But, I played a game this week that makes me feel like praising it and that game is:
Bud Spencer n' Terence Hill: SLAPS AND BEANS!
(You can read the Bud Spencer article here: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.ca/2016/06/great-film-icon-bud-spencer-passes-away.html)
(I've also previously written 'about side scrollin' beat 'em ups once too so let's link there too, why not: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.ca/2014/02/the-super-mammal-side-scroller-of-ages.html)
Basically, Slaps and Beans, is merging two things I like together. It is merging the subtle refined tried-and-tested video game genre of Side-Scrollin' Beat-Em Ups with the funnest and maybe most-likeable tag team in film history.
You know when you have the great idea to mix cereals together? You're thinking, well, I like Frosted Flakes and I like Cap'n Crunch ... what would they taste like the same bowl? Or when you mix soft drinks at the self-serve station at a fast food place? I like Coke and I like Fanta .... what would they taste like in the same cup? You know that feeling? For me, this game, feels like that. It's like taking two things I think are wicked and putting them together in what should be buck wicked when it's all said and done.
Before we praise this game, let's first cover some of the history of Licensed video games. Many of which back in the day were not good.
Licensed Games
Back in the 80s and 90s .... a lot of companies bought the rights to make video game versions of popular brands/shows/movies. We had video game versions of EVERYTHING back in the day and very few of them were any good at all. You want to play Addams Family the video game? It's there. You want to play Home Improvement the video game? It's there, you could have played that in the day. Home Improvement the video game is probably one of the dumbest ones I can think of actually. I would see this in the game store and look at the back of it and go ... "So Tim Allen is shooting a flame thrower at dinosaurs .... did the Japanese people who made this and owned the license to Home Improvement even know what the frig it was?"
No, thanks. What is this?
Maybe I missed some Very Special Episodes of Home Improvement during its run, and I'll admit I'm not a Home Improvement expert ... but I really don't remember Tim Allen fighting dinosaurs on this show? Do you?
I liked a lot of older re-run style shows when I was a kid, and I remember renting one of the most worst of the "License Anything" wave of titles that came out and that one was ... Gilligan's Island the video game. Hahahahaha, just thinking about this makes me laugh. This barely even qualifies as video game, even. You controlled the Skipper whilst a very mentally challenged Gilligan would follow behind you and constantly get lost and you'd have to back track and find him. Ugh. I watched a video of some person beating this mess recently .... and I'm happy at least someone beat NES Gilligan's Island ... I know I didn't even get to the first boss as a kid when I played it.
Why does this even exist for?
The only nice thing I can say about Gilligan's Island the game is that the Japanese people who made it at least had SOME idea as to what this show was about and I'll give them credit that it does, in some manner, capture the spirit of the show. Ginger is mysteriously missing from the story, though I've read she took her name off anything Gilligan related after the show ended and apparently there was bad blood between Ginger and the rest of the cast. OMG. Either way, Ginger's not the main focus of this article so let's mosey on, shall we?
My point in this section is that the vast variety of mass produced liscenced games ranged from nonsensically-horrendous to sort-of-sensically-bad. Except for ONE. One game, which falls under the "why would you make a game based on this?" category and that's....
... The Three Stooges for Nintendo (crica 1987)!
Yes!
I don't care what anyone says, this game was GOOD. Five year old me used to play this way more often than you'd think a five year old would want to play a game based on characters from the 1930s. It was THEM though, it wasn't like ... okay, uh, here's Moe and he's got a rail gun and Curly is floppin' behind him falling down and you have to uhhhh get Moe to the zombie's lair .... NO! This game was the stooges doin' Stooge shit like from the actual shorts and movies! It captured the spirit of them 100%.
The Stooges had to save an orphanage that the evil bank wanted to close down and to get the money they embarked on various jobs inspired from their vast lore of comedy films. Sometimes that's all you can ask for from a liscened game is that they at the very least capture the essence of what their source material was.
I would not call it a great game by gamery standards but the Stooges game on NES did what it set out to do and that's give homage to the legends of legends and let you have a little bit of fun along the way. I can attest that many of the levels were fun ... Curly eating those crackers was pretty cool complete with audible nyuk-nyuks, the one where they just stand in an alley and hurt each other is good, there was one where you throw pies at sophisticates .... who doesn't like throwing pies at sophisticates? This game was good. Admit it. It was!
.... and we have now figured out why Three Stooges the game worked, and it wasn't because it was the greatest video game or anything like that at all .... but because it rended homage to its source material properly and let us have some good natured fun as we tried to save those poor ol' orphans.
Now ... with that in mind of what makes a good homage game let's review the Slaps and the Beans!
SLAPS AND BEANS!
Movin', movin'. movin'. mooovin'. Cruisin', Cruisin', Cruisin', Cruuuisin'!
Now with the criteria established as to what makes a obscure-source-material licensed video game good (1. Capture the Spirit of the Source Material and 2. Be Fun) ... let's see if Slaps n' Beans meets the criterion as such.
I'll give you a hint ... It does.
They capture the spirit of the source material very very well. I've been following on social media the makers of the game's trailers and updates on stuff over the last year or so and I know that they made this as a homage more than anything else. They made this game because they loved these movies growing up. This is definitely not some game where they make a generic side scroller and slap some beans on it and put it to market ... this is a video game made with LOVE!
Graphics-wise it's retro SNES-like style graphics that look very nice. I don't think you can make a side-scroller beat 'em up with anything other than sleek retro graphics ... it wouldn't look right otherwise.
The only one problem I had with this game was it was made for controllers and for co-op. I don't have like consoles and controllers. I have a PC, so I gotta use keyboard and it's klunky at first. One set of keys is for Bud and another set is for Terence and in harder modes you have to control both during fights to win it seems. This game is probably a lot more fun gameplay-wise with two people playing on controllers ... but I still beat it in fairly short time using a keyboard and controlling both Bud and Terence (left hand for player 1 and right hand for player 2) ... so it's not a big deal.
Music-wise, ohhhhh wow, they have the music from the movies which are some of the most catchingest albeit silly tunes ever made. I lost at the Dune Buggy race like 5 times in a row (because I thought you had to RACE BOTH CARS at first, Bud's buggy and Terence's buggy at the same time, but you don't, if you let one fall behind it'll catch up automatically). But I didn't care if I lost at that level like even 100 times because they play the dune buggy song during that level! The dune buggy song is so good!
DUNE BUGGY! YA!
In the jungle level they give you the movin' n' cruisin' song for the entirety of the level ... which will be in my head for a pretty elongated amount of time. I'll be singing this song for the next month in my head I think.
Movin' n' Cruisin'!
Beating up endless thugs to this song is just something you need in your life. You probably don't know it or believe me ... but you do. You need to slap some thugs and bonk some punks on the head whilst this song sweetly carries you through a hot jungle.
Conclusion
Alright so, a Bud Spencer and Terence Hill video game in 2018 .... it's a hard note to hit, that's for sure. Did they hit the mark? I think so, 100%.
This game was born after Bud passed away and the people who made it really made it because they love these movies and wanted to show their love for them. The people who made this game really knew the source material inside and out. It's really a nice homage.
It's on Steam today on sale for like under 20 dollars ... so if you are interested in this, even if you're not familiar with the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill films ... it's under 20 dollars so it's not like it's an arm and leg to play this side scrollah.
As a fan of these films I think the game serves its purpose and then some. I wish there was a few more level to it ... I could have kept playing much longer. Since Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies are in the Ernest movie range of quantity (there's a good 20 or so of them) you can't cover all the ground in one game though.
I'm not sure how many people are like me and who's interests of Bud Spencer/Terence Hill and side-scrolling beat-em-ups overlap but I can recommend this game with my whole heart ... because I can tell when a video game was made with passion for the source material and this one was.
More things need video game homages, I think. There's so many things I can think of that need fan-made homages in video game form. I hope this is the beginning of a whole genre of stuff like this.
(EDIT: You don't have to control both characters, I just set up the game wrong when I played. You can play one player and the CPU will control the other character and you can switch between them. I played the whole game controlling both Terence and Bud for no reason ... it was fun though).
(EDIT: You don't have to control both characters, I just set up the game wrong when I played. You can play one player and the CPU will control the other character and you can switch between them. I played the whole game controlling both Terence and Bud for no reason ... it was fun though).
