First Impressions: Andore the Giant is coming to get you!
Ah yes… the button masher. Whether it’s the 8-bit era Olympic titles or the beat ‘em ups of the early 90s, these callus-causing games were, and are, a cornerstone of gaming. In fact, the concept of "button mashing" can be levied against almost any title on any platform that doesn’t make you slow down and smell the roses. In a lot of ways, many games rely on repetition, but in fairness, some games do this to a much greater extent than others. However, I was recently talking with one of my Gaming Target colleagues in a game of Star Wars: Battlefront and we were thinking, "What’s wrong with having a good button masher?" In many ways, these titles are gaming at its base: no fancy button set-ups (although, newer controllers are necessary for inventory selection, modifiers, alternate fire, etc.), no long-term investment of time, and no real learning curve. These games are immediate enjoyment; they are diversions in the truest sense of the word. Of course, games need to engage you too, and thinking is (obviously) a good thing, but using a baseball bat to beat up some guy named "Snake" or "Jules" ain’t half bad either. In this way, I must say that it’s encouraging to see a game like SpikeOut: Battle Street coming to the Xbox, and to Xbox Live.
Many people have said that this title is begging to be truly called "Streets of Rage," but whether it is or not doesn’t really matter because as long as it’s drawing from that franchise, we can all be assured that the inspiration and spirit of this game is strong. Essentially a port of the coin-op SpikeOut series from Japanese arcades (glad to see arcades are still going strong somewhere), SpikeOut: Battle Street pits you – Team Spike – against the nefarious Team Inferno. You play as one of four members of your gang (there are at least another 8 unlockable characters), each who has his/her own speed, strength and stamina ratings, and then you traverse the game’s short single-player mode. You dispatch baddies by employing a basic array of moves, whether it is kicks, punches, elbow strikes, drop kicks, suplexes or headbutts. Rest assured, weapon combat will also be included so you can use various items to clobber the game’s never-ending horde of guys who utter monosyllabic phrases. Whether or not there will be a magical turkey that can heal all of your recently incurred injuries (and that can be eaten in one bite… in fact, who the hell leaves these things lying around anyway? Some nice hobo dudes I guess…) remains to be seen, but there will likely be some sort of energy increasing food or beverage item to be found.
The fact that the solo component is short shouldn’t really come as a surprise to many, as other beat ‘em ups of the past have been quite speedy from start to finish. Whether it’s been the good (think Streets of Rage, Final Fight) or the bad (Combatribes or Brawl Brothers, anyone?), most, if not all, button mashers don’t spin long story yarns. It seems revenge can usually be handled in a few hours.
Even though a short game shouldn’t discourage true beat ‘em up fans, the inclusion of XBOX Live support should perk a few more eyebrows. Going on-line with three other friends to partake in the short campaign should be great fun, as you could presumably just have some casual conversation while beating on many anonymous gang members. Additionally, downloadable content will be available so you could likely expect new characters, costumes, and maybe even levels.
While pricing hasn’t been announced, one would hope that SEGA would see the merit in making this a value-priced title, as many people might change their feelings for this title from rental to buy, if the price tag were, say, 29.99-39.99USD? It remains to be seen whether this will happen or not, but it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if this were to be the case once this game ships in early 2005.
