In 2020 Piko Interactive and Qubyte struck a strategic alliance to bring Piko’s large 200 plus game license collection to consoles. Over the last five years we have seen a steady stream of retro titles resurrected from Piko’s vault. Qubyte handled porting and publishing for single titles like Rage of the Dragons NEO. Most releases, however, arrived in collections such as Breakers Collection, Top Racer Collection and the VISCO Collection. For the Qubyte Classics Beat’em Collection, Piko and Qubyte took a number of misfit titles that did not fit the usual strategy of bundling by original developer or franchise, and threw together this bunch of seemingly unrelated games.
Beat’em ups?
They are bundled under the moniker Beat’em up, but it is safe to say this is an oddball collection. Most games here have Amiga roots and were later ported to SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis, or both. What they share is that each is interesting for specific reasons. Before we dive into individual games, lets briefly touch on Qubyte’s treatment of this collection. As we have come to expect, Qubyte’s porting and emulation are top notch. Features include a rewind function, cheat options and the emulation filters we have always liked. In other words, nothing technical prevents these games from shining, so let’s get to the collection itself.
First and Second Samurai
Let’s start with the games that stray most from what the collection’s title promises. Strangely enough, neither Samurai game qualifies as a beat ’em up. First Samurai, developed by Vivid Image in 1991, became an Amiga cult classic before reaching the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis.
The game is an odd but fun action platformer about a samurai who travels through time. You will find light puzzle sections, collectibles and checkpoints. Difficulty is moderate, but it spikes when bosses appear. With unlimited continues the game can be cleared with persistence. Its nonlinear level structure offers plenty to explore. Even by today’s standards First Samurai is very playable, although it carries that early, hard to define Amiga feel ‘yank’ where games can seem disjointed and unbalanced.
Second Samurai is an even clearer example of that unpolished feel a certain category of Amiga games had in that era. The sequel drops the nonlinear design and uses slight path divergance. It throws a constant wave of enemies, likely inspired by arcade hits like Kung Fu (Spartan X) and Vigilante from the mid-1980s. As in First Samurai you still travel through time, but now it is a much more combat heavy affair. Second Samurai keeps you on your toes. But the gameplay loses its quirky, fun flavor. This time around gameplay hits another level of crazy with cheap death traps, overload of enemies and excess of enemies to fight. All that made First Samurai interesting is replaced with repetitive sweaty combat.
Gourmet Warriors
If you were ever curious about a food-themed cyberpunk beat ’em up, Gourmet Warriors delivers. Piko first reissued the game as a complete-in-box SNES release, playable on original hardware. Ever since its rerelease its cult status has elevated a bit. It ranks among Piko’s first successful acquisitions of obscure game licenses. Thankfully, within this Beat ’em up collection, Gourmet Warriors delivers as a true two-player Beat ’em up.
It is hard to encapsulate everything going on here. The food theme has you collecting ingredients while brawling your way through the stages so you can cook life restoring dishes in between stages. Enemies are next level eccentric; some of them even leave behind tiny humans when defeated. Who thinks of that? Those little fellows can then be stomped for an health boosting piece of tofu to be picked up. The director, Satoshi Fujishima, went all out on this one. If you like games like the infamous Cho Aniki, this is likely up your alley too.
Water Margin
To be blunt, Water Margin is effectively a Mega Drive-only Knights of the Round pastiche. In the period after World War II some Asian markets restricted imports from the war agressor Japan. Specifically in the video game business, developers in China and Korea often recreated popular concepts or ported existing games, making them slightly different in the process.
Water Margin leans hard on Capcom’s beat ’em up classic, though it dips everything in Chinese folklore and the plot of the Ming Dynasty novel by the same name. The developer simplified the gameplay somewhat, with a more accessible difficulty, compared to Knights of the Round. It also removed features like mounting horses and such. You might think that would strip the soul from the concept and, to an extent, it does. Yet on its own merits it is a very playable and enjoyable beat ’em up, though perhaps a bit too easy to really sink your teeth into.
The rest of the pack
With Water Margin, the Samurai games and Gourmet Warriors covered, the remaining titles feel like toss-ins that do not change the overall balance of production or gameplay quality. The best of the rest is Iron Commando. The name suggests a tale of war, with commandos dropped behind enemy lines. The name suggests a tale of war, with commandos dropped behind enemy lines. Instead, the game drops you into a Depression-era street brawler full of gangs and petty crime. Its hook comes from the many weapons scattered across the levels, which you pick up and use in the fight. It uses gigantic character sprites and it has some interesting bosses, such as a crime boss who uses his car as a stage hazard. The game’s unbalanced feel and relentless hordes of crooks make Iron Commando an interesting SNES addition, but it does not offer much to hold your attention for long.
From the same developer comes Legend. It is an ambitious side scroller in the style of Vigilante, featuring large detailed sprites and smooth animation. Unfortunately the gameplay feels uninspired, pacing is slow and the difficulty borders on brutal. Its technical prowess makes Legend interesting from a preservation angle, but it is just mildly enjoyable to play.
In the same style, but less interesting technically, is Sword of Sodan. It tries to sell itself as a methodical fighter where you approach an enemy with care, find weaknesses and attack strategically. As a reference I would say, Karateka with a sword. That is what you expect at first. The idea falls apart once you get swamped by identical enemies with pikes. Your basic attack has an extremely short range, which forces you to rely on a poke move that is more effective but less powerful and tedious to boot. It looks like an early Amiga game and plays like a mid lifecycle Commodore 64 title. It chugs, controls poorly and is not fun to play at all.
Round up
I can’t shake the feeling that this collection pulls together whatever licenses happened to be available. To make it worse, some of the games don’t even qualify as beat ’em ups in the strict sense. If the collection’s title triggered you interest you would probably have hoped for six or seven true beat ’em ups. All games are available on either Steam, GoG and some are available on their own on console store fronts. First Samurai and Second Samurai are also on Antstream Arcade.
If you do not already own any of these games there can be a price advantage if you like more than one title in the collection. The lesser games are not worth buying the whole set for, so if you are a big fan of one of the standout games, it may be a price conscious decision to buy this bundle instead. If you are hunting for genuinely new and interesting games, expect curiosities and be prepared for only half of the lot to be actually fun to play, this collection could be of value to you.
Beat'em Collection shows Qubyte’s polish in compilation work, with reliable ports, rewind and filters that let these old games run cleanly. The problem is curation. You will find retro oddities such as Iron Commando, Water Margin and Gourmet Warriors, but the set mixes non beat 'em-ups with forgettable Kung Fu wannabes and several titles are available separately. If you already own the best entries, this bundle is hard to recommend. If you are hunting for obscure retro oddities and do not prioritize polish, this collection may suit you.
The Good
- Odd rarities like Water Margin and Iron Commando are interesting additions
- Qubyte's proven collection template is always a plus
The Bad
- Half the collection aren't Beat'em ups at all
- Lack of curation make this a seemingly unconnected bunch of games
