I took this opportunity in the story to express my love for the classic beat’em up games. They were always my favorite when I was a gamer as a kid. I lived to go to 711 and play Final Fight. It completely filled me with joy every time Skate would jump on the bad guy and punch him in the head in Streets of Rage 2. My love of throwing bad guys off the roof could never be quenched in Double Dragon 2, and I freakin’ loved how when you roundhoused a guy in the face on Super Double Dragon he actually spun around in the air instead of falling backward. It was a big step forward in beat’em up technology at the time. You can see down there by the game system in the comic a bunch of games. The titles may be hard to read, so here they are. This is my list of some of my favorite games growing up:
Maniac Mansion
Tenchu
Double Dragon 2
Battltoads
Narc
Skate or Die 2
Streets of Rage 2
Final Fight
Had I more space I may have included Bad Dudes and Cyborg Justice. And I know Maniac Mansion is not a beat’em up but it was one of my all time favorite games. Skate or Die I mainly loved for the half pipe and seeing all the ways you could make your guy die.
I loved the Double Dragon games so much that I actually wrote a song called the Ballad of Billy Lee for my band, Lunaractive. This song incorporated music from the video games and the lyrics chronicled the stories of the Double Dragon games from part one to Super Double Dragon. I know you are curious to hear it, so here, have it. I wrote all the lyrics on this beast and sang 90% of the vocals (that intro is a choir of Ethans singing over a slow piano version of the Double Dragon theme). It was the most complicated song we ever wrote as a band. Oh yeah and “Fists of Justice” is a Double Dragon reference because the brothers practice a martial art called Setsouken which means “Fist of Justice” (at least according the the game).
Now, the game Joel and Louis are playing is a fantasy game I made up. It’s Lord of Beasts. A beat’em up in the woods. More on that on Wednesday. For now, here is a close up of the box art I did for it just so I could shrink it down and put it in the comic.
Wednesday you get to see an actual screen shot. I don’t know if Noah colored this box image but if he did I will try to post that up here too.
I was tempted to post the lyrics to Ballad of Billy Lee but they are pretty long. My dream is for someone to take sprites and screen shots from the actual games and make a music video. If you get a little tingle in your soul and think you might be that guy, please stand up.
Also, I got Bearmageddon posters made and they are shipping to Topatoco right now, so hopefully they will be up in the store soon. Also, working on tee shirts. Thanks for reading!
Ethan
Why does Louie(or Louis?) remind me of how you drew your brother in the Ask Axecop episode with Johnny cash?
He is partially based on Malachai. I will go more into why I chose that look for Louis in a future blog post.
Well, he’s definitely adorable with the big enthusiastic eyes and being delighted to see his (presumed) big brother.
I just hope he doesn’t get eaten by a bear.
Maniac Mansion was the bee’s knees! I love the old Lucasfilm/LucasArts adventure games.
I’m totally with you, I noticed that too.
Dragons – Doubling up!
actually it’s “We’re Dragons: We DOUBLE IT UP!”
Hey man, I listened to your damn song. Give me a break!
I appreciate it.
And its awesome, Great job!
I remember hearing the song on Nobody’s listening, also Slaystation is a really awesome name for a console.
Yes, good old Pony Slaystation.
I bet you’d want axe cop’s game to be a beat ’em up too huh?
oh yeah!
How could it be anything else? Beat your way through the levels to make money to pay the gun bill. We’ll sell a trillion of ’em!
“Linda’s lesbian mullet and her hot pink jazzercise tights” remains one of my all time favorite lines from any song.
I would play the fire out of Lord of Beasts. It seems like two or more player games just sort of died out for awhile, but definitely look to be making a comeback (GOW, L4D, Army of Two, RE: Raccoon City, Dead Island). I’m pretty much just locking myself away from the end of September until the holidays are over to obsessively play all of this upcoming goodness.
(And, of course, I would be all over an Axe Cop game, but that really goes without saying…as long as I can play as Baby Man. Please give me Baby Man. Do not break my heart.)
The best Sunday afternoons are mutliplayer side-scrolling beat-em-up afternoons. Streets of Rage and Golden Ax still get played. Your game reminds me a lot of Golden Ax or Altered Beast. Gauntlet Legends was a pretty good newer one. Also, Diablo 2 via LAN. That is good times.
It just now hit me now that I know you liked Final Fight–Fire Slicer is Guy, and Vampire Wolfer is Cody.
I wasn’t specifically thinking of them but I was thinking of Capcom style characters when i designed them.
So Axe Cop saying they were the Ultimate Team was not a reference to Battletoads and Double Dragon?
Sousetsuken (双截拳) literally means something like “intersecting twin fists”.
Not quite fists of justices. 🙁
ah well. In Double Dragon universe it does!
Lord of the Beasts needs to be a spin-off now.
I’m hoping Lord of Beasts is something like Altered Beast, that’d be just tits. WISE FWUM YOUW GWABE!
Love your taste in games – I fondly remember most of them from my youth. I think Maniac Mansion and Skate or Die are the only games on that list I hadn’t played. There’s one game sadly missing from your list, though: Gunstar Heroes. Probably my favorite action-y Genesis game.
OH HELL YES GUNSTAR
I admittedly have not heard of it, I’ll have to check it out.
As much as I would love to gush about beat-em-ups (God Hand is the pinnacle of the genre, check it out dude) I am actually amazed that I had no idea you were in Lunaractive. Admittedly, all I know about the band I gleamed off the music video for Mission to the Moon, but that’s still one of my favorite songs for when I’m in a sci-fi mood.
wait you had heard of Lunaractive before this? Are you the Montana guy?
I don’t think so, I just used to listen to your guys’ stuff on your MySpace after the video was fronted on Newgrounds…
Oh yeah I forgot about that!
I hated the “campaign” in Skate or Die 2, particularly skating around that mall delivering stuff. I did spend an insane amount of hours on the skate ramp doing tricks for that chick in the window.
Please tell me you’ve played River City Ransom?
oh yeah, loved it!
Keep em’ commin Ethan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanna see some squid bears!Love them genetically altered beasts. (ooh yeah Altered Beast. I accidently made a retro game refference).
Oh man Streets of Rage 2 was my all-time favorite game, I would still play it today. In fact I do, I managed to snag the final version of Streets of Rage Remake and was so filled with glee. Max’s atomic butt-buster all the way baby…
There’s a remake? I got the old version the PS3 the other night and played through it for old times sake. Still love it.
Yep, completely unofficial. Some guys took the best parts of SoR 1-3, added their own, remastered the whole thing, and released it. It’s amazingly well done. Unfortunately Sega halted the distribution but a Google search for “streets of rage remake v5” and perusal of various download sites will find it.
Wait.. what? Slaystation 3…? So… They are in the Disgaea Multiverse?
Your game reminds me of Golden Axe. Try it. Tis fun.
Yeah Golden Axe is awesome.
First time posting. Intrigued by squid bear eldrich abomination. Want to see more. Feel like speaking like Dr. Mordin. Not intentional. Stopping now.
Since you are talking about beat-em-ups, did you get the golden axe/streets of rage before sega hunting them down? The golden axe is pretty nice, but the streets of rage one is just gold. I’ll keep the two until the very end of time.
PS: Felt guilty on breaking the apparent tradition on avatars. That or I am just plain stupid. It’s a 50/50 situation.
Actually anyone without their own avatar defaults at a random bear image. I set that up haha.
Was there some new release of Streets of Rage? If so I gotta get it!
He. I knew it. Someday I’ll bet all my money on not winning the lottery. Meh, now I’m too lazy to switch avatars. So be it.
Yeah. It was an indie game which proposed to recreate the Streets of Rage feeling, while adding a lot more of content. And they suceeded. I still don’t think I played through all the possible stages. I’m not finding any links (no wonder why – http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/11/streets-of-rage-remake-taken-down/). People have to pass links on low profile. Like they were drugs or something. Granted this game is more addicting than crack, but still!
I’ll get you a link. This time it’s for free.
Ok. My internet service is working just as expected and making uploads of a a large file out of question. You can get some friendly files by googling “SORRv5”, though.
CYBORG JUSTICE!
Yes!
I only just remembered the name of this game the other day, i was asking people for years if they remembered it. I thought i was going to end up a gibbering wreck after people telling me i was making it up. And here you are. Talking about it and making web comics about the bearmageddon……
Maybe i did lose it somewhere along the way.
Fudge it, i’m happy with my lot. So what if this is all in my head.
haha, i’m a sleepy bear 🙂
Hey, Ethan, ever see “The Ballad of Mike Haggar”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce9J-J30B3o
Man. That was pretty epic.
Have you heard the heavy metal Punch Out song?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHmmZf_ax0&feature=player_embedded#!
My dad and I used to play Double Dragon and Double Dragon II back in the day.
Also, it appears I can buy at least two LunarActive albums (one of them an EP?) on CDbaby.
That’s a good Dad! Yes as long as they still have them in stock you can buy them at CDbaby. I don’t think they have very many left. The full length has lots of cool art in it, though I like the mix on the EP better.
I just have to say…”Ballad of Billy Lee” just seriously changed my life. Holy crap, dude.
I love this game, and the fake screenshots ! This screams “old school CPS1 beat’em-all”. Wonderful work man.
As a fellow BTA fan, Can I suggest you my own personnal list (obvious classics exclued) :
Vendetta
Alien VS Predator (You can supplex a Xenomorph !)
The Punisher
Ninja Baseball Batman
Violent Storm
Metamorphic Force
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
Oh No poor Chuckles got his nose jammed.
I love that Battletoads is on your list! Have you ever beaten it? I went back to it recently, intent on (eventually) beating it. I’ve gotten to the 7th level. Such a ridiculously hard game, but so awesome.