Capcom Brawlers that Didn't Make the Cut.

 

So as a bit of a continuation from my Brawlers Top 10 post, I assume there might be some readers that wonder why certain games didn't quite make the cut.

Which I can totally understand.  Often these top 10 kind of things are highly personal and many people have many reasons for preferring one over another.  

Therefore, I am going to do some follow-up posts on popular games that I suspect many people would include in their top 10s and give a little explanation on my thoughts about them and why they didn't make the cut.

Naturally, in the Brawler and Fighter genres, CAPCOM is pretty well known.  Heck in my top 10, CAPCOM made 4 out of the 10, so that must say something!  So todays post is about CAPCOM brawlers that didn't tickle my fancy.

Please note, these are listed in no particular order.

• Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
• Capt. Commando
• Dungeons & Dragons 1 & 2
• King of Dragons
• Mighty Final Fight
• Warriors of fate

Cadillacs & Dinosaurs and Captain Commando

almost fall into the same game style for me.  They are both pretty good, but I just fell there is a certain something that is lacking.  The amount of moves, and enemy types seems quite good, but I think when you hit a baddy, there just doesn't seem to be a lot of , er, feedback I guess?  Like the attacks lack impact. Or something.

I feel that out of the two, Caddillacs is the worst, however, considering how good they are, I feel this is not an insult.  Personally I find the playable characters of Caddy a bit more boring than Commando.  Plus the muscle guy feels INCREDIBLY slow.  Although the inclusion of Dinosaurs is pretty awesome.  

I also never had the chance to play this one with a friend.  Maybe it's better in two player?  But as a single player, I found it just OK.  

Capt. Commando manages to get away with its crazy enemy selection and the weapons/robots/vehicles riding ability to keep it interesting.

Dungeons & Dragons:
Tower of Doom, Shadow Over Mystara

I will also include together, mainly because most of my experience was on the Saturn version.  I have played both in the arcades as well, so don't worry about that.  Doom was the first one and Mystara the second.  They play very similarly, but naturally Mystara has a bit more going on, like extra characters and shenanigans.

This image is the cover of the saturn version, and its a quality conversion all tbings considered, using the 4mb cart, but there is the occasional pause during gameplay to load stuff in.  It's actaully pretty impressive if you think about it.  Image source: https://opcfg.kontek.net/archive/dndssreview.html

I like the concept a lot here and these games are also ones I often return to and do wish to complete.  They successfully blend D&D tropes in with a brawler game.  Magic users can cast spells, there are items to use and choices to be made and overall it is a very slick package which is a lot of fun to play.

However, there is also a fair bit of learning to be done.  Characters specific moves, how and when to use spells to best effect, when should I use items etc etc.  For example, the Cleric has unlimited use of Turning Undead, which immediately destroys any undead enemies, very handy, many characters can use magic, but in Doom, the Elf is best, whereas Mystara has a mage.  They even included a thief in the second one. Very cool!  She is able to open trapped chests.  Naturally each character has their pros and cons, and they are more than your average brawler.

So while it is an excellent brawler and a lot of fun, especially with friends who know what they are doing, it lacks that instant pick up and play aspect, which is important in an arcade setting.

Luckily now there are some home conversions (PlayStation[something] and Saturn) to make use of, it makes life a bit easier, but the initial learning curve of these games is what dropped them from the top 10. 

They are still well worth a try though!

The King of Dragons

is an interesting little game.  In a way it is a precursor to D&D.  You have a Dwarf, Fighter, Cleric and Elf to choose from and a nice fantasy setting to play through.  As you beat up dudes, your character will level up and get better gear, new weapons, shields etc.

5 characters to choose from adds variety. The mage is more effective with the floating magic ball extra attacks than the others (of course)

Where I feel this game drops the ball though is the gameplay.  The characters do no combos.  They have one hit and when a baddy is hit, the have a little bit of knock back, so you have to wait a bit before striking again.  It feels incredibly simplistic, especially for the time.  In 1991, we had Capt Commando, Knights of the Round, Metamorphic Force and a slew of others.

The Elf suffers the problem of shooting arrows, which while having a ranged attack is very handy, it's also extremely boring.

The Cleric here has had a weapon upgrade.  He starts with a mace and has prgressed to a war hammer.  His shield changes later on too.

It's still kind of fun, but not as much as many, many others.  I had a play to refresh my memory and to get these screenshots, and yeah, it's a bit lacking.  However, I believe there is a way to block with your shield, but I couldn't remember how to do that, so there is a bit of strategy to it, but it's just not quite got the important "It" to make the grade.

Mighty Final Fight

An interesting game with a personal history for me.  I bought this off a guy on eBay back in the day, but it never arrived.  I emailed them to inform them, and they said, let's wait a little bit more... As a young naïve eBayer at the time, I accepted this, but the seller just stalled for time and I lost the time frame to make a claim.  What a POS they were.  I bet it was a KO cart anyway.

Moving on, This is a fun little game on the Gameboy Advance (converted from the NES it would seem) and I think not many people know of it.  It has Chibi characters and plays pretty closely to the arcade game.  Same types of moves are there and everything.  It's actually pretty good.  Sadly though, thanks to my ebay experience, I never spent any real time with it.  It's pretty fun and I recommend it.  But it isn't top 10 material for me.

    

Warriors of Fate

This is a reasonably well known little fellow with some good mechanics in it and a nice variety of characters to choose from.  I like that it has an archer as a character that you can choose from, who still has a bunch of close up attacks to use.

Being able to ride horses is also a cool addition.  It's almost there, but not quite... Perhaps I don't like the setting so much.  However once again, it is actually a game I find myself coming back to again and again, so it can't be too bad.

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The Summary:

There we go, that is the list of Capcom games that didn't make it.  Stay tuned, as next up, I'll be going through the Konami & Ninja Turtle games, as they have quite a few, which aren't bad, but didn't quite make it.