The Connoisseur’s beat-’em-up is back
In recent years, the beat-’em-up, (or brawler, if you would prefer), genre has gone through a major renaissance. What was once confined to the golden coin-op age of the late ’80s and early ’90s — before falling short of expectations come the ’00s — has found itself spraining fingers and cracking wrists once again — led by some bold new IPs and the return of some very familiar faces from the past. In order to change with the times, these modern titles have been forced to add depth, variety, and longevity to what has mostly been a short-lived, quick-to-fatigue genre. In addition, the characters, worlds, and stories have been fleshed out to offer more context to the knuckle-dustin’ action. And so, whether you’re welcoming back franchises such as Streets of Rage 4 or TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, smashing up the playgrounds of Japan in River City Girls, or exploring new and exciting worlds offered in Mayhem Brawler, Final Vendetta, and Dragon’s Crown. Beat-’em-up fans have it made.
But this renaissance did not, in fact, begin with any of the aforementioned games. It didn’t even begin in the past few years. To look for a moment went the genre was reinvented with a roundhouse of vigor we should go back to September of 2017, and the quiet Steam release of Fight’N Rage, a game that wanted to not only capture the excitement of the games that came before it, but also offer players the excitement and depth expected of modern gaming. And it attempted to do all of the above with a single, solitary developer. Six years later, Fight’N Rage is ready to do it, all over again, on PS5 and Xbox Series X. It’s a game that is getting up there in years. But, as anyone who has watched the Rocky franchise knows, a true fighter is always ready for one more round.
Overview
Fight’N Rage by Seba Game Dev, published by Blitworks, first released in fall of 2017 is a passional love letter of the arcade brawlers. The game is developed and self-published by Sebastián Garcia who served as the lone developer of this game, creating the world and its characters, crafted the in-game artwork, and coded the title itself all by his lonesome. The PC version was then ported to consoles by developer Blitworks. In the game Fight’N Rage, you set against the backdrop of a miserable and dystopian future, where a devastating electromagnetic event known as The Big Pulse has destroyed all of mankind’s technology, Fight’N Rage presents a world now ruled by a strange evolution, where anthropomorphized mutants have enslaved the human race. Most of humanity has now found itself languishing at the bottom of the food chain, but there are those who wish for a better tomorrow.
Storyline
Three such individuals are our player protagonists. The banished ninja F. Norris, the runaway slave turned martial arts master, Gal, and the human sympathizer and rebel mutant minotaur Ricardo. Facing a world willing to kill them on site, and afforded only the abilities offered by their fists and feet, our Heroic Trio finds themselves in the middle of a prison breakout, the first act of a brutal, one-night odyssey that will lead them to the throne of The Boss — A militaristic lion maniac who has dubbed himself King of this urban jungle. The slight story is all atmosphere and little in the way of deep and meaningful musings on the human endeavor, but it is endowed with a melodramatic emotion — not to mention some surprisingly bleak moments of cruelty, that give it the vibe of 80s/90s dystopia comics such as Heavy Metal and 2000 A.D.
Aesthetic of the Game
The aesthetic of Fight’N Rage is quite obviously that of the gorgeous pixelated paradises of yesterday, with delightfully drawn and animated characters popping out of the pixels in each and every encounter. Color-wise, there is a strange vulgarity to the visuals, with purposefully over-saturated colors and vibrant palettes that recall arcade monitors that should have been replaced a long time ago. Various filters are available to enhance or decrease these effects, such as blur options, scanline emphasis, CRT curves on screen edges, muted color schemes, and even a moody black-and-white option. Tribute must also be paid to Varlea’s utterly apocalyptic soundtrack, a wild, pulse-pounding mess of wailing guitars, moody pianos, and 16-bit synth. Tribute must also be paid to Varela’s utterly apocalyptic soundtrack, a wild, pulse-pounding mess of wailing guitars, moody pianos, and 16-bit synth.
Gameplay
The audio/visual package of Fight’n Rage counts for nothing if the
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According to https://www.destructoid.com/reviews/fightn-rage-review-destructoid-ps5-pc-xbox-switch-brawler-indie/
The material in this article is written on the basis of another article.
Ink Alchemist