We remember what 2020 has given itself in fighting games and the resurgence of the most classic Beat’em Up
The truth is that the year that is ending has not been one full of great novelties for fighting games. Of course: along with the typical surprises that appear from time to time in this genre, we have witnessed how two mythical sagas -with all the letters- had releases this year, and that coincidence must have not occurred for some time. Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition would be enough by themselves to certify a very good year, as we are already in a generation of consoles in which this type of game will have its dose of prominence, if we take into account the sales figures and the interest that now arouse in e-sports. But they have not only been good months for the traditional one vs. one. We’ve also seen a resurgence of the more traditional Beat’em Up, a genre that only needed good games to regain some relevance. In that barren territory until recently, Streets of Rage 4 has been the true tip of the spear – even walking through The Game Awards gala – but the real news, in reality, is that it has not been the only quality copy that has come this year.
Street Fighter V Champion Edition and Mortal Kombat 11
Both have been distributed physically and represent re-releases for the last two episodes of the two sagas that best define the history of the genre. They share some things – such as the enormous content they include – but we would not say that they arrive at the same moment, in the context of what happened in recent years in the kingdom of fighting games. Street Fighter V has managed to recover to some extent from the disasters that accompanied it at its launch, but it is Mortal Kombat who gives the feeling of having traveled a much straighter path with its eleventh installment. The current Mortal Kombat 11, with the last name Ultimate, is a game that takes advantage of the new consoles, reaching a resolution and HDR management that place it without discussion as the most attractive fighting game of the moment, while Street Fighter V it still carries some of its doubts, especially when it comes to netplay and, it must be admitted, it has never completely convinced many of those who gave themselves thoroughly to its immediate predecessor. But there are more differences in the form state of Ryu and Scorpion.
It is fair to admit that Capcom took a good note and have been nurturing the game with enough offline options to win the interest of all players, but also in this NetherRealm seems to be a step above right now. With two quite entertaining story modes and a series of proposals that animate the show to turn the game into something infinite, Mortal Kombat enters the new generation of consoles at a clearly better moment than Street Fighter V, even if we leave aside that Capcom’s game has not been updated for PS5 and Xbox Series X. Thus, this confrontation will be one of the great moments to follow when we know what Capcom plans after the fifth numbered installment, since the truth is that right now it starts at a disadvantage against a Mortal Kombat that has achieved an unbeatable balance between accessibility and complexity and has a community to match.
GranBlue Fantasy Versus
Arc System Works has always wasted pure talent when it comes to making fighting video games, even though the big leagues have always been elusive in the West. After years of trying with Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, it was finally the long-awaited marriage to Dragon Ball that put the studio on a completely different level of popularity with Dragon Ball FighterZ, initiating a relationship that both parties needed, each for their own reasons. But in this study they need more and more fighting Japanese characters, and this year we have verified it with GranBlue Fantasy Versus, a real surprise within the scene for unknown that their characters may be in Europe.
GranBlue Fantasy Versus is a somewhat less ambitious game if we compare it to a Street Fighter, but at the same time it seems like a perfect excuse for those who do not want to pay the tolls that the great fighting games require today. Simple to start and eye-catching like everything the studio does, it manages to reach a sufficient level to interest the most experts for a while without even considering jumping into all that of the kilometer combos or training for hours. Its main problem is that you cannot expect much from online in Europe, but it is a very well made game that we could define as a mix between Guilty Gear and Street Fighter that does not want to become excessively complicated. Something deeper is Under Night In-Birth Exe [cl-r], another more than competent fighting game that has come to pass through the EVO and has seen launch for Playstation 4 and Switch this year.
From recreational to ongoing games
The other conclusion that one draws, seeing how these twelve months have developed, is that the model of fighting games as titles that continually receive new characters -with the consequent alteration of the meta and the shakes for the community- enters fully consolidated into this new generation. Such a circumstance is not to be taken as a joke, if we remember the criticism that Killer Instinct received for its business model at the beginning of the previous console cycle. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat have had, as we have already mentioned, compilations of content so gigantic that they are re-releases… but they have not been far from the only ones that have expanded these last twelve months. Someone should remind those who complained about Killer Instinct that the practices of the greatest of the retro universe were not that different.
Dragon Ball FighterZ has not stopped receiving new content this year – already in its third season – with the FighterZ Pass 3. Although some of the new characters will arrive in 2021, the novelties introduced in the game itself have provided enough incentives to keep alive the flame of a title that has already reached where no other game ever did, if what it is about is fighting with Goku and Vegeta (reminder: there have been a few). Regarding the roster of characters, it has been increased with Kefla, Goku Ultra Instinct and Muten Roshi – yes, the old master fights against Freeza – waiting for more pending releases for 2021. The result of that much desired fusion between Dragon Ball and ArcSys, with three seasons of the game behind and millionaire sales that guarantee that it will become a saga, has far exceeded the expectations that almost all of us had placed in this title. It is not that it was exactly bad when it came out, and surely it is not the most accessible fighting game at the moment at a competitive level, but neither could such a rapid development and, above all, so solvent, be foreseen, creating a community that surprises for such a recent title.
The other great traditional fighting game of recent years has already become a fireproof dinosaur, which we are not surprised to see in such good shape. Its journey is so long that we should never talk about Tekken 7 without first remembering that it is a video game released in 2015 in arcade, so it is clear that it can only be at a disadvantage with all the other games we are talking about. Luckily, this Tekken 7 is a great demonstration that technology is not everything, standing out for how well it has played its cards among the main players in the fight scene. As likely as it is that Harada-San is already in other things, the Tekken 7 of 2020 is a totally current game at the mechanical level that has only finished filing its edges over the years, to leave everything polished until a level that leaves those who have followed the saga from its inception speechless. The biggest thing, however, is that the characters released in 2020 – Fahkumram and Kunimitsu – are not going to be the last, because there is already more content announced for the next few months. A true madness, as much as Tekken needs a technological leap to be able to look its rivals in the eyes, who are – and will continue to be unless Harada’s head goes – those of the noblest area of the world. gender.
Tekken, Street Fighter, Dragon Ball and Mortal Kombat are the current top tier of a sensational moment. But we would be wrong – as in the nineties – to focus solely on them, since luckily they are not the only ones. Smash Bros continues to do its thing, dragging the masses with each announcement of a new character supported by brutal sales – more than twenty million copies – for this very particular fighting game made in Nintendo. At a very different level of popularity, but also with quite a bit of quality at the controls, there are two other titles that still continue to receive content: Samurai Shodown and Soul Calibur VI. His only handicap is that of not having achieved a community powerful enough to play the Champions League, but both are more than worthy heirs of historical sagas that have remained active this year 2020 through DLC, even with exchanges between them such as the Haohmaru’s appearance in Soul Calibur VI.
A new beginning for the Beat’em up.
What about Streets of Rage 4 at this point? Since its launch in April, it has done nothing but reap praise, positive reviews and important sales, making a good proposal that has convinced even the most skeptical with the return of a saga … that has hibernated for a quarter of a century. Beat’em Up is one of those genres that have never quite gone indie, but it needed revulsives that would once convince the old rockers who were never seduced by such fun proposals as Castle Crashers, so it is good news to be able to say that this year we have seen some. Even if we put aside a Streets of Rage 4 that undoubtedly plays in another league, it is perceived that there are beginning to be copies of more substance that move us to look to the future with optimism.
Launched in 2019 from Greece, The Takeover was surely weighed down by the coincidence with River City Girls, and passed without pain or glory in its first months on Steam. The launch on Switch seems to have revitalized it, and we’re happy about it, because this is another one of those games so well made it’s surprising that one person designed it. Inspired indiscriminately in Final Fight and Streets of Rage but with a point of roughness in the movements that reminds us of other old titles such as The Combatribes, anyone who takes control of this game will realize, game by game, how well carried out Everything is finished, to the point that it would be the Beat’em Up of the moment if the whirlwind of DotEmu had not been mediated. A full-fledged tribute to a genre that still has a lot to tell.
In case we were missing any extra guests, this year has also brought us a return expected by many such as Battletoads. With a visual style similar to that of Streets of Rage 4, the Battle Toads are back with a game that captures some of the crazy things that have made their titles for the old NES still remain in the memory of many. Absurd peaks of difficulty, fluid but simplified combat if we compare it with many similar games and the usual carefree plot – let’s not forget that they are muscular toads that give cakes – are the bases of a proposal that seems to have liked many of the followers of the traditional saga. Despite this, we would not dare to place it on the same level as the other great Beat’em Up of the moment. In fact, it’s not even sun Beat’em Up all the time, but it gets the job done and has unpretentious fun. Tricky topic, but in the end that’s what it’s all about.
An important year for things to come
It is true that, as we mentioned at the beginning, 2020 has not brought us any great new name that is going to rise to the throne of the greatest in the fight or to reign in the EVO. It has been rather a year in which the two great references have positioned themselves for the immediate future, a new guest like Dragon Ball FighterZ has taken a very clear step forward, Tekken 7 has shown that the years do not pass through him and Smash Bros has kept playing in their own league. If what we are looking for at the end of each year are novelties, these have come rather from the hand of the Beat’em up, for whom we hope that Streets of Rage 4 will be a new starting point. If its success encourages other companies – especially one that starts with C – to look back at this genre, we could be facing a resurgence that many of us have been waiting for for years. Whether it happens or not, The Takeover and Battletoads, as happened last year with River City Girls, show that a middle class exists right now in these games. Streets of Rage 4 – nostalgia aside – confirms that you just needed to take things seriously – at a high level of design – for sales to keep up. As it is, the new generation of machines awaits with the doors wide open to those who believe in punches and kicks as a method of endless fun.
