The Super Spy

Found this game on the Switch Arcade Store, very interesting. Love the perspective, animations and spritework. Might buy it.

Yeh was gonna recommend this for beat em ups(I have a list months ago but id not gotten around to it). What you see in that vid is more or less the whole game, enemy variety doesn’t go past those 2 goons recoloured a dozen times and ditto for mini bosses excluding unique bosses. It’s novel but the limited enemy variety is a major flaw given how long the game tends to be(at least 1:30mins, and that’s 1CC standard, 1st run it’ll be more like 1:40-2hrs).

It’s a 1st person beat em up really(unless you just shoot n shank everyone like a true super spy), so it belongs there same as Breakdown, it’s unconventional but it’s brawling all the same.

There’s a fair few other 1st person brawlers if your interested, Xenoclash1-2 and condemned1-2 come to mind. Condemned 2 is practically Breakdown melee mechanics outright, and I’d know, I really like condemned 2 combat and Breakdown is an admirable if often terrible game, so much so that my profile pic is official Breakdown art found in the in game art gallery.

If your interested in another odd perspective and innovative melee combat game for the NeoGeo, check Crossed Swords(and it’s sequel). It’s like Punch Out with medieval knights!

I find it interesting how you can dodge based on the camera position, does make side-scrolling a bit overpowered at times. My biggest complaint about the game so far is pretty killer, mostly it being a quarter-eater with a ton of 'unfair' fights where you sometimes die before you can know what's going on. Laggy controls (could be the emulation). But most of all the length and variation. It is a fun game, but after 15 minutes I need a break.

I'm happy to see you mention Crossed Swords! It is getting a Switch port in a few weeks and it caught my eye. Looks absolutely gold and really excited to play it!

Yeh I love Crossed Swords, really unique combat. I’d suggest playing its sequel also, its generally regarded as worse and notably adds more enemies in combat at once.

I played all the NeoGeo games(all 156 or so of them, but not always in great detail) via MAME as a kid. So I had the luxury of playing hundreds of arcade and 4th generation(and prior) console games on my dads computer growing up. So I should really share that knowledge with folks here, before you find them all yourself haha!

But seriously: I’m almost done with my Beat em Up recommendation list! I want to prioritise the ones that have historical significance, innovation/novelty and quality, also an informative blurb for each. Maybe I’m overdoing it but I want you to have the best impression, especially if your going to do that coveted history piece, ya gotta start with grampa’s Kung Fu Master and Final Fight.

Do be aware that many arcade games aren’t available on consoles. The ones that are you may not have the system for and if you do it might be Japanese exclusive and cost a lot. So you’ll have to resort to free and safe emulation, that’s how this kid did it in the early 00s anyhow. So hopefully you’ll trust my selection(you can already cross Sengoku 3 and SuperSpy of the list you bugger). I do hope you like some as much as Sengoku 3(your spoiled already), few are of that caliber but I know the ones fam.

You know ACA NeoGeo releases are multi platform right? So if Crossed Swords for Switch is ACA then it’ll likely come to other systems too as they’ve done so far. Good thing these ports exist, they’ve allowed a new audience to play these games(well there’s always emulation again so it’s not saying much, pragmatically speaking).

To note I bought Crossed Swords and love it, even managed to get top 6 in the world leaderboards...that number 2 spot might be doable!

Well that’s great, suppose a topic is due.