“If you buy this game, you should beat yourself.” 
I’m not sure why everyone is so adverse to a game that focuses primarily on the fighting. After all, this is “shoryuken.com”, a nod to Street Fighter…a game in which fighting is ALL YOU DO (Unless you count the car bonus stage).
Look at the old school beat 'em ups. Streets of Rage -> non-stop fighting. Final Fight -> non-stop fighting. Pit-Fighter -> non-stop fighting. TMNT -> non-stop fighting (with an occasional skateboarding stage…where you fight some more).
And now Urban Reign -> non-stop fighting.
The only difference between Urban and those games is the walking from place to place. I’m not so sure that this one difference warrants the judgment of “it sucks”.
And, yeah, the 1-on-5 beatings are obnoxious. Golem is indeed a cheap piece of crap. But, again, this is “shoryuken.com”…Street Fighter is one of the cheapest games ever. Go fight Dee Jay on 8 stars. Go jump at a standing Guile and get flash-kicked. We all can handle a little cheapness by virtue of being on this website.
And, as far as being dizzy, just break it by doing a neutral super. If you don’t have meter, mash buttons to raise your meter, then do a super. At absolute worst, you should be dizzy for 2 or 3 seconds tops.
You can break juggles by hitting the reversal button at the correct time.
But, even if you think 1-player sucks, you can still play multiplayer, which is were the action really is. As someone said, it’s almost like those old N64 wrestling games (the good ones…No Mercy, etc.).
If you want a break from the fighting, try “Destruction Mode” (the closest a fighting game will probably get to Capture the Flag) or “Weapon Mode” (person who holds the weapon longest wins).
That’s part of the strategy I was talking about. The super power-ups, for example, require you and your opponent to think about what to do next. Mashing will get you killed against a experienced player.
Yet another example.
I mean, at the very least, Namco tried with this one.
You cant compare classics to this. Much less a fighting game to a beat-em-up.
What are you THINKING?[/Meryl]
Urban Reign is so much better than Spikeout, it’s not even funny. Spikeout has like, the worst ever fighting system. The only real flaw of Urban Reign is the story mode is really generic. At least Spikeout has missions where you walk somewhere and talk to people.
The actual 1v1 and 2v2 gameplay is lightyears ahead of Spikeout and Beatdown. The game is about fighting, and that’s what Urban Reign does better than any of the other 3D beatemups (better than Spikeout, better than Beatdown, better than Final Fight, and better than The Warriors).
Also, how can you criticize the levels (for versus play) in that they are only squares? Who cares! In most fighting games out there (including the SF series), you fight in a box/rectangle.
Forget story mode, it’s about the actual combat… which is pretty good compared to what is out there in the same beatemup genre.
Buktooth and I did some testing, and even if you tech out of an air hit, and get air thrown, you can tech the air throw. In addition, if you get hit sequentially, you can still tech the next hit (we tried it with Paul and Law’s 10 strings).
If you get mashed on 5-vs-1, use your burst (tri+O - costs 2 blocks) or your powerup (d+tri+O - half meter). Meter builds quickly, so bursting is not rare or anything.
Now, a correction: You CAN escape Alex’s shoulder combo, and when you do, you can also escape the follow-up stunner. In addition, even if the stunner DOES hit you, and stuns you, and the opponent does L2 to stand you up, you can tech WHATEVER else they do (unless it’s a super). Yes, that means another launcher.
Anyway, at least test some stuff before posting in a factual manner. Me and buk actually player UR quite a bit in both versus and story mode, and we tested a ton of different scenarios like the one you mentioned.
That being said, Urban Reign is still badass. Way better than people give it credit for. Is it the end all of versus beatemups? No way. Is it pretty fun and silly w/ a bit of strategy? Yes. Is it better than Spikeout and Beatdown? Definitely.
check this, one slick thing i noticed is that the longer super often times (left/right 2+4) is good to throw in to bait out a neutral super, because theyll outlast a neutral and then hit dude on the (tiny) recovery after it, its a pretty random technique tho. alternatively its a good counter to a neutral super for the same reason, its really meter heavy tho. Its a better choice for the hit sometimes, if you dont want to sit there neutral supering back and forth just to avoid getting hit by the others (which happens to me a lot :sad: )
anyway, fun game…im still trying to beat mission 98
:sad:
also ps that guy that said the thing with alex is a true combo, im pretty sure you can tech the air throw, its not guranteed, you can tech a throw if youre in tech animation still, you just only get one throw tech input so its harder.
pss the part about getting stunned definately isnt a combo, you can super out of it on the ground or when you stand up, if you mix it up, the other guys grab isnt free (you could just move, or if not definately super again if youre standing, or tech the throw)
damn psss trag pretty much beat me to it
I love this game btw.
this game is not a fighter hence i dont compare it to street fighter or KOF. its not as deep and a totally different style of play… your but sf is in boxes comment is completely irrelevant.
its a beat em up hence i compare this to final fight, streets of rage or spikeout. THEY are all roaming, this however has no roaming at all despite being marketed as a beatem up.
they should have marketed this as a party fighter with bonus 1p missions then it would get compared to the likes of powerstone and that onimusha party fighter. in that case id take powerstone 1 over this anyday.
IMO its crap.
what does the roaming add to the game? you rarely ever take your surroundings into account, and the surroundings themselves generally aren’t much to look at in a beatemup.
actually, urban reign has more background interactivity than any other beatemup, what with all the running away from powered-up characters that you have to do, not to mention the wall jump attacks and stuff (which are actually pretty useful)
so if the missions in urban reign were strung together by a strip of land it would instantly jump out of crapdom?
the actual fighting in urban reign is much more interesting than that of spikeout. there’s a lot more nuances to it rather than just mashing out your best combo
Urban Reign is great. It’s the fastest, deepest, hardest beat-em-up I’ve played in a LONG time. All they have to do is add some more personality and a good 1p mode to it, and it’ll completely destroy any beat-em-up made in the last 10 years. Just not quite yet.
in spikeout you use the shape of the levels to funnel and gain position on your enemies. it sounds to me like you havent really played spikeout very much, especially if you think you can make it far by mashing.
play the game on arcade settings with no continues and tell me if you can get up to the final boss?
took me months of playing 4p link games in the arcade back in 99 with good japanese players to get good enough to be able to get up to the later levels on 1 credit by myself.
having roaming is what makes it a beat em up, what would final fight be without roaming.
sure this may have a good fighting engine but the 1p game with its fight 3 guys in a box 50 times in a row style of gameplay is what makes this “crap” in my book.
I dunno about you, but I judge a fighting game or beat-em up by how good the fighting is… not by the stages. Roaming in Final Fight consists of walking from left-right or vice-versa in a long rectangle. That isn’t what makes Final Fight great. Anyway, it sounds like you judge a fighting game worth by the 1P experience, so might I suggest some KI.
You have to do the same in Urban Reign. Try fighting Golem head-to-head, face-to-face. Or Napalm99. You will be killed. In some of the levels you actually have to run down the street, around the corner to avoid people. Other times you have to hide behind garbage cans and street lamps to wait for the opponents power-up to wear down. Sometimes you have to set up shop with you back to a pocket so you can prevent the enemies from surrounding you.
Maybe the reason people think this game is impossible is because they are going at it wrong. Don’t enter every battle head on. Use the surroundings…like in Spikeout.
I’m glad you’re so willing to put up with Spikeout’s insane difficulty. I wonder why you are unwilling to put up with Urban Reign’s insane difficulty…
It would be Final Fight. Just without the arrow telling you to walk forward 3 steps…until you are fighting again. Don’t you see how little the walking has to do with the actual meat of the game?
Think about the part where Andore kidnaps you and brings you to a wrestling ring. Stationary fighting. What about when you’re fighting Sodom? Stationary fighting. Rolento in the elevator? Stationary fighting.
When you think about it, this “roaming” concept isn’t real. All it is is having the background scroll a little bit, and then you’re fighting some more. Is it that major?
In my view, Urban Reign = Final Fight + a deeper fighting system + multiplayer + Rock Bottoms and Stunners.
P.S. 1-on-4 beatings aren’t new to Urban Reign. Try playing Final Fight in the later levels…
No, no…I didn’t say there was NO strategy in Power Stone. There is.
But, it’s a lot less stable and reliable than Urban Reign. Especially Power Stone 2.
Plus, the supers, though avoidable, are still outrageous (since many are HEAT-SEEKING). If you get close enough and then do certain supers, it’s almost money in the bank.
PS is still awesome, though…I have PS2 for Dreamcast. That’s “Power Stone 2” for those who just flipped out.
i judge a FIGHTER by how good the fighting is.
i judge a PARTY FIGHTER (ala powerstone and urban reign) by the fighting, the characters, the stages, the setting, etc.
i judge a BEAT EM UP by learning curve, the environments, the bosses, the fighting, the characters, etc.
urban reigns characters are too samey. the engine isnt easy enough to get into for a party fighter but not deep enough to be a fighter. the stages are samey, the setting is ok.
score 6/10
:shoots himself:
Urban Reign isnt a party fighter. Smash Bros and Powerstone… sure.
Urban Reign is more like a beat-em-up with a smarter fighting engine. Way moreso than say Final Fight or Spikeout. The fighting requires a degree of skill far beyong the typical punch-punch-kick (the majority of all beat-em-ups).
At any rate, Urban Reign is pretty good. Aside from a generic story mode, which I really don’t care about (but finished anyway), it has a solid fighting engine far beyond that of garbage Spikeout and Beatdown (and any Final Fight).
And, don’t forget about the regional damage (i.e. specifically targeting head, upper body, or lower body). Every throw and strike targets one of three areas. If you damage it enough, any attacks to that target will take off more life. Another element of strategy to think about…
its quite obvious you dont have a clue about spikeout. come back and talk to me about spikeout when you do otherwise we are both just wasting time.
ok out of curiosity, what makes spikeout so great other than it taking you really long to be able to get to the last stage on one credit, and having roaming?
okay learning curve aside, the environments in spikeout are pretty ugly. the bosses have terrible AI (instead of making them legitimately smart or difficult, they just turn invincible whenever they feel like it, sometimes many times in a row). the fighting seems pretty bland to me; you have a few charge moves, a few juggles, and some weird cancel between regular chains and charge moves that i don’t quite understand. the characters are very generic, even ugly.
so please educate me, what makes spikeout so great?
the games from 98 hence its “ugly” by todays standards. it also shows how much longevity the game has… must have something going for it no?
yeah the ai is average by game standards, beat em ups rarely have good ai though… thats the whole point if you ask me, they are like shooters where you have to learn to cope with being outnumbered.
spikeout is like a battle, you have to use the right move to cope with your situation, 3 guys you use a sweep then concentrate on one guy for a second. 5 guys you walk backwards charging your super punch and pick off a few guys so you can concentrate on 1 or 2 guys.
basically it has an element that i really love from old school beatem ups which urban reign doesnt… if you were good enough you could go through the whole game without getting hit once, you learn the bosses and henchmen patterns and youll be able to avoid everything.
the bosses go invincible for ONLY 2 reasons. the first is if you get too many hits on them (5+) that arent juggle. the thing is you are not supposed to just pppp on the bosses, that shit will only work on henchmen. so you have to pppp->buffered stun hit or pppp=>throw. the 2nd is that they are doing a special attack. once youve played the game enough youll know exactly when they are going to go invincible.
really good players using walls and running scissor kicks can do 20+ hit combos something ive never been able to master. the engine is loosely based on the vf engine.
the dynamic with mp play is awesome too, helping each other and having one guy act as bait while the other guy picks enemies off.