The Beat ‘Em Up genre is really proving its naysayers wrong this year. As someone running a fan site in honor of those games for almost 20 years, I thought this would be the perfect time to gloat celebrate this new wave of appreciate of digital side-scrolling brawlers. This site has seen beat ’em up-themed updates over the years, but I think I need to do more to rep the genre, so expect to see more updates like this in the future. Today’s newness is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Data East’s Bad Dudes, but you’ll find a 90’s brawler in her newest outfit, a character from a new beat ’em up, some superheroes, and some characters from Capcom’s Beat ‘Em Up Bundle!

Custom Sprite gallery updates:
– Bad Dudes: Blade and Striker (fight stance), Dragonninja, Mini, Kunoichi (finally got a good standing sprite!)
– Captain Commando (new separate gallery): Ninja Commando and Brenda & Carol
– Other Games (independent): Nikki Rage from Raging Justice
– Streets of Rage: Blaze Fielding (Streets of Rage 4)
– Marvel Comics: Spider-Man and Namor (both scratch-made and in their Spider-Man: the Video Game fight stances)

The “Horror vs. Horror 2” pixel art print is finally done and available for order!

There’s been a ton of beat ’em up news this entire year and I’ve been trying to build a big update themed around this site’s favorite genre. But the hits just keep coming! Between the last site update and this one, the Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle (a.k.a. Capcom Belt Action Collection) was both announced and released (not for PC yet) and Sega shocked the world by declaring the return of the Streets of Rage series with part 4. I’m still building a beat ’em update, but here’s a few things to get things rolling before then:

Sprites: Double Dragon (some Double Dragon Advance)

Mini-logos: Battle Circuit added to Capcom gallery.

Vernacula-X: The main page gets another upgrade (finally, proper separate pages for each letter), all terms now have full pages, a few have been rewritten, and a few new terms (character level, crowd control, drone, gamer, mega crash) have been added.

Game Index additions: Battle Circuit, Knights of the Round, Ninja Combat

That’s all the site newness I’ve got for today, but here’s a few previews of some sprites you’ll see in the upcoming Beat ‘Em Update:

Fight’N Rage, one of the best recent arcade-style beat ’em ups to hit the pixelated streets, is having a half price sale until September 24th in honor of its first anniversary (September 19th)! The game is high quality and a steal at that price!

I’ve been working on a secret project (both pixel and drawn art) for someone else lately, but I couldn’t let this day pass without the Revenge of 1989 rising from its grave once again, even for a small update. The sprite count may not large, but most of the sprites are big enough to make up for it!

Custom Sprites:
– Double Dragon: Mysterious Warrior (DD2 NES)
– Golden Axe: a new Death Adder sprite
– Strider: a new Solo sprite

All new sprites have been added to the GFX Generators, where you can make your own graphics and fake screenshots like the one above!

I also made progress on the next Horror vs. Horror print. The new sprite of Jason Voorhees was shown a while back and you’ve seen previews of the select roster (everyone from the original print returns!), but now it’s time to show you a bigger hint of what’s coming your way. Let’s roll that hastily made promo vid.

18 years ago, I started this site with at the public library with Tripod’s free site builder, screenshots from the PC version of Sega’s Smash Pack (made on a friend’s computer, didn’t even have my own PC yet), and a bunch of tips and tricks I’d scrawled in a notebook. Seemed like it’d be a fun thing to do on the internet. Multiple hosting moves and weird ideas later.

The theme of today’s update is… every theme, including the lack of a theme. Characters from games, a few from comics, some 1989 icons (to rep the Revenge of 1989), an obvious crossover face-off (outside of Crossup Beatdown), a horror villain (before October’s DangerTerrorHorrorThon), an eighties cartoon character (before the usual Toy and Cartoon update near Christmas), a new original character for the site and the return of a character born in the long defunct Minus World section. It’s like a Whitman’s chocolate assortment of this site’s usual habits, so here’s the map that lets you avoid that one weird cream candy that makes you scrunch up in the face.

Custom Sprite additions
– Bomberman: all-new Bomberman action pose
– Final Fight: Cody (Street Fighter V stance)
– Megaman: Bombman
– Shinobi series: Joe Musashi (Revenge of Shinobi title screen)
– Sonic the Hedgehog: Knuckles the Echidna (classic)
– Konami: Cyber Ninja (Metal Gear Solid)
– Toaplan: the Snow Bros. Nick & Tom
– DC Comics: Harley Quinn
– Marvel Comics: Beast and Hawkeye
– Toys and ‘Toons: Cheetara of the Thundercats (1980s)
– Horror: Pamela Voorhees new (and better) sprite
– Illmosis/ScrollBoss: Endless Duck and Maddie Tenay (ScrollBoss mascot from the upcoming movie section)

All new sprites have been added to the main GFX Generator where you can make your own pics and fake screenshots! Other things added to the generators today:
– characters added: KoF Sports team added, Mojo (Marvel)
– characters updated: Mai Shiranui

While I’m at it, all prints on the site are on sale until the end of the month!

That’s the main part of the update. Some small preview additions to the Vs. Horror pt. 2 pixel print, an unfinished promo video and a thank you message are behind the cut. So, if you don’t read that, I’ll put an extra “Thank you” here to let you know that you’re appreciated!
(more…)

“You see, Jason was my son… and today is his birthday…”

Just a bit of pixel art to hold you over until next week!