Editorial: The 3D Beat 'Em Up

Beat 'em up games were incredibly popular on 8 and 16 bit systems. They usually took the framework of an arcade like game and let you and your friends team up. There was a hesitation when the 3D platforms were coming out. What do we do with the Beat 'em up?

Some games just boosted the graphics and stuck with 2D like Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal. But some took the challenge of 3D on.

There was a period in 1996-1998 where 50% of Playstation demo disks had a demo for the first level of a 3D beat 'em up called Fighting Force.

Super Mario 3D World

Played on: Nintendo Wii-U
Release Date: November 21, 2013

I never owned a Nintendo 64.

The brief moments I got with it were spent with Mario 64 and MarioKart 64. It was a world of wonder. There was something so much more impressive about Mario 64 than all of the 3D platformers found on the PS1 like Gex and Spyro.

I didn't play more than a level or two until I got a DS a decade later. I bought Mario 64 DS, playing about 6 hours of it, and hated that the magic wasn't there. It's one of those situations where you wish you didn't meet your hero because they turned out to be terrible.

I've tried to recapture that magic on the DS, 3DS, and now the Wii-U, and I'm realizing that magic may be gone, but that doesn't mean there's not a good game there.

The Order: 1886

Release Date: February 20, 2015
Played on: PlayStation 4

The Order: 1886 is notorious in that it was one of the games pushed the hardest for the PS4 launch and it probably had the most hype behind it. This was one of the games I pointed to when people asked why I picked PS4 over an Xbox One. 

The release however, earned very middling reviews and the game quickly disappeared from the collective conscious. 

I held off on buying it, assuming at some point Sony would give it away as part of the monthly offerings of PlayStation + games. 

Before that happened though, the price came down enough to where a buddy of mine just bought the disk. 

Army of Two: Devil's Cartel

Release Date: March 26, 2013
Played On: PlayStation 3

I have this weird obsession with the Army of Two series. I literally have an Army of Two with one of my buddies, where we play through each of these games, leveling up our weapons like a job.

By the time the Devil's Cartel came out, we were both busy and looking forward at the Playstation 4. Devil's Cartel fell off our radar pretty soon after it's announcement.

But one night filled with drinks and reminiscing, we found ourselves picking up copies from GameStop, with full intentions of playing through.

I turned my PS3 for the first time in almost 8 weeks, and after downloading a brigade of updates, we were ready to take on the cartel.

Gone Home

Release Date: August 15, 2013
Played on: Windows

I've gone back and forth whether to write about Gone Home. It's a hard game to write about because the magic of Gone Home is going into it without knowing anything about it.

But the game affected me in such a way that I want to give it some mention.

Gone Home is the story of Kaitlin, a college student coming home from being abroad in 1995.

With it recently releasing on consoles, I figured it's as good a time as any to talk about the game in the most general of terms.

I'm going to try my hardest not to spoil any real plot points. I may refer to plot points, but I won't give any details.

Emily is Away

Release Date: November 20, 2015

Played on: Windows

Emily is Away is an interactive story told though an AOL Instant Messanger avatar. It's about growing up and dealing with the awkward relationships that transition from high-school to college through technology. 

The entire play-through only takes about 30 minutes, but it's enticing to play-through a few times just to see where different dialogue options would go.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Played on: Playstation 4
Release Date: November 4, 2014

I've had a storied history with the Call of Duty franchise.

Call of Duty 3 was the first time I really thought console first person shooters could be a thing. I was amazed at how great the controls felt compared to other console FPSs like the PS1 Doom port or Halo.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the first time online multiplayer got it's hooks into me. I had 8 clocked days in the multiplayer. I bought every DLC map and generally played for a couple hours each night. This was also the first game I played in high definition.

Call of Duty World at War was the first time I was utterly impressed with how many glitches there were in both the campaign and multiplayer.

I thought the first Black Ops was a boring story wrapped around favorite movie scenes from Apocalypse Now and Hamburger Hill. And Modern Warfare 3 fell short of the expectations coming from MW 1 and 2. I took a few years off of Call of Duty.

Advanced Warfare was bought only because I wanted a couch co-op game to play with a buddy and it was half off that weekend. What I received was a surprisingly fun game.