All 50 Cherries!

[catsgomeow]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3349090284

Well I know I'm far from the first at this point but I finally managed to get all 50 cherries! No idea how long this actually took to do, steam says ~270 hours but I had the game running in the background for many cumulative hours during this whole process and the individual ingame times really don't give me a much better picture.

Definitely don't think this is actually worth doing if anyone's debating whether or not they should commit. I got burnt out real bad towards the end even though I saved some real pleasant ones for the last 5 or so. There will be games in the collection that just don't click with you which can create large deadzones where near zero fun is being had. This isn't really an actual issue with the game however, most people playing will obviously just bounce off these less preferred titles and play something else instead; this is the sane and objectively correct thing to do.

So yeah would not recommend experiencing the game in this way. I will say there are a few games in here that I would have stopped playing near immediately if playing casually that I actually really wound up loving when going for the cherry, but that was very few of them unfortunately.

[FAT CONTROLLER]

Out of curiosity, which are the games which were the worst to cherry? I'm at 30 cherries and have been having a good time with all with the notable exception of Block Koala, that game is trash.

[catsgomeow]

Originally posted by FAT CONTROLLER:

Out of curiosity, which are the games which were the worst to cherry? I'm at 30 cherries and have been having a good time with all with the notable exception of Block Koala, that game is trash.

I had the least fun getting the cherry for Hot Foot out of everything in the game but that has since been patched making the requirement far more lenient. After that would probably be Fist Hell, just had absolutely zero fun with that one. I don't think it was even that hard I just hate how it controls and think its bizarre that the easiest way to play it is to avoid using any special attacks or items and just stick to spamming the basic punch with the occasional jumping attack thrown in for one specific enemy type. I had a rough time with Devilition but that's mostly because I thought the cherry requirement would be getting a perfect clear on every round which seems downright impossible, turned an actually pretty easy cherry into a nightmare for a while.

The actually most plainly difficult cherry in the game to get for me was Cyber Owls, which I see basically nobody talk about. Cyber Owls is one of those games with a "don't die a single time" cherry requirement but I think its much harder than all the others in the collection because its way longer and requires perfect mastery and memorization of 4 different game genres I don't dislike this one though so not sure I could call it one of the"worst" cherries since I had fun doing it. Honorable mention is Rock On! Island which was extremely easy up until the last level which kicked my ass over and over again trying to get a perfect clear and then I had to do it again because I left a few stages incomplete before beating it.

[MP83]

Welcome to the club, Catsgomeow! Great job!

[Yuga-Suggah]

So, I am a huge defender of Fist Hell because I came from the world of “puzzle” beat em ups. Puzzle meaning you have figure out the most efficient way to win rather than learning combos. A lot of these come off as stiff or clunky, and aren’t very fun if you started on the logic that was started in Final Fight or SoR, and then enhanced in SoR4. I started my love of beat em ups during double dragon 1 and 2. The “normal” special in that game sucks as an attack. It’s a push out move that, pushes folks into pits.

Now do I think it could have been better. Yes. Even DD has the rising knee jump combo that is basically instant death. DD has never had great weapons, but the bombs were kinda good, and the knife was a lot meater than the axe. But I think as a clunker beat ‘em up, I thought it was great.

I think if you want all of the clunk, all of the combos, but none of the action, Treachery in Beat City is much neater. But lol if you want SoR4, TiBC is definitely not the beat ‘em up you want.

[Yuga-Suggah]

And you play exactly as I do. Turn the game on, do some chores, forget I had the game on, “took me 15 hours to beat valgress” when I probably just left it on that long

I’m guessing the guy who 35 hour’Ed party house probably left the game on.

[Adeon]

Originally posted by catsgomeow:

I will say there are a few games in here that I would have stopped playing near immediately if playing casually that I actually really wound up loving when going for the cherry

Which ones?

[catsgomeow]

Originally posted by Adeon:

Originally posted by catsgomeow:

I will say there are a few games in here that I would have stopped playing near immediately if playing casually that I actually really wound up loving when going for the cherry

Which ones?

Magic Garden, Avianos, Waldorf, Onion Delivery, Hyper Contender, Combatants, and Campanella 3.

[catsgomeow]

Originally posted by Yuga-Suggah:

So, I am a huge defender of Fist Hell because I came from the world of “puzzle” beat em ups. Puzzle meaning you have figure out the most efficient way to win rather than learning combos. A lot of these come off as stiff or clunky, and aren’t very fun if you started on the logic that was started in Final Fight or SoR, and then enhanced in SoR4. I started my love of beat em ups during double dragon 1 and 2. The “normal” special in that game sucks as an attack. It’s a push out move that, pushes folks into pits.

Now do I think it could have been better. Yes. Even DD has the rising knee jump combo that is basically instant death. DD has never had great weapons, but the bombs were kinda good, and the knife was a lot meater than the axe. But I think as a clunker beat ‘em up, I thought it was great.

I think if you want all of the clunk, all of the combos, but none of the action, Treachery in Beat City is much neater. But lol if you want SoR4, TiBC is definitely not the beat ‘em up you want.

I pretty much have never touched a "real" beat em up for more than 5 minutes before playing Fist Hell, I guess I maybe played a few flash games that were similiar back in the day but its not a genre I have any experience with. I dont know how standard Fist Hell's running grabbing and recovery move controls are for the genre but I just absolutely hate how it felt to play, feels like a real victim of the artificial 2 button limitation but maybe this is actually standard for the genre? I definitely got used to it after awhile but i never started having fun.

[Yuga-Suggah]

@catsgomeow Yeah, I mean beat em ups are a product of its time. I grew up during the SNES hay days of them, and I got a real love for them because they were pop and play 2p.

Definitely though, most beat em ups were 2 button. Final fight, while on the super, was practically 2 button. For the most part, until very recently, the genre was all about area control, not really about flashy moves. Sorta the goal is being this big clunky dude trying to not get hit. SoR4 kinda pushed away from the clunk and idk… personally hurt the genre a little. If you want fast combo with lots of commands , the 2D fighting genre is much better.

If it’s on sale The Ninja Saviors by Tatio is a better representation of deliberately slow beat em ups. Really fun and has a good speedrun community.

[catsgomeow]

Originally posted by Yuga-Suggah:

@catsgomeow Yeah, I mean beat em ups are a product of its time. I grew up during the SNES hay days of them, and I got a real love for them because they were pop and play 2p.

Definitely though, most beat em ups were 2 button. Final fight, while on the super, was practically 2 button. For the most part, until very recently, the genre was all about area control, not really about flashy moves. Sorta the goal is being this big clunky dude trying to not get hit. SoR4 kinda pushed away from the clunk and idk… personally hurt the genre a little. If you want fast combo with lots of commands , the 2D fighting genre is much better.

If it’s on sale The Ninja Saviors by Tatio is a better representation of deliberately slow beat em ups. Really fun and has a good speedrun community.

Maybe ill emulate a few older titles or pick up something cheap just to give the genre a legitimate chance at some point. I would hate to dismiss any potentially fun games based purely on this single negative experience. I dislike Grimstone even more than Fist yell yet there's still plenty of turn based rpgs I genuinely love, why not beat em ups too?

[Yuga-Suggah]

Originally posted by catsgomeow:

Originally posted by Yuga-Suggah:

@catsgomeow Yeah, I mean beat em ups are a product of its time. I grew up during the SNES hay days of them, and I got a real love for them because they were pop and play 2p.

Definitely though, most beat em ups were 2 button. Final fight, while on the super, was practically 2 button. For the most part, until very recently, the genre was all about area control, not really about flashy moves. Sorta the goal is being this big clunky dude trying to not get hit. SoR4 kinda pushed away from the clunk and idk… personally hurt the genre a little. If you want fast combo with lots of commands , the 2D fighting genre is much better.

If it’s on sale The Ninja Saviors by Tatio is a better representation of deliberately slow beat em ups. Really fun and has a good speedrun community.

Maybe ill emulate a few older titles or pick up something cheap just to give the genre a legitimate chance at some point. I would hate to dismiss any potentially fun games based purely on this single negative experience. I dislike Grimstone even more than Fist yell yet there's still plenty of turn based rpgs I genuinely love, why not beat em ups too?

So if I was going down that rabbit hole, I would probably try the following out.
NES:
Double Dragon 1 and 2, not 3,
River City Ransom
Mighty Final Fight
(and seeing you didn't list hot foot maybe try) Super Dodgeball
SNES, Genesis, and Arcade:
Final Fight 1-3
The Ninja Warriors(or Ninja Saviors)
Knights of Round( or just get the Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle on Steam, ussually goes on deep sale)
Super Double Dragon (not the fighting game, in fact be very careful if the game says its a Double Dragon game, could be awesome or awful)
Streets of Rage 1-3, and 4
Golden Axe 1 and 2, never played 3
I have a soft spot for both versions of Captain America and The Avengers(but just play the Genesis version)
The Punisher
Any TMNT game
XMen
Ninja Baseball Batman
Alien v Predator
Really anything on this list https://vsrecommendedgames.fandom.com/wiki/Arcade_games/Beat%27em_Ups

And of course you have Fight 'n Rage, River City Girls, and the Yakuza series.

[catsgomeow]

Originally posted by Yuga-Suggah:

Originally posted by catsgomeow:

Maybe ill emulate a few older titles or pick up something cheap just to give the genre a legitimate chance at some point. I would hate to dismiss any potentially fun games based purely on this single negative experience. I dislike Grimstone even more than Fist yell yet there's still plenty of turn based rpgs I genuinely love, why not beat em ups too?

So if I was going down that rabbit hole, I would probably try the following out.
NES:
Double Dragon 1 and 2, not 3,
River City Ransom
Mighty Final Fight
(and seeing you didn't list hot foot maybe try) Super Dodgeball
SNES, Genesis, and Arcade:
Final Fight 1-3
The Ninja Warriors(or Ninja Saviors)
Knights of Round( or just get the Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle on Steam, ussually goes on deep sale)
Super Double Dragon (not the fighting game, in fact be very careful if the game says its a Double Dragon game, could be awesome or awful)
Streets of Rage 1-3, and 4
Golden Axe 1 and 2, never played 3
I have a soft spot for both versions of Captain America and The Avengers(but just play the Genesis version)
The Punisher
Any TMNT game
XMen
Ninja Baseball Batman
Alien v Predator
Really anything on this list https://vsrecommendedgames.fandom.com/wiki/Arcade_games/Beat%27em_Ups

And of course you have Fight 'n Rage, River City Girls, and the Yakuza series.

Thanks for the recommendations, saved the list. Not sure when/if ill get around to trying some especially after playing so much "retro" stuff with UFO 50 but next time im in the mood ill check a few out.

[*]

Did you do Spelunky 2 7-99?

[catsgomeow]

Originally posted by *:

Did you do Spelunky 2 7-99?

Never touched either of the Spelunky games. Ive seen plenty of gameplay over the years and it just never really grabbed me. Ive heard people say Campanella 2 is basically spelunky 3 and I didnt really enjoy Campanella 2 very much so pretty apprehensive about trying either Spelunky at this point.

[*]

Originally posted by catsgomeow:

Originally posted by *:

Did you do Spelunky 2 7-99?

Never touched either of the Spelunky games. Ive seen plenty of gameplay over the years and it just never really grabbed me. Ive heard people say Campanella 2 is basically spelunky 3 and I didnt really enjoy Campanella 2 very much so pretty apprehensive about trying either Spelunky at this point.

The comparisons to Campanella are overblown, it's simply the only game in the collection that remotely reminds anyone of it. Having said that, maybe don't bother and just stick to UFO 50 instead.