I still have it clear: despite its decline in the last decade, Konami is one of the most important companies in the history of video games and one of my absolute favorites, especially for its glory period between the 80s and the 90s.
In our retrospective of the best retro games We have seen countless Konami classics, being much more than Metal Gear O Pro Evolution Soccer. But today we want to focus on a curious stage in the early nineties, where the formula for the successful exploited Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles de 1989 to the point of taking a whopping ten beat ’em up within three years. Brutal.
The Simpsons
One of the best examples of Konami’s “copy and paste” after the success of his first video game about the Ninja Turtles, we have it in this The Simpsons which came out two years later and where the interface and its movements were traced. It was somewhat more simplistic, but with the charm of the Matt Groening series of the moment.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
That same 1991, Konami reached its zenith with the Ninja Turtles giving birth to this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, one of the best beat ’em up of history. Bigger than the 1989 classic, his new moves and more cheating gave a lot of play. On Mega Drive he had his own reinterpretation with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist in 1992, being forgettable, on the other hand, the remake TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled Ubisoft from 2009.
Vendetta
The sequel to the lesser-known Crime Fighters of 1989, in the line of Double Dragon from Technõs Japan, it was called Vendetta and its similarity on a graphic level brought it closer to Final Fight in 1991, two years after the Capcom classic. Now, the interface and the scoreboard were still very TMNT.
X-Men
Already in 1992 Konami continued to squeeze that formula with different skins and licenses, being the recreational of X-Men the first of them. Its most striking peculiarity, yes, was that it did not limit the multiplayer to four people, but it rose up to a whopping six players. And of course, he took advantage of the mutant power of every Marvel superhero and the appeal of villains like Magneto.
Asterix
With almost a dozen video games for home systems Asterix and Obelix In the eighties, Konami has the honor of launching the first and only exclusive arcade of Asterix in 1992. It was another beat ’em up in the TMNT line, of course, but with the appeal of these indefatigable Gauls. Visually it was a delight.
Bucky O’Hare
Probably one of the most unknown (not his series, although many have forgotten it). With Bucky O’Hare Konami chose, however, to focus the action on the shots, being a beat ’em up to what shoot ’em up, in the line of that Konami’s 1990 Aliens, although in this game of 1992 there were also blows. Already from a single plane and with more shots, we cannot forget the Sunset Riders (1991) and Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa (1992), despite being more run & gun, wow.
Metamorphic Force
It took until 1993 to come across one of the beat ’em up most striking of Konami, this Metamorphic Force with transformations to Altered Beast by SEGA to give more variety to the fighting in your fantasy world.
Violent Storm
With Violent Storm (1993), on the other hand, Konami made it clearer if the similarity with the aforementioned fits Final Fight, more than with Vendetta, both for the life bar and for the design and size of the enemies. Its multiplayer, yes, for three.
Batman Returns
Finally, meanwhile exclusive of recreational, we have this cane Batman Returns de Super Nintendo, which was wildly different from the rest of the homonymous works. A beat ’em up quite impressive that took advantage of the imposing image of the Tim Burton’s Dark Knight with great success.
Unfortunately, In 1994 Konami stopped the beat ’em up genre in its tracks to give higher priority to other styles, in part due to the arrival of 32-bit consoles. Thus arose, for example, the role-playing saga Suikoden in 1995. And that did not leave aside the recreational, such as the longed and cuqui GTI Club, being all a boom that 1997 Beatmania to inaugurate the genre of the bemani. The rest, as they say, is history, with a few few sagas that took their biggest productions with the entrance of the XXI century until the march de Hideo Kojima.
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