Once upon a time, the belt-scrolling beat 'em up was the king of the gaming world. Titles like Double Dragon, Final Fight, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage were some of the most successful and popular of the period; arcade titles would generate incredible revenue while home ports (and exclusives, in the case of Streets of Rage 2) were capable of tempting players to invest in new hardware.
While Street Fighter II arguably shifted focus from scrolling fighters to one-on-one brawlers, the legacy of the genre cannot be underestimated – and even today, we're still seeing incredible new titles, such as Streets of Rage 4 and Paprium.
The history of the side-scrolling fighter is a deep and complex one, and the latest effort from Bitmap Books aims to shine a light on that. Penned by comic book writer and former award-winning video game journalist Dave Cook, Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat-’Em-Ups is 450 pages of bare-knuckled brilliance, covering 200 games spanning 37 years and including pretty much every notable example of the genre you can think of.
As with Bitmap's other books, Go Straight is a mix of informative text and gorgeous screenshots, and even features fold-out sections which allow for even more detail. It features a foreword by Double Dragon creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto, too, which is about the only seal of approval many fighting game fans will need.
Go Straight launches tomorrow, and can be ordered direct from the publisher.
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Comments 10
I literally can’t wait for this to be delivered, growing up in the golden age with the arcades this’ll be an absolute treat!
Take. My. Dumpster-chicken.
Looks like an awesome book - in a way I kind of resented SF and other vs fighters for starving the arcade beat-em-up genre - but putting this on my coffee table (someday I promise I’ll get one) would lead to financially unwise cravings for old games.
Well, even more than usual. 😅
@HamatoYoshi "I literally can't wait for this to be delivered"
I now have an image of you (not that I know what you look like!) using a tracking link/GPS location to try and catch the delivery van early on its route to try and claim your book early!
Pre-ordered this as soon as it went live, can't wait for the upcoming Mega Drive book either!
This looks dope. I want it.
Nice to see beat-em-up games showcased this way. They're my favorite games and I've played the genre quite extensively at this point. With every new game being an open-world game, I sometimes joke that whichever beat-em-up, for example Knights of the Round, is my favorite open world, because you can go wherever you want(left, right, up, and down, plus jumping) as long as it's directly to the right(usually). That's a world that's open enough for me.
@BionicDodo haha!! Yes! Constantly refreshing the courier website waiting for it ( although as we speak, it still hasn’t been dispatched ).
@HamatoYoshi I'm not sure if mine has been dispatched or not. I've had about five emails from them, including the link to the digital version, so if it hasn't been dispatched then it surely will be today.
I can confirm from looking at the digital version that this book is exhaustive. It’s missing a few Kunio Kun games, but it goes right up to 2021 and covers the really great modern games.
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