. Some critics even allege that the unlockable original arcade game in the second 4Kids-based beat-em-up is better than the core game. Most recently, even the Reshelled version of Turtles in Time has been widely considered worse than the original. I haven't played any of the recent beat-em-up games except for the GBA game based on the 2007 movie (which incidentally, was 2-D and highly-lauded), but for those who have, and know more about them, I ask, why?

More specifically, what is it about the new games that makes them "worse" than the old ones? Are those allegations just crap? Is it just that the old ones have nostalgia on their side, and on top of that, the Fred Wolf cartoon is more beloved, or is there a more objective reason? Does a 2-dimensional plane of movement contract fights into a more on-your-toes challenge? Do the new games actually have less depth and more monotony, despite better technology and more buttons? Is catchy techno music an essential part of the essence of beat-em-ups that many modern ones don't have?

I'd like people to weigh in with their opinions on this, because it's a pretty big part of the TMNT franchise, or at least used to be. When a series has this much clout, there will inevitably be more games, so what lessons from the past, if any, can they use to do them right?

01-16-2013, 05:18 PM	#1
Konchadunga Stone Warrior Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Southern California Posts: 912	What Makes a Beat em Up "Good" or "Bad?" This is hardly irrelevant to the Turtles, because this franchise, more than any other, has prompted me to ponder this. Most people are aware of how beloved the 2-D beat-em-up games based on the Fred Wolf cartoon were, and most critics and some fans slammed the 3-D games based on the 4Kids cartoon. Some critics even allege that the unlockable original arcade game in the second 4Kids-based beat-em-up is better than the core game. Most recently, even the Reshelled version of Turtles in Time has been widely considered worse than the original. I haven't played any of the recent beat-em-up games except for the GBA game based on the 2007 movie (which incidentally, was 2-D and highly-lauded), but for those who have, and know more about them, I ask, why? More specifically, what is it about the new games that makes them "worse" than the old ones? Are those allegations just crap? Is it just that the old ones have nostalgia on their side, and on top of that, the Fred Wolf cartoon is more beloved, or is there a more objective reason? Does a 2-dimensional plane of movement contract fights into a more on-your-toes challenge? Do the new games actually have less depth and more monotony, despite better technology and more buttons? Is catchy techno music an essential part of the essence of beat-em-ups that many modern ones don't have? I'd like people to weigh in with their opinions on this, because it's a pretty big part of the TMNT franchise, or at least used to be. When a series has this much clout, there will inevitably be more games, so what lessons from the past, if any, can they use to do them right? __________________