Criminally overlooked games #1: Violent Storm

[jwcsh]

Wow. What a shot of unadulterated 80s essence!

[querschnitt]

best final fight clone ever!



[caioenzo]

MAY I SEE YOUR TICKET?

[Kobashi81]

This is really interesting. Konami hardware with Capcom presentation. The game blatantly rips off of Final Fight in so many ways from character moves and quantity to level design, still looks like a quality beat-em-up. If it was 4-players I'd pursue the pcb.

[StarFoxAutobot]

The music, the animations, the combat, it all looks majorly kickass!

[GreenGearMood]

Dude that intro was fucking AWESOME. XD

[SirBlueWizard]

This music...

[disgustika]

@PushJWC Ninja Turtles

[tmannintendo]

2:20 nice pile driver lol

[starliteskies]

Thanks for uploading this. Brings back good memories. This game is great. They should've made a sequel. The stages are beautiful and the music is upbeat, it makes me wanna dance, love those lyrics. The characters are fluid and fun to use. The game was fast paced :-)

[asteriskForte]

the storyline seems oddly familiar

[Jakyy95]

I love the music in this game lol

[tofuman168]

This looks just like Final Fight only with slightly improved graphics and a few more moves.

[lidlservant]

was this made before or after streets of rage

[neonvega]

wtf did blanka just kidnap the female lead?

[1983parrothead]

@neonvega Blanka never popped into my mind, but some of the gangsters in Hokuto no Ken did.

[AbelGomez1987]

I was thinking Final Fight but the moment I seen the female character potrayed as Poison, then that's when it gave away for me lol.

[TheLakabanzaichrg]

the boss JOE reminds me Bobby Barrows

[Fantomas612]

Lol, you have no choice but to pick a douchebag

[powerzonie]

this game looks terrible



[CorporalDanLives]

OOOOOOOOOOO, WOW!

[BigBangBlitz]

Well, it IS similar to a few other Konami titles, the first thing I think of is Turtles in Time.

[Leomerya12]

@BigBangBlitz Have you ever played UN SQUADRON. That's another game, I think, that didn't get its dues.

[BigBangBlitz]

Seriously? I was ported to 4 systems (one as a launch title) and came out in all regions and was based on a popular anime Series (Area 88)! It's good, but I don't think it qualifies!

Now, Carrier air wing / U.S. Navy might be something, being the sequel to U.N. Squadron that was never ported to any console and is pretty obscure, but it just doesn't seem all that special unfortunately being the follow-up to a hugely successful game that changes practically nothing except it's hardware.

[Leomerya12]

@BigBangBlitz Really? Then that is my mistake. As a kid, I don't remember it getting much publicity.

[badog99999]

ive played this game before...

oddly at a bowling alley

[BigBangBlitz]

That's not too odd.

Here's something odd - walking into a bowling alley and seeing a Capcom Bowling cabinet directly next to a Simpsons Bowling cabinet. Even stranger, there was no Golden Tee anywhere to be found.

[Ui2019]

This team probably went on to make Martial Champion

[MDthornton83]

Wade's outfit is remenicent to the Mad Max/Hokuto no Ken style outfit worn by Mel Gibson and Kenshiro respectively. I like that style attire.

[MDthornton83]

This game came out in the same year Super Street Fighter II was in the arcades. 

[cfcis1]

How is this game any better than final fight or peace keepers? Perhaps it was overlooked because it is either not as good or completely derivative of other games within the genre.

[kkac12]

Boris the Blanka?

[ZenMonkey47]

Is that Karnov at 6:46?

[BigBangBlitz]

No.

My guess is he's modeled after the Buu Character from Dragonball Z.

"It's like Boo!"

[CyberPirate83]

At first I thought he ate the pig.

[FireBomberBassist]

Thiss look pretty dope actually. Wow.

[RokuroCarisu]

Gotta get this game (and an emu for it)! Postapocalypse ftw! ^^

[TheNewMusicNetwork]

boris was gay

[bazzjedimaster]

It's So 90's It Hurts

[TheNewMusicNetwork]

@bazzjedimaster it's all 80s rooted.

[lucifershahal]

Really similar to the Streets of Rage series on the Genesis.

[1983parrothead]

@lucifershahal While Streets of Rage and Violent Storm are similar to the 1989 Final Fight arcade, while Yoshiki Okamoto (one of Final Fight's designers) cites the arcade version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge as his basis for Final Fight.

[ioriyagami]

i LOVED this game whe it came out. i was very lucky to have a laudrymat that loved having arcades in them. and this was one of them. the cabnet didnt have the name on it so i never new the name but once i saw the pic i new this was the game. wow i got goosebumps from this classic. great upload.

[cycopl]

Music reminds me of TMNT4.

[snatcherofpeachs]

great audio and visuals

[berserkerlonewolf]

Damn this music is as catchy as in Marvel vs Capcom 2.

[freshdizzle9000]

why did the black dude were steve urkil clothes?

[curtisb3000]

gayest arcade music possible.

[Chyouno]

I just can't get over how amazing these graphics are. But then again, Konami was always ahead of itself back in the day.

[TheZickoPuppets]

Was that Blanka that stole your Girlfriend...

[kingjkill]

i played this game one time and i fell in love with the violence and blood. i saw it as another replica of streets of rage

[ryanc519]

wow this shit is so American

[Warmturkeysandwich]

did all these guys train under zangief?

[DanRo87]

6:29 chun li signature lightning kick move :-O

[dave55811]

Aw shit. I never played this game....and looking at this makes me miss my childhood....

[ZombieToaster]

Did you just turn the little pigs into sausages by picking them up? :P

[BigBangBlitz]

Yes!

[MHMemeDoubleYourFun]

@BigBangBlitz I thought they were American footballs.

[BigBangBlitz]

They are sausages fashioned to look like footballs.

[MHMemeDoubleYourFun]

@ZombieToaster More like American footballs.  In fact, people use to use animal skin to manufacture sports balls.

[1983parrothead]

@ZombieToaster Sausages? I thought they looked like American footballs.

[theemrx]

Maybe these gangs of thugs should kidnap a girl who doesn't have several tough martial artist asskicker friends.

[BigBangBlitz]

Yeah, you'd think they would catch on eventually.. I mean historically it doesn't seem to work out very well.

[randommoosebrains]

reminds of Batman returns for SNES, konami is god of beat-em-ups in my opinion....

[whitesprite]

Violent Storm is decent, but I prefer Bonestorm.

[Martinkooooooo1994]

haha

[lenneth3]

the music is cool lol

[Kobashi81]

I understand that beat 'em ups will have quite a few similarities, but this game has Final Fight written all over it. Great audio though. The newer Konami title's all had pretty hi-fi audio.

[cdbils001]

man they had this at sunny hunstanton in one of the old arcades back in the day

[newjeddah]

وش رايك فيها؟

[Number1ricky]

Dude this game looks great. And you get a whole many combination of attacks. Bad ass.

[buttman20]

Kyle is.... male post-apocalyptic Chun-Li : P

[LegacyCrono]

When the car breaks through the iron gate, I was like "HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO BADASS!!". And then we have a CAGE MATCH (in which you instakill the referee) and the boiling cauldrons! AWESOME!!

[Testament5]

Did you see those ruined buildings in the beginning? This game clearly takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the early 90s never died.

Goddammit, I love that awful rap song in the third stage, "JUST YOU WAIT, I'LL GET EVEN WITH YOU!"

[Ziomboy1991]

my first game what I play in my life ! ! ! xD it was about 14 years ago ! :D huh, now I've got 19

[SwaggerLikeUz]

I Luv the Quality Games from that Era all Classics that all should be Released on Xbox Live , Etc... Nice!

[BigAlUpdates]

Holy shit, the music in this game is so freaking amazing.

[BigBangBlitz]

This is Konami at it's peak right here.

[johnwx777]

Or maybe it was overlooked because,by 1993,there was a boatload of similar beat'em ups ,many of them from Konami itself like The Simpsons & TMNT,not to mention Capcom's own efforts.But still,it was relatively popular in the arcades.

[Vetuyasha]

Wow! I remember this game when I has in high school and the arcade games were still around (note that I live the Greece, the country which is famous for the videogames ban law XD ).

[panterarosa1010]

CADILLAC DINOSAUR HAHAHAHA 

[DarkAvatar1313]

2:43 is this one a tranny too, geez such a copy of Final Fight

[Giraux]

I really love this game. It's nice to see others appreciate it.

[BigBangBlitz]

It has a savage simplicity that I admire and which is missing from similar games.

[PhilMcCool]

I'm not seeing enough jumping piledrivers from Boris here :p.

[CaptNintendo171]

Definitely reminds me of Final Fight. I'd love to play this some time! :D

[locksmithite]

Of course it's overlooked because it's just a Final Fight rip off

[freakyfornash]

I have this game for the arcade, and it kicks ass too! I have the PCB to it to use in my Jamma cabinet, and it's funny how this game is pretty much a FInal Fight ripoff. It's too bad this game (along with it's prequels, Crime Fighters, and Vendetta) never got ported, but hopefully they'll somehow get re-released one day on Virtual Arcade.

[Travisarespicy]

From the looks of it, this game reeks of cheese. The music is corny, the heroes look stupid, and the whole thing looks like a very neutered, coroporate attempt at 'cool'. Don't be wrong, I LOVE Konami, but this game looks lame.

[konman001]

This looks like a ripoff of Final Fight

[MobyGamer]

I'm astonished how good the audio is in this one!

I have the ROMS but am getting hung up on the EEPROM 13C error...

[chris20855]

It's probably so overlooked because the heroes look kind of stupid. With Kyle it's his basic stance, with Wade it's because he wears knee pads for no reason, and with Boris it's because he looks like someone trying to dress like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

[BigBangBlitz]

Kneepads are for safety!

And Boris is a black Duke Nukem, which is awesome.

[ThePingasMightier]

@BigBangBlitz Spiked. Suspenders.

[MHMemeDoubleYourFun]

@BigBangBlitz Duke Nukem was based on Arnold Schwarzenegger portraying the Terminator.

[1983parrothead]

@BigBangBlitz Duke Nukem? Sunglasses were quite popular in the '80s and were popularized by Arnold Schwarzenegger's appearance in The Terminator, which is who Duke Nukem resembles the most. Of course, Duke was also influenced by many others.

[Shining4Dawn]

Looks like just about every beat 'em up that came at that time... They were all boring and crappy.

Screw Final Fight and screw Streets Of Rage. Double Dragon and Golden Axe were the only interesting games back then.

[MHMemeDoubleYourFun]

@Shining4Dawn

Let's not even forget Irem's 1984 Kung-Fu Master arcade (which was overshadowed by the effects of the 1983/1984 North American Video Game Crash and the growing popularity of home gaming) nor even Technos Japan's 1986 Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun arcade (localized outside of Japan by Taito as Renegade).

[culwin]

The music in this game is the awsesomest ever. Radical to the max.

[ArcadeGames]

Final Fight...cough...cough

[joesinister]

Man that intro never fails to make me laugh my ass off...

[carfoz]

A singer in vg music... wow! That is actually pretty cool ;).

[kuaieq]

good music

[chrisinmainz]

THis seems very similar to final fight, with marginaly better sound and graphics, not surprising as it came out in 93... what would make me want to play this game in 93 or especialy now after so many games of this type were made, what sets it apart to make it #1? I can understand games like the outfoxies but this?

[dunnono00]

Oh, I vaguely remember this one. Always wondered just where the hell the lady went grocery shopping in the post apocalyptic wasteland.

[Seydaschu]

I really like the metalhead enemy named Gigadeath!

[NuggetPumpkin]

surprised capcom didn't file a lawsuit for this blatant final fight copy.

[1787dude]

i wouldve played ass wade XDDDDD

[weskervirus8910]

Its the same thing as Final Fight, but final fight is better

[Deader87]

It's funny, because I've decided not all the videogames I make will be 3D, but some 2D like this as well

[YourEverydayGameFan]

This reminds me of Streets of Rage for some reason...

[BigBangBlitz]

It is very similar in a few ways.

[ThingxHulk]

its a shame games like thse dont come around that often. =/ nonsensical beating was all that was manly.

[rooty83]

goddamn blanka kidnapping womenz and shit..HAHA

[deadline27]

down, down, down down, down down, down GET DOWN!!!

[littlegreengamer]

i remember seeing this game at a skating rink arcade when it was still new! i wanted to play it SO much, but i didn't have any freakin' quarters :/

[Doom2Guy]

Dis looks like the best goddamn Final Fight ripoff ever

[BigBangBlitz]

That's pretty much what it is - except it's a lot like Streets of Rage 2 also.

[MutteringUrchin]

Back when men kicked ass and women got kidnapped while walking the street with groceries.

[7treefrog7]

it looks like a visually improved streets of rage

[tecmo1]

dang. the sprites are as big as the art of fighting series!

[MHMemeDoubleYourFun]

@tecmo1 As well as Konami's Martial Champion.

[afrotrigger]

*foams at the mouth*

[DanielBMS]

I have always wondered how they created the music for this game.

[dastan666]

When the Iron Maiden mascotte kidnaps your girlfriend you MUST comb your hair, wear a pair of sunglasses and beat the fuck out of every punk bystander in the streets !

[KnightCrawler2]

best beat em up by far!

[Emzie19]

What console is this for??

[DanielBMS]

arcade

[Phillies64]

Blanka rides a motorcycle?

[1983parrothead]

@Phillies64

I never though he looked like Blanka. I thought he looked like one of the ugliest drug dealers or gang members in existence.

[ninjachipzanuff]

this music is pretty lol

[GilbertSmith]

I always thought of this game as being akin to Godhand. They play very differently but...

-Overlooked classic beatemups

-Post apocalyptic setting

-Straight rip off of Hokuto no Ken

-Lots of humor and goofy music

[KazuoKiriyama666]

Yeah, I think of God Hand (PS2) as a spiritual successor to Violent Storm too.

[MrCrafty]

best beat em up after streets of rage, VERY FUCKING FUN TO PLAY

Thank gawd 4 mame ;)

[somegreatdj]

I freaking adore this game! Years since I last played it, I solemnly swear to reclaim it for myself if not for everyone else willing to play it. :D

[BigBangBlitz]

It's fairly popular right now. I like to think i've had a small part in that.

[real6gh]

looks fun. a more violent combat tribes. i like it.

[XgrimXrockerX]

ever realised how every beat em up games have a mohawk dude that tries to hit you with something?( a stick a knife...)

[cAc3d]

fiiiiiiiiiiiinal upperrrrcut oops wrong game

[underthepale]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Back before they swapped their logo, Konami was at the best when they were blatantly plagarizing their competition. Playing like Vendetta and looking like the abandoned love child of Final Fight and Fist of the North Star, Violent Storm may not be the best brawler, but it plays well, looks great, and is amusing as hell. I mean, that MUSIC...

A game I never would have played without emulators. Thank you, MAME Team...

[BigBangBlitz]

Amen.

[Jermofoot]

Change the enemy sprites and I feel this is Cadillac & Dinosaurs

[desconocidos27]

i remember this one. there werent that many around i dont think

[FuckedYourDad]

ooooooOOOOOOH WOW

[ColAbernathy]

The music is pretty phat, for what it is, anyway. Some remixing would be sweet.

[meowmix669]

Ramstein bowling alley?

[MattTheSpratt]

Oh lords, 90s prog-rock. I love you, Konami!

[BigBangBlitz]

Just a a little bit of culture shock, i'm sure.

[oneway12384]

i think the soundtrack is awesome. it seems to fit the goofy over the top beatemup style of play. looks really fun.

[TheZaius]

The soundtrack is totally camp. The game does have a lot of parallels to Final Fight... but seems a lot goofier. I'd like to play it one day.

[seyqKr]

I can see why this game was passed over. It's a complete rip of Final Fight that came out about 4 years too late. There were much better beat'em ups by this point. The sound track is really crappy as well.

[MattTheSpratt]

So all sidescrolling beat-em-ups are Final Fight rip-offs?

Oh well, trash goes my copy of Street Fighter.

[seyqKr]

This game is a rip off in the truest sense. Where as other beat'em ups such as Streets of Rage took the Final Fight formula and improved upon it. This game is just a total rehash right down to the characters and weapons. Wade= Cody, Blonde guy with average build. Kyle=Guy, asian man who is fast but weak. Borris is Hagger but at least they changed his looks to be different than Hagger. I would also like to add that Street Fighter is not a Beat'em up and therefore is not a rip off.

[MattTheSpratt]

Ah, curse this infernal comments system.

I replied to my reply saying I meant to say Streets Of Rage.

[seyqKr]

Yeah but as I said Streets of Rage improved upon the formula, especially 2 & 3 which were out by the time Violent Storm was released. Also in 1991 Capcom out did their own Final Fight with one of the Greatest Beat'em ups ever, Captain Commando. Konami who made Violent Storm also had better beat'em ups long before its release such as the Simpson's and X-Men (Remember Nothing moves the Blob) Arcade games.

[joemj413]

Don't forget Alien vs Predator, which actually intergrated a good combo system.

[hihunyimhome]

should have gotten it right the first time!!!lol

[KelvinTheLion]

You can play this on the MAME emulator. It's lots of fun finding moves you can do.

[flaksucks]

It's like Mad Max and Streets of Rage combined.

It's beautiful...

[MarijuanaGood4U]

4:45 DAMN

[Samsgarden]

This game looks like final fight

[Samsgarden]

Criminally overlooked games:

Finest hour by Namco.

Played it for a while then never saw it again. In its day, the atmosphere was notable....

[BigBangBlitz]

Not many people did play it, it was only released in Japan.

Why they don't have compilations of games like these i'll never understand.

[Samsgarden]

Played it in Australia but never saw it again.

[PitFiend2001]

wow blood in a beat em up? nice! this game deserves some kind of remake just because of the soundtrack!

[jinkywilliams]

The soundtrack sounds like Toobin.

[rikiyamashi]

wade the emo-look visionary

[BigBangBlitz]

It's like the late 50's all over again!

Yeah this game was an awesome partytime beat em up!