PixlBit

In some ways Magic Sword seems like a continuation of the ideas in Black Tiger (which we established earlier is ultimately trash), albeit streamlined for more fun. Magic Sword is a sword and sorcery fantasy adventure that sees your heroes ascending an eldritch tower to destroy the Black Orb, the ultimate evil artifact which will allow the dark lord Drokmar to rule the world. That boils down to you beating the crap out of everything, naturally.

Jumping back to 1988 we have a scrolling shmup called Forgotten Worlds where a couple of military dudes fight the gods...or something? This shmup allows you to rotate your character all the way around and shoot in all directions. Aside from making it possible for bad guys to come from any direction (and they do), the game can also go seamlessly between horizontal and vertical levels. Variety! You can also collect money during the levels to buy new weapons and upgrades. Doing well on the bosses in particular (I think) gives a big zenny bonus (zenny is Capcom's imaginary currency of choice; they still use it in the Monster Hunter games) and this bonus is necessary to get the best weapons and get them powered up. And that seems necessary to do well in the back half of the game. The last couple levels just trounced me and I only got through it because of infinite continues.

Final Fight, one of the pillars of the brawler genre! So influential! Loved by millions! Yada yada yada! The problem with playing Final Fight right after Captain Commando, a sequel of sorts developed two years later, is that you see just how archaic Final Fight is now. While the three playable characters are distinct and do handle differently when playing, you can't double tap to dash, which takes out a huge amount of moment-to-moment variety (not that the ability was "taken out" so much as it hadn't been conceived yet, I assume). The enemy variety is also very low and the game leans much more heavily on cheap hits than Captain Commando did. Locales change up a little but the whole game feels very samey. If Captain Commando was a little slow and stiff, Final Fight is downright plodding. While I can appreciate its historical importance, the original Final Fight is not a game I would suggest going back to as anything more than a historical curiosity.

The 1991 brawler Captain Commando manages to be generic and full of personality at the same time. It feels very '80s. The titular character is a cybernetic policeman mercenary...or something? His posse includes a ninja (see? the '80s), an alien wrapped up like a mummy who fights with knives, and a genius two-year-old who built his own mech suit to fight in. The arcade original allowed for four-player co-op, which improves any gaming experience, but the game was still fun solo. The characters are a little stiff but you can attack on the ground and while jumping or push both buttons together to do a character-specific special attack in exchange for a little bit of your health (pretty standard for beat-'em-ups). The characters do feel different to play as and there is a decent variety of mooks to beat up. The levels also vary wildly in theme, which helps the game keep from feeling stale. The bosses tended to be kind of cheap, especially the boss of the game, but I guess Capcom wanted you to keep pumping in those quarters.

Block Block is a Breakout clone, though that sells the game a little short. While this 1991 arcade game lacks some of the flashy power ups and effects of more recent stabs at the genre, Block Block shows a lot of variety in its level arrangements, even throwing in some pinball-style bumpers or teleportation doorways. And there are power ups, just typical things like making your paddle longer or the ball hit harder through the blocks or just for points. As you play the ball slowly gets faster and faster and the paddle shrinks at set hit intervals (first at ten hits on the paddle and then every twelve, I think; it gets pretty tough after a while). There is also a two-player co-op mode which I was unable to try but seems pretty unusual for this kind of game. Another nicety is that eventually an exit will appear on screen, allowing you to go on the next level if you can hit it. That can be a big help if you're stuck trying to hit that last little block.

Black Tiger, another 1987 Capcom arcade game, is the deepest and most involved game I've played yet on Capcom Classics Collection Remixed. It's a level-based action adventure game set in a fantasy world terrorised by a trio of dragons. You play as a fearsome barbarian an a quest to free the land. You run and jump (a stiff jump but usually manageable) and beat the crap out of enemies with your mace, which you can pay money to upgrade at shops scattered about. You can also buy consumeable armor and a few other items. The levels are fairly large, scrolling both horizontally and vertically.

Bionic Commando is one of Capcom's beloved NES games, famous for its tight controls and excellent level design. Few games explore their mechanics so well as the grappling in Bionic Commando on NES.

Avengers is a 1987 arcade game and, unlike 1941 that we looked at yesterday, it does not hold up very well. Avengers is a vertically-scrolling beat-'em-up that sees your character punching, kicking, and spin kicking a load of gangsters out of Paradise City, saving some hot kidnapped ladies in the process. Except it's not very fun. Your character moves like molasses in the dead of winter and there is really no need to use any attacks other than the kick. The enemy variety is poor and the bosses tend to be kind of cheap. There are some secrets to be found by kicking in the right doors ('cause all you're doing is kicking) but what's the point? This game is a historical curiosity at best.