In computer graphics , a sprite is a two-dimensional bitmap that is integrated into a larger scene, most often in a 2D video game . Originally, the term sprite referred to fixed-sized objects composited together, by hardware, with a background. Use of the term has since become more general.
87-521: Altered Beast is a 1988 beat 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Sega . The game is set in Ancient Greece and follows a player character chosen by Zeus to rescue his daughter Athena from the demonic ruler of the underworld , Neff. By collecting three power-ups in a level, the player character transforms into one of five magical beasts. It was ported to several home video game consoles and home computers . Altered Beast
174-436: A shoot 'em up gameplay rhythm with fighting elements when he designed Kung-Fu Master . The game was also distinctive for its use of health meters , for both the player character and each boss. Another 1984 release, Bruce Lee , combined multi-player, multi-character combat with traditional collecting, platform and puzzle gameplay. Later that year, Karateka combined the one-on-one fight sequences of Karate Champ with
261-671: A certain degree of success, and entered the Japanese arcade earnings charts at number-two in August 1996. Core Design 's Fighting Force (1997) was anticipated to redefine the genre for 32-bit consoles through its use of a 3D environment. However, it was met with a lukewarm reception. The beat 'em up genre declined in the late 1990s, largely disappearing from arcades by the end of the decade. In 2000, Squaresoft published The Bouncer (2000), developed by DreamFactory and designed by former Virtua Fighter designer Seiichi Ishii , for
348-453: A combat motif as beat 'em ups, including fighting games. However, they were differentiated by a specific prefix; games like Double Dragon or Final Fight were called "scrolling beat 'em ups" and games such as Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat were referred to as "one on one beat 'em ups". Fighting games were still being called "beat 'em up" games in the UK gaming press up until the end of
435-421: A darker and more violent tone. Uchida advised on the project, and stated, "We really couldn't steer away from the violence aspect. The American marketing side was cheering us on, so we did it as best we could." The 2005 Altered Beast received mixed reviews for its camera system and poor graphics. In 2014, Sega announced a partnership with Evan Cholfin for film and TV projects based on their games. Altered Beast
522-672: A deal could not be reached with the owner of the patent of the pressure-sensitive device over the small number to be ordered. The failure to secure the button meant that half of the planned character actions had to be removed. Uchida claims that the reduced complexity of the game caused by this caused players to tire of Altered Beast quickly. Despite this, Uchida was proud of the reactions he was getting from players during play testing. Released in June 1988, Altered Beast 's arcade version proved to be more popular overseas than it did in Japan. As
609-400: A few tens of anybody's money." Computer and Video Games criticized the game's plot as being unoriginal and the graphics as "large and clumsily drawn". Your Sinclair stated the game was "not recommended to those that are still living". By contrast, Crash called the graphics "nifty" and suggested that despite the repetitive plot, the gameplay is compelling. The Games Machine offered
696-419: A number of modern games feature more open three-dimensional (3D) environments with yet larger numbers of enemies. The gameplay tends to follow arcade genre conventions, such as being simple to learn but difficult to master, and the combat system tends to be more highly developed than other side-scrolling action games . Two-player cooperative gameplay and multiple player characters are also hallmarks of
783-433: A period of high popularity between the release of Double Dragon in 1987, which defined the two-player cooperative mode and continuous belt scroll format central to classic beat 'em ups, and 1991's Street Fighter II , which drew gamers towards one-on-one fighting games . Games such as Streets of Rage , Final Fight , Golden Axe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are other classics to emerge from this period. In
870-498: A positive review, stating that while the game is not highly visual like Out Run or Space Harrier , the gameplay makes the game worth a play. The various ports of Altered Beast received more mixed reviews. The Games Machine gave the Mega Drive version a positive review on the faithful arcade conversion. In 1989, ACE praised the Mega Drive conversion as never having played better on any home system, and they rated it as
957-538: A powerful thrust attack, while the golden werewolf has the same abilities as the wolf form. In the Famicom version of the game, available beast forms also include a shark, lion, and phoenix form. Altered Beast was developed by Makoto Uchida . He took inspiration for the game from The Howling and the music video for the Michael Jackson song " Thriller ", as well as movies by Ray Harryhausen , and chose
SECTION 10
#17327724964391044-719: A result of its popularity, it was selected to be ported and made the pack-in game for the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive in North America and Europe. Uchida was not involved directly with either the Genesis or the Master System port, though he did give some advice and noted he was not worried about the Genesis port because its hardware was based on the System 16 arcade system board he used. He had hoped to implement
1131-481: A resurgence within indie game development , resulting in unique titles such as DrinkBox Studios ' 2013 indie title Guacamelee! and its 2018 sequel, which are both noted for their hybrid 2D Metroidvania -style platform brawler gameplay. Other indie titles are The Takeover (2019), Ninjin: Clash of Carrots (2018), and the critically acclaimed Fight'N Rage (2017). Sprite (computer graphics) Systems with hardware sprites include arcade video games of
1218-411: A resurgence, with popular titles such as Dungeon Fighter Online , Dragon's Crown , Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge . A beat 'em up (also called a "brawler") is a type of action game where the player character must fight a large number of enemies in unarmed combat or with melee weapons. Gameplay consists of walking through a level , one section at
1305-418: A row, in 1988 and 1989 . Double Dragon 's success resulted in a flood of beat 'em ups in the late 1980s, where acclaimed titles such as Golden Axe and Final Fight (both 1989) distinguished themselves from the others. Final Fight was Capcom 's intended sequel to Street Fighter (provisionally titled Street Fighter '89 ), but the company ultimately gave it a new title. In contrast to
1392-755: A sense of progression, along with the use of cut scenes to give it a cinematic look and feel. Like Kunio-kun , the game's combat system drew inspiration from the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon , while Double Dragon added a new disaster-ridden city setting inspired by the Mad Max films and Fist of the North Star manga and anime series. Double Dragon became Japan's third highest-grossing table arcade game of 1987 , before becoming America's overall highest-grossing dedicated arcade game for two years in
1479-417: A single row of pixels that are displayed on a scan line . To produce a two-dimensional shape, the sprite's single-row bitmap is altered by software from one scan line to the next. The 1979 Atari 400 and 800 home computers have similar, but more elaborate, circuitry capable of moving eight single-color objects per scan line: four 8-bit wide players and four 2-bit wide missiles . Each is the full height of
1566-766: A solution to the problem: controlling each individual game element with a dedicated transistor . The rockets were essentially hardwired bitmaps that moved around the screen independently of the background, an important innovation for producing screen images more efficiently and providing the basis for sprite graphics. The earliest video games to represent player characters as human player sprites were arcade sports video games , beginning with Taito 's TV Basketball , released in April 1974 and licensed to Midway Manufacturing for release in North America. Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado , he wanted to move beyond simple Pong -style rectangles to character graphics, by rearranging
1653-489: A sophisticated move set likened to a fighting game. It updated the Streets of Rage formula to 3D, while implementing moves and combos from the fighting game Virtua Fighter 2 (1994), the ability to combine weapons to create more powerful weapons, and in two-player mode the ability to perform combined special moves and combos. It also had cut scenes , with quick time events interspersed between scenes. The game achieved
1740-410: A time, defeating a group of enemies before advancing to the next section; a boss fight normally occurs at the end of each level. Arcade versions of these games are often quite difficult to win, causing players to spend more money. Beat 'em ups are related to but distinct from fighting games, which are based around one-on-one matches rather than scrolling levels and multiple enemies. Such terminology
1827-407: Is a side scrolling beat 'em up game with light platform elements. It has five levels and can be played by up to two players simultaneously. Combat takes place across five levels set in Ancient Greece and populated by aggressive undead creatures and monsters resembling those from Greek mythology. The demonic god Neff waits at the end of each level. Between each level are small animations giving
SECTION 20
#17327724964391914-522: Is a fan of the arcade version, the reduced graphics, slow gameplay of the port, and fussy collision detection are significant issues. Contrary to their praise for the Mega Drive port, The Games Machine called the Master System version "a middling conversion of a nice coin-op". Electronic Gaming Monthly was more positive, claiming the game "does a good job of capturing most of the familiar play mechanics of its arcade cousin." Sega Pro called
2001-542: Is called OAM (Object Attribute Memory). This also applies to the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS . The use of sprites originated with arcade video games . Nolan Bushnell came up with the original concept when he developed the first arcade video game, Computer Space (1971). Technical limitations made it difficult to adapt the early mainframe game Spacewar! (1962), which performed an entire screen refresh for every little movement, so he came up with
2088-509: Is considered one of the strongest beat 'em up titles for its fantasy elements, distinguishing it from the urban settings seen in other beat 'em ups. Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja featured platform elements, while P.O.W.: Prisoners of War took the weapon aspect a stage further, allowing the players to pick up guns. Another beat 'em up— River City Ransom (1989), named Street Gangs in Europe—featured role-playing game elements with which
2175-451: Is its charm, which was reduced in the modifications to the game's Genesis port, and has called the game "one of the more memorable concepts Sega conceived." Uchida has expressed surprise over the sustained popularity around his arcade games, stating "When I occasionally visit videogame arcades in the US, I still see people playing my Altered Beast and Golden Axe games. It proves to me that, if
2262-563: Is loosely applied, however, as some commentators prefer to conflate the two terms. At times, both one-on-one fighting games and scrolling beat 'em ups have influenced each other in terms of graphics and style and can appeal to fans of either genre. Occasionally, a game will feature both kinds of gameplay. In the United Kingdom, video game magazines during the 1980s to 1990s, such as Mean Machines and Computer & Video Games (C+VG) for example, referred to all games which had
2349-456: Is prepared for the video output device, such as a cathode-ray tube , without involvement of the main CPU and without the need for a full-screen frame buffer . Sprites can be positioned or altered by setting attributes used during the hardware composition process. The number of sprites which can be displayed per scan line is often lower than the total number of sprites a system supports. For example,
2436-531: Is the Dynasty Warriors series, which beginning with Dynasty Warriors 2 (2000) offered beat 'em up action on large 3D battlefields with war strategy game elements, displaying dozens of characters on the screen at a time. The series to date spans 14 games (including expansions) which players in the West view as overly similar, although the games' creators claim their large audience in Japan appreciates
2523-439: Is used in the 1981 TI-99/4A . Sprites remained popular with the rise of 2.5D games (those which recreate a 3D game space from a 2D map) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A technique called billboarding allows 2.5D games to keep onscreen sprites rotated toward the player view at all times. Some 2.5D games, such as 1993's Doom , allow the same entity to be represented by different sprites depending on its rotation relative to
2610-483: Is very popular. Dungeon Fighter Online has become one of the most-played and highest-grossing games of all time, having grossed over $ 10 billion. Other traditional 2D scrolling beat 'em ups were released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network including The Behemoth 's Castle Crashers (2008), featuring cartoon graphics, quirky humor, and acclaimed cooperative gameplay, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile (2011), Double Dragon Neon (2012) and Scott Pilgrim vs.
2697-653: The 1979 movie of the same name), released in 2005, featured large scale brawling in 3D environments interspersed with other activities such as chase sequences. The game also featured a more traditional side-scrolling beat 'em up Armies of the Night as bonus content, which was acclaimed along with the main game and was later released on the PlayStation Portable . Capcom's Viewtiful Joe (2003), directed by Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya, used cel-shaded graphics and innovative gameplay features (such as
Altered Beast - Misplaced Pages Continue
2784-496: The Nintendo Entertainment System . According to Steve Golson from General Computer Corporation , the term "stamp" was used instead of "sprite" at the time. Signetics devised the first chips capable of generating sprite graphics (referred to as objects by Signetics) for home systems. The Signetics 2636 video processors were first used in the 1978 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System and later in
2871-692: The Nintendo eShop . The game was also included as one of the pre-loaded games on the SEGA Genesis Mini . This game has also been released on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on December 16, 2021. In Japan, Altered Beast was the second highest-grossing arcade game of the month in July 1988. Upon its initial arcade release, Altered Beast received mixed reviews. Commodore User called it "a clever game, and well worth
2958-503: The PlayStation 2 console. It was an ambitious project that attempted to deliver a cinematic, story-driven beat 'em up, combining 3D beat 'em up gameplay with action role-playing game elements, cinematic cutscenes, high production values and an "Active Character Selection" system where choices alter the storyline . It was highly anticipated due to Squaresoft's reputation with Japanese role-playing games such as Final Fantasy , but
3045-458: The System 16 arcade system board for its ability to add great detail to large character sprites , as well as the visual effects it could provide, such as limbs flying off characters during combat. Uchida was not impressed by the initial concept art, so he worked with an artist to sketch out his specific ideas on character design. While the results of this were positive, Uchida's lead designer quit
3132-555: The Wii 's Virtual Console was given a lukewarm reception by GameSpot and IGN , describing the game as merely decent with some nostalgic value. The Xbox Live Arcade re-release was even described by IGN as a "relic of the arcade heyday that just doesn't hold up today". Video game journalist Ken Horowitz stated that video gamers identify the "rise from your grave" opening from the game, whether they are fans of Sega's games or not. According to Horowitz, Altered Beast 's biggest attraction
3219-480: The belt scroll format, allowing both vertical and horizontal movement along a side-scrolling environment, while also popularizing street brawling in the genre. Created by Yoshihisa Kishimoto , game was inspired by his own teenage high school years getting into daily fights, along with Bruce Lee's martial arts film Enter the Dragon . The Western adaptation Renegade (released the same year) added an underworld revenge plot that proved more popular with gamers than
3306-630: The 1970s and 1980s; game consoles including as the Atari VCS (1977), ColecoVision (1982), Famicom (1983), Genesis/Mega Drive (1988); and home computers such as the TI-99/4 (1979), Atari 8-bit computers (1979), Commodore 64 (1982), MSX (1983), Amiga (1985), and X68000 (1987). Hardware varies in the number of sprites supported, the size and colors of each sprite, and special effects such as scaling or reporting pixel-precise overlap. Hardware composition of sprites occurs as each scan line
3393-403: The 1979 Elektor TV Games Computer . The Atari VCS , released in 1977, has a hardware sprite implementation where five graphical objects can be moved independently of the game playfield. The term sprite was not in use at the time. The VCS's sprites are called movable objects in the programming manual, further identified as two players , two missiles , and one ball . These each consist of
3480-403: The 1990s. Beat 'em up games usually employ vigilante crime fighting and revenge plots with the action taking place on city streets, though historical and fantasy themed games also exist. Players must walk from one end of the game world to the other, and thus each game level will usually scroll horizontally . Some later beat 'em ups dispense with 2D -based scrolling levels, instead allowing
3567-699: The Altered Beast, this other creature that's really powerful and violent". The character Neff, in his Rhino form as the boss of the game's final level, appeared in the 2012 Disney film Wreck-It Ralph , along with Sonic the Hedgehog villain Doctor Eggman . On October 31, 2019, ZeeGee_ of New York achieved the world record for fastest speedrun at 6 minutes 10 seconds on the Sega Genesis, while thu_ox placed second with 6 minutes 12 seconds on
Altered Beast - Misplaced Pages Continue
3654-596: The CPU. According to Karl Guttag, one of two engineers for the 1979 Texas Instruments TMS9918 video display processor, this use of the word sprite came from David Ackley, a manager at TI. It was also used by Danny Hillis at Texas Instruments in the late 1970s. The term was derived from the fact that sprites "float" on top of the background image without overwriting it, much like a ghost or mythological sprite . Some hardware manufacturers used different terms, especially before sprite became common: Player/Missile Graphics
3741-514: The Greek setting for the powerful characters he had in mind. Uchida admitted that he struggled during production because it was his first game he developed, and so he leaned on his lead programmer to help create balance in the gameplay. One of Uchida's goals was to create flashy visuals that would surprise players, so he asked his lead artist to focus just on the player character's transformation sequences for one month. Additionally, he and his team used
3828-401: The Master System version "a shame, since the Mega Drive version was a great success." S: The Sega Magazine stated that there are better arcade conversions on the Master System and that Altered Beast , while having a passable soundtrack, suffers from poor animation and control issues. Mega placed the game at #10 in their list of the 10 Worst Mega Drive Games of All Time. Its re-release for
3915-632: The Nintendo Wii. Apostle Studios achieved the world record of highest score with 6,621,500 on the Sega Genesis, while Samuel Clemens of California placed second with 1,008,300 points on July 19, 2022, on the PlayStation 4. Beat %27em up A beat 'em up (also known as brawler and, in some markets, beat 'em all ) is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling , two-dimensional (2D) levels, while
4002-503: The Texas Instruments TMS9918 chip supports 32 sprites, but only four can appear on the same scan line. The CPUs in modern computers, video game consoles, and mobile devices are fast enough that bitmaps can be drawn into a frame buffer without special hardware assistance. Beyond that, GPUs can render vast numbers of scaled, rotated, anti-aliased , partially translucent, very high resolution images in parallel with
4089-544: The World: The Game (2010). Fable Heroes (2012) is an Xbox Live Arcade only title released in 2012. Saints Row IV (2013) featured a parody of Streets Of Rage entitled "Saints Of Rage", where the player rescues Johnny Gat from a virtual prison. Dragon's Crown (2013) is a 2D fantasy game with a mix of beat 'em up and ARPG elements that were specifically inspired by Golden Axe and Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom . Streets of Rage 4 (2020)
4176-521: The appeal of some, while the appeal of others has been deemed to have diminished with time. Although the genre lacks the same presence it did in the late 1980s, some titles such as Viewtiful Joe and God Hand kept the traditional beat 'em up genre alive. The traditional 2D beat 'em up genre has seen a resurgence in Asia, where the South Korean online beat 'em up Dungeon Fighter Online (2004)
4263-433: The basic structure of a beat 'em up, with Lee ascending five levels of a pagoda while fighting numerous enemies and several boss battles along the way, while another Lee film Enter the Dragon (1973) also influenced the genre. The first video game to feature fist fighting was Sega 's arcade boxing game Heavyweight Champ (1976), which is viewed from a side-view perspective like later fighting games. However, it
4350-400: The beat 'em up genre began seeing a revival in the form of popular 3D hack and slash games in the style of Devil May Cry (2001 onwards), including Onimusha , Ninja Gaiden (2004 onwards), God of War (2005 onwards), God Hand (2006), Heavenly Sword (2007), Afro Samurai (2009), and Bayonetta (2009). Featuring a more fantasy themed approach, with longer campaigns and
4437-437: The best Mega Drive game available at the time. Sega Power , however, criticized the same version for jerky gameplay and bad scrolling. The PC Engine CD conversion was panned by The Games Machine , which called the port "a disappointment" and suggested players who want to play the game try the Mega Drive version instead. Julian Rignall of Computer and Video Games criticized the Master System version, stating that while he
SECTION 50
#17327724964394524-544: The display—a long, thin strip. DMA from a table in memory automatically sets the graphics pattern registers for each scan line. Hardware registers control the horizontal position of each player and missile. Vertical motion is achieved by moving the bitmap data within a player or missile's strip. The feature was called player/missile graphics by Atari. Texas Instruments developed the TMS9918 chip with sprite support for its 1979 TI-99/4 home computer. An updated version
4611-642: The early 1980s, including Ms. Pac-Man . Movable Object Block , or MOB , was used in MOS Technology 's graphics chip literature. Commodore , the main user of MOS chips and the owner of MOS for most of the chip maker's lifetime, instead used the term sprite for the Commodore 64. OBJ s (short for objects ) is used in the developer manuals for the NES , Super NES , and Game Boy . The region of video RAM used to store sprite attributes and coordinates
4698-476: The early 1990s, following the success of Capcom's Street Fighter II (1991) which drew gamers back towards one-on-one fighting games, while the subsequent emerging popularity of 3D video games in the late 1990s diminished the popularity of 2D-based pugilistic games in general. Another notable game from this era is Gang Wars , released in 1989. Sega's Die Hard Arcade (1996) was the first beat 'em up to use texture-mapped 3D polygon graphics , and it used
4785-417: The end of the level. The player character's beast forms include a weredragon , a werebear, a weretiger, a werewolf , or a golden werewolf. Each beast form grants its own abilities. The dragon can unleash lightning bolts and an electric barrier, the bear has a petrifying breath that turns enemies into stone, the tiger can throw fireballs in a zig-zag pattern, the wolf can throw direct, but weak fireballs and has
4872-736: The enemies are defeated. Each level contains many identical groups of enemies, making these games notable for their repetition. In beat 'em up games, players often fight a boss —an enemy much stronger than the other enemies—at the end of each level. Beat 'em ups often allow the player to choose between a selection of protagonists—each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and set of moves. The combat system typically tends to be more highly developed than other side-scrolling action games. Attacks can include rapid combinations of basic attacks ( combos ) as well as jumping and grappling attacks. Characters often have their own special attacks , which leads to different strategies depending on which character
4959-432: The enemy, making him unable to defend himself against successive punches. Rather than one-hit kills, the player needed to hit enemies multiple times, "beating them up," in order to defeat them. Compared to earlier side-scrollers, the environment was expanded to a scrolling arena-like space, while the combat system was more highly developed, with the player able to punch, kick, grab, charge, throw and stomp enemies. In 1987,
5046-607: The freedom of movement in Kung-Fu Master , and it successfully experimented with adding plot to its fighting action. It was also among the first martial arts games to be successfully developed for and ported across different home systems. Sega 's My Hero (1985) adopted the gameplay format of Kung-Fu Master , but changing the more traditional martial arts setting to a more contemporary urban city environment with street gangs. Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun , developed by Technōs Japan and released in 1986 in Japan, introduced
5133-470: The game is good, people will still pay good money to play it." Altered Beast has received two sequels. Altered Beast: Guardian of the Realms , developed by 3d6 Games and published by THQ , is a 2002 sequel for Game Boy Advance in the style of the original arcade game. It adds new features like power-ups and beast forms, as well as 15 levels. While the graphics are improved compared to the original game,
5220-568: The genre. Most of these games take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical, science fiction or fantasy themes. The first beat 'em up was 1984's Kung-Fu Master , which was based on Hong Kong martial arts films . 1986's Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun introduced the belt scroll format employed extensively by later games, while also popularizing contemporary urban settings, while its Western localized version Renegade further introduced underworld revenge themes. The genre then saw
5307-444: The late 1990s, the genre lost popularity with the emergence of 3D-polygon technology. In the 2000s, a sub-genre of 3D hack-and-slash games emerged (also known as "character action games"), adapting the beat 'em up formula to utilize large-scale 3D environments, with popular franchises including God Hand , Devil May Cry , Dynasty Warriors , God of War and Bayonetta . Since the 2010s, traditional 2D beat 'em ups have seen
SECTION 60
#17327724964395394-525: The latter two also including the arcade version as an unlockable game . The Wii 's Virtual Console service, the Xbox 360 's Xbox Live Arcade , and the PlayStation 3 's PlayStation Network all received a version of the game. In 2017, Altered Beast was rereleased on iOS and Android as a part of the Sega Forever collection. M2 released a 3D port for the Nintendo 3DS as a digital download on
5481-475: The latter's themes of zombies and magic were not popular in the Bible Belt . In addition to the Genesis and Master System, Altered Beast was ported to several platforms, including for PC Engine , PC Engine-CD, Famicom , Atari ST , Commodore 64 , ZX Spectrum , Amstrad CPC , and Amiga . Several of the conversions for European systems were completed by Activision . Certain differences are seen between
5568-458: The original arcade game, the end credits include the revelation that the whole game actually depicted a staged film production. Whenever a player defeats a white two-headed wolf , a Spirit Ball power-up appears. Each obtained Spirit Ball increases the player character's strength and size. Collecting three Spirit Balls allows the player character to transform into a powerful beast form, increasing their combat abilities before having to face Neff at
5655-560: The player glimpses of Athena's peril. Players can punch, kick and jump. The game's premise is that Neff, ruler of the underworld , captures the goddess Athena . Angry, her father, the Olympian god Zeus , decides to choose a champion to save her. Respecting the bravery of Roman Centurions , Zeus resurrects one of them and empowers him as a champion. The game's player character is the resurrected Roman Centurion, given extra power by Zeus so they can battle Neff and his supernatural minions. In
5742-676: The player selects. The control system is usually simple to learn, often comprising just two attack buttons. These buttons can be combined to pull off combos , as well as jumping and grappling attacks. Since the release of Double Dragon , many beat 'em ups have allowed two players to play the game cooperatively —a central aspect to the appeal of these games. Beat 'em ups are more likely to feature cooperative play than other game genres. The beat 'em up or brawler genre includes several sub-genres: Beat 'em up games have origins in martial arts films , particularly Bruce Lee 's Hong Kong martial arts films . Lee's Game of Death (1972) inspired
5829-411: The player to roam around larger 3D environments, though they retain the same simple-to-learn gameplay and control systems. Throughout the level, players may acquire weapons that they can use as well as power-ups that replenish the player's health . As players walk through the level, they are stopped by groups of enemies who must be defeated before they're able to continue. The level ends when all
5916-519: The player's character could be upgraded, using money stolen from defeated enemies. The Streets of Rage series was launched in the early 1990s and borrowed heavily from Final Fight . Streets of Rage 2 (1992) for Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis was one of the first console games to match the acclaim of arcade beat 'em ups. Its level design was praised for taking traditional beat 'em up settings and stringing them together in novel ways, and its success led to it being ported to arcades. The beat 'em up
6003-437: The pressure-sensitive button for the Genesis port, but could not due to tight development time and the lack of the button in Genesis hardware. Because Altered Beast was not the pack-in game in Japan, Uchida did not get to see his game included with the console. By the time he went to the US three years later, all of the available consoles instead included Sonic the Hedgehog , which replaced Altered Beast in part over concerns
6090-478: The principled combat sport of other martial arts games. Renegade set the standard for future beat 'em up games as it introduced the ability to move both horizontally and vertically. It also introduced the use of combo attacks; in contrast to earlier games, the opponents in Renegade and Double Dragon could take much more punishment, requiring a succession of punches, with the first hit temporarily immobilizing
6177-496: The protagonist's special powers) to "reinvigorate" its traditional 2D scrolling formula. Releases such as God Hand in 2006 and MadWorld in 2009 were seen as parodies of violence in popular culture, earning both games praise for not taking themselves as seriously as early beat 'em up games. Classic beat 'em ups have been re-released on services such as the Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade ; critics reaffirmed
6264-547: The rectangle shapes into objects that look like basketball players and basketball hoops . Ramtek released another sports video game in October 1974, Baseball , which similarly displayed human-like characters. The Namco Galaxian arcade system board , for the 1979 arcade game Galaxian , displays animated, multi-colored sprites over a scrolling background. It became the basis for Nintendo 's Radar Scope and Donkey Kong arcade hardware and home consoles such as
6351-426: The release of Double Dragon , designed as Technōs Japan 's spiritual successor to Kunio-kun ( Renegade ), ushered in a "golden age" for the beat 'em up genre that took it to new heights with its detailed set of martial arts attacks and its outstanding two-player cooperative gameplay . It also had a continuous side-scrolling world, in contrast to the bounded scrolling arenas of Kunio-kun , giving Double Dragon
6438-454: The scrolling mechanic remains the same. A PlayStation 2 title known as Jūōki: Project Altered Beast in Japan and Altered Beast in Europe was released by Sega in 2005. It was planned for a North American release as well, but was later cancelled. Rather than serving as a sequel to the original game, the newer title features a more modern setting that is unconnected to the original game, with
6525-455: The several versions of the game. Some of them, like the Master System version, were missing levels. Others provided additional beasts to mutate into, such as a humanoid lion, shark, and phoenix forms seen in the Famicom version, ported by Asmik. The Genesis version is included in the compilations Sega Smash Pack , Sega Genesis Collection , and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection , with
6612-525: The simple combo attacks in Renegade and Double Dragon , the combo attacks in Final Fight were much more dynamic, and the sprites were much larger. Acclaimed as the best game in the genre, Final Fight spawned two home sequels and was later ported to other systems. Golden Axe was acclaimed for its visceral hack and slash action and cooperative mode and was influential through its selection of multiple protagonists with distinct fighting styles. It
6699-598: The subtle differences between the titles. While critics saw Dynasty Warriors 2 as innovative and technically impressive, they held a mixed opinion of later titles. These later games received praise for simple, enjoyable gameplay but were simultaneously derided as overly simplistic and repetitive. On the urban-themed side of the genre was the Yakuza series (2005 debut), which combined elaborate crime thriller plots and detailed interactive environments with street brawling action. Rockstar Games ' The Warriors (based on
6786-403: The team over this situation. Altered Beast includes Easter eggs that are references to other System 16 titles Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars and Shinobi , as a nod to members on Uchida's team that had worked on those titles previously. There were planned features for the game that Uchida did not have the opportunity to implement, namely a pressure-sensitive button. Discussions took place but
6873-458: The variety seen before in multiple characters now being present in the one and only main character. Giving the player multiple weapons and movesets based on a variety of martial arts and different weapons. These games are also known as "character action" games, which represent an evolution of traditional arcade action games. The subgenre was largely defined by Hideki Kamiya , creator of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta . A best-selling Japanese series
6960-451: Was Data East 's fighting game Karate Champ (1984) which popularized martial arts themed games. Kung-Fu Master (known as Spartan X in Japan), designed by Takashi Nishiyama and released by Irem in 1984, laid the foundations for side-scrolling beat 'em ups. It simplified the combat system of Karate Champ , while adding numerous enemies along a side-scrolling playfield. The game
7047-459: Was a term used by Atari, Inc. for hardware sprites in the Atari 8-bit computers (1979) and Atari 5200 console (1982). The term reflects the use for both characters ("players") and smaller associated objects ("missiles") that share the same color. The earlier Atari Video Computer System and some Atari arcade games used player , missile , and ball . Stamp was used in some arcade hardware in
7134-437: Was also a popular genre for video games based on television series and movies, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman Returns a surprise success, and encouraged many more beat 'em up games based on the characters . Taito 's arcade game Riding Fight (1992) combined beat 'em up gameplay with a pseudo-3D chase view and hoverboard racing gameplay . The "golden age" of the genre eventually came to an end during
7221-507: Was also released to critical acclaim and has renewed interested in both the series and genre. Dragon's Crown sold over a million copies by 2017, while Streets of Rage 4 has sold over 2.5 million copies as of April 2021 . Also other well known classic franchises gained new titles such as Battletoads (2020) and The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors (2019) and River City Girls (2019). The beat 'em up genre has also seen
7308-439: Was announced as live action project in 2016. Altered Beast has been referenced in other media. In 1993, Matthew Sweet named his album Altered Beast after the game. Sweet told Spin magazine that the title meant "whatever is inside you that someday might explode, and maybe you don't know it's there", which he found similar to the game, where "you have to find these little power-up things, and when you eat them you become
7395-435: Was based on two Hong Kong martial arts films: Jackie Chan 's Wheels on Meals (1984), known as Spartan X in Japan (where the game was a tie-in), and Bruce Lee's Game of Death , the latter inspiring the five end-of-level boss fights and the plot structure, variations of which were used in subsequent scrolling beat 'em ups. Nishiyama, who had previously created the side-scrolling shooter Moon Patrol (1982), combined
7482-438: Was met with a mixed reception upon release. The same year, Italian studio NAPS team released Gekido: Urban Fighters for the PlayStation console, which uses a fast-paced beat 'em up system, with many bosses and a colorful design in terms of graphics. In the early 2000s, game reviewers started to pronounce that the genre had died off. By 2002, there were virtually no new beat 'em ups being released in arcades. After 2000,
7569-589: Was the pack-in game when the Genesis launched in North America and the Mega Drive in Europe. The game's development was led by Makoto Uchida which was his first time as a project lead. Uchida and his team used the System 16 arcade system board . Altered Beast ' s arcade release and its ports received mixed reviews, mainly targeting the gameplay and graphics. The game has been re-released several times for various consoles and as part of video game compilations, and there have been two sequels. Altered Beast
#438561