Arcade brawlers were coin hogs and devilishly addictive. Clinging on with aching fingers because this was our last coin and if we ran out of the precious 10-second continue count, all our progress would have been lost. Which is why we always played brawlers together in co-op play, whether it’s with your best bud or some stranger you bond with. Beat ’Em Ups were the hidden gems of the arcade days, and now Capcom has given a healthy serving of the 90s arcade glory days.
- Developer: Capcom
- Publisher: Capcom
- Price: ₹1,300 for Nintendo Switch ($19.9) and PS4
What’s it about?
Capcom Beat ’Em Up Bundle has seven fighting favourites, many of whom you’ve not heard of, since most of these games never made it to our shores. Captain Commando and Final Fight were the ones we got here, and are the crown jewels of this collection, especially if you’ve played them. One a futuristic cyberpunk-like fighter, while the other is a hard-boiled urban riot, memorable for its Andre the Giant-like bad guy called Andore Jr, and the way it is modelled after the action movies of that era.
The other five games are The King of Dragons, Knights of the Round, Warriors of Fate, Armored Warriors and Battle Circuit. The last two never made it to consoles and stayed in the arcades to the end. All of these are tonally and conceptually different from each other. Ranging from fantasy, to medieval to oriental fantasy to Mad Max-like post-apocalyptic settings to a Flash Gordon-esque space fight. At the core though, they’re all the same game.
How does it play?
The gameplay is simple, you select one of a roster of hero characters and fight against hordes of oncoming enemies using a bunch of simple combos. All the hero characters are either fast and small or large, slow characters that take a lot of damage.
The moment you boot up any of these, the nostalgia comes flooding in, as Capcom has included them in their original 4:3 format with an option for CRT TV scanlines too. On your modern 16:9 HDTV or the Nintendo Switch screens, the sides have artwork on them, much like the arcade machines.
Special Arrangement
That’s when the familiar pain returns to your fingers as the button mashing begins. Nostalgia hurts and it would have been nice if Capcom had built in a turbo button. Hopefully, there’s one hidden in there somewhere or Capcom releases an update with it. Legacy aside, Capcom’s Beat ’Em Up Bundle is best with friends, supporting upto 4-player drop in and drop out, local or online multi-player.
While the legacy collection is fantastic, Capcom should have included a few more, like the sequels of Final Fight, which no doubt they’re saving for a second bundle in the near future.
Should you get it?
If you’re a child of the arcades looking to relive those days gone, this game should be in your library. Not for those long plays, but perfect to play a level or two with a friend.
Three seasons of Fargo on Netflix later, I was yearning for something to fill that void, and that’s when This is the Police 2 came along. A game I had only heard of in passing, but its Fargo -like storyline in a town that was much like the setting of the show, drew me in.
- Developer: Weappy Studio
- Publisher: THQ Nordic
- Price: ₹500 on Steam PC, ₹2,199 on Nintendo Switch ($29.99)
What’s it about?
In an intro that is reminiscent of the 1992 game Flashback, the story of This is the Police unfolds in beautifully motion-captured vector-like graphics. It sees you assuming the role of new Sheriff Lilly Reed, as she’s being mentored and helped by Jack Boyd, a corrupt former police chief who worms his way out of captivity to become her adviser.
Special Arrangement
The story is mostly a device to outline the town held in the grip of crime, but it’s choc full of some really great dialogue. Voiced by Duke Nukem voice actor Jon St John, Jack Boyd pushes the story along with tense and hilarious situations, that gives that cop show feel to it. Lilly Reed is a convincing character as a new Sheriff who has to work day in and day out with Jack Boyd and the rest of the task force.
How does it play?
Think of This is the Police 2 as an amalgamation of the management of FTL or Darkest Dungeon and the strategy of X-Com. Where the action plays out in turn-based events that add a sense of tension to the altercations. You can ferret out your task force to make sure you take down the bad guys, and in some cases someone is held hostage. The realism is ramped up by the one hit permadeath — if you lose a cop, he’s gone for good. This makes for tense and difficult battles; however, it’s fresh that you can choose your own course of action, either shooting on sight or incapacitating the bad guys.
The department management is quite interesting too, as you manage your force of bumbling cops. With their excuses and bad habits, things get interesting and impersonal as you manage them from a bunch of menus, then watch a map for incidents so you can send out cops to tackle. As the game progresses, things get more real, as the siren call of corruption becomes your crutch to keep things afloat. To keep the peace, you sometimes need to dig deep into shadowy pockets.
From the long, cinematic cut-scenes to the combat and the management, This is the Police 2 gets overwhelming as it tries to manage this balancing act of play styles, which it feels like it’s dumping on you. It has its plus points and the visual novel parts are great, but after a point even those sort of stretch.
Should you get it?
This is the Police 2 is an interesting combination of several game genres into one package. It does play to that Fargo tune well, but the rest of its parts are entertaining only in small doses.
