Retronauts Volume III Episode 9: Konami Arcade Beat-Em-Ups
I'm Ray, I'm hosting Retronauts again, and this week we talk about the arcade beat-em-ups of Konami, a topic requested by listener and Kickstarter backer Steven Martin.
Like several other companies in the late '80s, the Double Dragon-inspired "belt scroll" beat-em-up became a staple of the arcade, and Konami was no exception. They started a little rough at first, but by the early '90s, they went pretty much full-on with beat-'em-ups for a few years, and mostly maintained high-quality throughout -- from oft-remembered licesnsed games like The Simpsons and X-Men to original productions that they somehow found time to make, like Violent Storm and Metamorphic Force. We go over all those games and more, and though it's hard to say a whole lot about games that aren't completely different from one another, we do, as usual, get to dip into some nostalgia related to some of them.
Polygon's Matt Leone rejoins us after talking about arcade racers a few weeks ago. As stated before, Matt knows his stuff about arcade games, and so it was kind of half-coincidence to have him on again when this topic came up.
As a side note, since Jeremy had to up and leave us for the eastern part of the US, he joins us through Skype. He did record himself and I spliced him in, though it's still not ideal -- nevertheless, I'm aware of any hiccups you might notice, and we're already thinking of how to work it out the next time this happens. On the bright side, you still get Jeremy on Retronauts. (Also, Jeremy's talk of Konami's arcade flyers inspired him to write a history of sorts for USgamer.)
Thanks once more to Steve, and I hope to start tackling more backer requests in the future. Though next week on Retronauts Pocket, I just had to talk about accessories again.
Enjoy the show.
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This episode's breakdown:
01:03 | Introductions & Konami's original arcade brawlers: Crime Fighters, Sunset Riders, Metamorphic Force, and more
18:42 | Music from Crime Fighters
19:01 | Konami's licensed beat-em-ups: Aliens, TMNT, Simpsons, and more
40:12 | Music from X-Men
40:42 | More licensed games: Bucky O'Hare, Moo Mesa, etc.
59:08 | Wrap-up!
