I have close to no affinity for the turtles, Konami's arcade beat-em-ups, or Scott Pilgrim's game adaptation, so the fact that I can say "I like it kinda!" is honestly a larger W for Tribute and DotEmu than it may seem.
There was an active cabinet for The Simpsons in my local mall, nestled in the back of a Slackers (local used game/movie/music store). Inevitably I'd pass by and pony up some pocket change to it, play the first stage or two, and leave whenever someone in my group wanted to or whenever I ran out of lives. Years later, when I eventually emulated the game, infinity quarters in hand, I realized after a full run, “Oh. This isn’t great.”
The Simpsons arcade game has undoubtedly MAJOR strengths: for one, it is one of if not the best rendition of the yellow family in a game, ever. 3D never does them any favors, early spritework was inevitably uncanny and budgeted (I mean this figuratively, but also probably literally) compared to the real deal, but arcade’s stronger power and Konami’s visual artists strike a perfect line between vivid and simplistic (especially for a pre-SNES ‘91, goddamn). It’s also just inherently funny that The Simpsons have a beat-em-up? The era of the 2D Simpsons games is notoriously gonzo conceptually, but the main four cast members beating the shit outta people just goes to show how strong genre conventions could make your random IP a fondly-remembered classic.
Anyway, apply everything I just said to TMNT and its games, and we have arrived at My Point™. We are dealing with a genre that exists in a dichotomous state of steely genre-worship and volatile relevancy, playing in a shibboleth minefield of its own making. When one of these is transcendent, it hits hard, yet I square up against send-ups constantly, many sold on the premise that it’s A Revival of The Genre. Many of them fail this, some... well, at least one succeeded. And wouldn’t you know it, DotEmu also published that.
I’ll cut to the chase: though this doesn’t do enough to make me feel convinced that I now love this type of beat-em-up, I admire it regardless. I’ll take the slow, technical pace of Ninja Warriors or AvP (queen vs. queen, but lord knows April ain’t no Lt. Kurosawa, no sir...) anyday, especially if it means I don’t have to deal with Konami beat-em-up bosses. But this is somewhere above the average, with a slightly higher threshold for mindful play, even if it does manifest in quick n’ dirty solutions like a dodge and RPG progression. And while I do prefer my action games to be studious and long-form, getting wall-to-wall bonkers shit right is an art of its own. And being well past the era of piggy bank sacrifices only makes this harder for Tribute, yet here we are.
I mean hey, the game allows for 6-player simultaneous co-op. I feel like that’s giving the secret away from the jump.
There was an active cabinet for The Simpsons in my local mall, nestled in the back of a Slackers (local used game/movie/music store). Inevitably I'd pass by and pony up some pocket change to it, play the first stage or two, and leave whenever someone in my group wanted to or whenever I ran out of lives. Years later, when I eventually emulated the game, infinity quarters in hand, I realized after a full run, “Oh. This isn’t great.”
The Simpsons arcade game has undoubtedly MAJOR strengths: for one, it is one of if not the best rendition of the yellow family in a game, ever. 3D never does them any favors, early spritework was inevitably uncanny and budgeted (I mean this figuratively, but also probably literally) compared to the real deal, but arcade’s stronger power and Konami’s visual artists strike a perfect line between vivid and simplistic (especially for a pre-SNES ‘91, goddamn). It’s also just inherently funny that The Simpsons have a beat-em-up? The era of the 2D Simpsons games is notoriously gonzo conceptually, but the main four cast members beating the shit outta people just goes to show how strong genre conventions could make your random IP a fondly-remembered classic.
Anyway, apply everything I just said to TMNT and its games, and we have arrived at My Point™. We are dealing with a genre that exists in a dichotomous state of steely genre-worship and volatile relevancy, playing in a shibboleth minefield of its own making. When one of these is transcendent, it hits hard, yet I square up against send-ups constantly, many sold on the premise that it’s A Revival of The Genre. Many of them fail this, some... well, at least one succeeded. And wouldn’t you know it, DotEmu also published that.
I’ll cut to the chase: though this doesn’t do enough to make me feel convinced that I now love this type of beat-em-up, I admire it regardless. I’ll take the slow, technical pace of Ninja Warriors or AvP (queen vs. queen, but lord knows April ain’t no Lt. Kurosawa, no sir...) anyday, especially if it means I don’t have to deal with Konami beat-em-up bosses. But this is somewhere above the average, with a slightly higher threshold for mindful play, even if it does manifest in quick n’ dirty solutions like a dodge and RPG progression. And while I do prefer my action games to be studious and long-form, getting wall-to-wall bonkers shit right is an art of its own. And being well past the era of piggy bank sacrifices only makes this harder for Tribute, yet here we are.
I mean hey, the game allows for 6-player simultaneous co-op. I feel like that’s giving the secret away from the jump.