Dragon Ball, the anime/manga which launched a thousand AOL screen names, is becoming a new fighting game made by Arc System Works. I’ve not been interested in the many Dragon Ball games Bandai Namco have made before, but their decision to draft Arc to make Dragon Ball FighterZ [official site] has me interested. Arc are the studio behind BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Persona 4 Arena, and other respectable face-punchers, y’see. The 3v3 fighting game’s announcement trailer includes a great many explosions, including a handblast so powerful it zaps out into space. I’m certainly onboard with colours and lights and shouting. Here, have a look yourself: Read the rest of this entry »

For years, the PC was short of fighting games. The bigguns stayed in arcades and on consoles, our home-grown ones were a bit wonky, and we certainly didn’t have Salty Bet. Now, goodness me, we’ve more fights than a pub car park. Along with (most of) the big-name series, loads of neat smaller games, we get the odd games too, such as Chaos Code -New Sign of Catastrophe- [official site]. FK Digital’s fight ’em up arrived on PC last week, with a cast ranging from a manga artist to a chef. Have a look: Read the rest of this entry »

The old-school biff-bopping of a beloved NES beat ’em up has resumed with the release of River City Ransom: Underground [official site], an official licensed revival. It bleeps! It bloops! It barfs! It is, to refresh your memory, a scrolling beat ’em up with a touch of action-RPG as a group of plucky heroes kick the living heck out of badguys. I’m still delighted seeing how elaborate and acrobatic some of their moves are. Peep this: Read the rest of this entry »

A new Double Dragon arrived this week, looking very much like the old one, and more throwback beatdowns are coming later this month with River City Ransom: Underground [official site]. The crowdfunded revival of ye olde side-scrolling beat ’em up will launch on February 27th, developers Conatus Creative have announced. Watching a new trailer, I am delighted by the combination of acrobatic attacks and enemies pulling goofy slack-jawed faces as they’re biffed about. Have a look: Read the rest of this entry »

“They don’t make ’em like they used to!” croaks some dreadful sketch show character. Perhaps their name is Harold, or Maude. Each episode, they visit a shop – a china shop, a car showroom, an ironmonger, etc. – and forcefully ‘test’ products in ways that ultimately trash the whole place. Shelves fall, cabinets collapse, windows break, and the teapots/cars/hammers lie in pieces. After Maude (or Harold) is shoved out the door, they sigh to the camera and croak: “They don’t make ’em like they used to!” This awful joke dies over eighteen episodes.

The Double Dragon gang very much do make ’em like they used to. Double Dragon 4 [official site] launched yesterday and the beat ’em up looks oh so very 1988. Read the rest of this entry »

Arc System Works are making a new retro-styled Double Dragon beat ’em up, even rounding up some of the original DD gang to chip in. Double Dragon IV [official site] will hit later this month and…. huh! What a curious bit of news. This NES-lookin’ throwdown is certainly the opposite of Double Dragon: Neon, the radtacular cowabungical modern revival by WayForward. Arc were nothing to do with Neon, mind, as they picked up the rights to Double Dragon only in 2015. Seems they fancied making some real old-school Double Dragon. Huh! Weird. Read the rest of this entry »