Batman Returns (SNES) and Rushing Beat Shura (Greg and James Beat 'Em Up!, Ep. 85)
000:00 Beginning (Theme Song by James!)
5:35 Batman Returns (SNES; 1993; Konami)
1:39:45 Rushing Beat Shura (SNES; 1993; Jaleco)
We continue to make our way through 1993! With the NES line up officially cleared, we move on to Konami's SNES version of Batman Returns.
This is a completely distinct game from the NES version, although there's naturally a lot of overlap: we're still dealing with one-player, single-attack-button beat 'em up gameplay as Batman takes on a suite of thugs dressed like clowns (who have no connection to the Joker!). It has one really satisfying move: if there's a wall in the background, Batman can fling a grappled opponent against it. The combat is competent, and it looks and sounds great. It's just unremarkable. The NES version feels like a tighter gameplay experience. ***VERDICT***: MID Tier!
Then, we return to Jaleco's Rushing Beat Shura, which we originally played in its North American localization form as The Peace Keepers. You might recall that the localization made the out-of-left-field choice to remove all background music from the stages, resulting in an uncanny, off-putting atmosphere. We wondered if the unmodified original with its background music might actually be a qualitatively different experience...
Well, so far, it's definitely a better experience to have the game's pretty solid soundtrack to accompany the pretty solid action! It's not an outright gamechanger, but it's a good addition. We're having fun with it again. We're near the end when the session wraps up, so we figure we might as well throw down a save state and finish it off next time. As it happens, we're actually about to take a big detour, although we'll come back and finish this one off eventually!
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Greg and James Beat 'Em Up is our ongoing exploration of the beat 'em up genre! Broadcast on any Tuesday evening where schedules and Greg's health allow at https://twitch.tv/58DreamStreet
In Phase One, we played 40 "notable or notable-adjacent" beat 'em ups released through the year 1993!
Now, in Phase Two, we're playing the NINETY-EIGHT other beat 'em ups released through the year 1993!
Theme Song composed by James, using Famitracker!