Eojjeonji Joheun Il-i Saenggil Geot Gateun Jeonyeok (1998)

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The title is roughly translating into: "A Night Where Good Things Are Bound to Happen", it will be referred to in the following as Eojjeonji...Jeonyeok.

The game was developed by a small studio called TG Entertainment at a time when sidescrolling beat-em-ups where considered dead and 2D games considered dying by the mainstream, Eojjeonji...Jeonyeok was never released outside of South Korea, and it was the last game TG Entertainment got to develop under that label. These are not the best conditions for a game to get burned into the international awareness as a timeless classic, and it wasn't. Heck, it doesn't even have a title that can be spelled out in English in any convenient way (one of its budget releases goes by the subtitle "The Fight", but good luck googling that). At the same time, it even used the license to a Korean comic book series that is reported to have sold more than a million copies. That one originally started in 1992, but got re-released in 2002 because of its constant popularity. Nonetheless, the rampant software piracy for which East Asia is notorious reportedly resulted in the game flopping, despite being played on nearly every other kid's computer in the country.

The shame about all this: in many respects, it may well be one of the best 2D beat-em-ups ever made. It beats about every one of its significantly more famous "competitors" in terms of variety, dynamics and complexity. Not quite so in balancing, but more about that later. The severe problem much more important to point out early is that it doesn't feature a cooperative mode. This great design decision error is really the sole factor that denies the game its exclusive place on the genre throne. Of course, the game is rather story-heavy, and the requirements of the license probably didn't allow the inclusion of a permanent companion in it, but was it really so hard to include a story-free mode as an extra? Quite tragic, just as much as the game's incredibly obscure status.
Story

Now that this shocking revelation is out of the way, let's get into details. There are a lot of story sequences between stages, but it feels put together rather loosely. After all, it's adapted from an episodic comic book that needed to enclose its volumes to some degree. Namgoong Gunn, the hero of the story, is on the way to his new high school, as he just transfered to put his recent history of violence behind himself. In the subway, just as he spots his future love interest, his wallet gets stolen by a pickpocket, and he has to follow the evildoer. As it turns out, that one is tied to an organized crime syndicate, giving Gunn no choice but to start fighting again. Most of the following stages very coarsely follow the events of the comic books, with the exception of three adjoined chapters giving light to Gunn's past, which is only alluded to in the original.