The Beat ‘Em Up Showcade is ready! Okay, the video has been up since yesterday, BUT STILL. I originally planned to have Showcase videos for Double Dragon and Bad Dudes last year, but *shrugs* 2020. You know what I mean. Trying to make them in 2021 didn’t work out for better reasons, so I decided to make a Showcade filled with beat ’em ups. Nothing with an outside license (TMNT, Punisher, X-Men) is in the vid, because the straight-up game content felt a little neglected here lately. Let’s watch the video first, then I’ll break down what was added to the site.


Once again, mad thanks to Wizzy for allowing me to use that amazing BGM track for the video. I’ve had it stuck in my head since I picked it for the video, and it makes me feel like kicking doors open and throwing oil drums at people all day. AVPboy’s music does the same for me, and the added pressure of trying to do justice with their music in the videos pushes me to work harder.

Now for the newness that was added to the site itself!

Custom Sprites:
Crime Fighters: Sledge, Hawk and Boomer from Crime Fighters 2/Vendetta finally get fight stance sprites, Hawk gets a redone taunt to match, and Boomer’s taunt gets a size fix. CF2/Vendetta knife thugs were also added.
Double Dragon: Linda’s earlier two sprites completely redrawn, an extra variation of the taunt was added, and are available in arcade, NES, and DDII designs. The Billy and Jimmy Lee “JPN arcade flyer” poses were updated to fit the newer style Lee Bros. sprites I started adding months ago.
Final Fight: Maki (FF2 fight stance, select pose edited to match newer sprite), Mike Haggar – Saturday Night Slam Masters gear (also added to the Slam Masters gallery)
Growl: Jetgun
Kung-Fu Master: All Five “Sons of the Devil” (a.k.a. the Bosses) get new sprites, and Silvia gets a sprite, too.
Kunio-kun: Kunio (Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun flyer pose)
Renegade (new separate gallery): the Renegade/Mr. K, Sabu
Rushing Beat: Wendy Milan (taunt)
Streets of Rage: Barbon and Jet(SoR/BK 2) added, Skate Hunter updated (made shorter than the 2020 sprites)

All new sprites are now in the image generators, where you can make your own sprite scenes, fake screenshots, etc.

It’s finally here: the first all-Beat ‘Em Up Showcade video is now on the YouTube channel:

I’ve been slowly working towards doing this for years, and it feels good to finally have it done. You’ll see a lot of brand-new sprites and I’ll be adding them to the site over the coming days (there are possibly a few that didn’t appear in the video. I’m so tired now, I don’t even know). Stay tuned, the site updates will be coming soon after you see this!

I hinted at not having something ready for the 19th Anniversary update and it was this: the complete version of ScrollBoss Sprite Showcade’s episode 000!

This episode is basically a test of the main template of the show’s format of three separate showcases, and each showcase has:
1.) a gallery mode that shows single or groups of sprites by character.character type (usually with a “character select” screen theme)
2.) sprites in scenes (done in Anime Studio Pro 10), usually with multiple characters grouped together.
3.) work progress .GIFs that show many of the steps I saved while making some of the sprites.

The showcases in this episode are Golden Axe (stars in the original ScrollBoss banner pic), Final Fight (series I’ve made the most fan sprites for), and Castlevania (already had lots of sprites, backgrounds and I wanted a platformer with a different theme).

The biggest thing for me was getting permission to use a remix from the CPS2 sound maestro, WizzyWhipitWonderful, to use for the Castlevania showcase. I don’t know how he does it (my remixes for the Golden Axe and Final Fight section prove that), but he can make BGM tracks that sound like Capcom never stopped producing CPS2 Vs. fighters while managing to tap into character and setting vibes to create themes perfectly fitting any character or theme he’s paying tribute. That’s not even his only musical style, either. His Poison Mind remix is so dope that I added and extended clips just so it’d have more of the hype part of the song!

I’ve got ideas for the future of Showcade, and I’m checking feedback on episode 000 to figure out what to change for future eps. One hint I’ll give you is that if you look at what’s missing from the game select screen, you may be able to figure out one of the other ideas I have. Feel free to let me know what you think of the episode or format and which games you’d like to see in future Showcades!

I put up a poll on Twitter without saying what it was for and it was won by Shinobi, so here’s a mostly Shinobi update!

All-new sprites of Joe Musashi (O.G. Shinobi gear), Masked Ninja/Nakohara, Mongo and Crawler were added to the Shinobi gallery and new Zubaroka amazon sprites were added to the Golden Axe galleries. As usual, all these things were added to the GFX Image Generators where you can make screenshots like the one at the top of this post!

Well, that’s all for thi – – you know what? No. That’s not all. That’s not all at all.

I’ve had this idea in my head for a long time and it’s time to give you a taste. People, here’s the first segment of… episode 000

Later this summer, you will see the full Episode 000 of the ScrollBoss Sprite Showcade.

I’ll be at the Youngstown Comic-Con on July 7th (sorry, Sunday only this year). Come through both days, because they always have a great artist’s alley and lots of game-related stuff there!