Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Hello, everyone. This is the president. In this issue, we'll talk about next-generation mainframe MD-starting with the Iron fist of Wrath, which spans about three decades. As one of the representative games on MD, Iron fist of Wrath can be said to be popular all over the country in the last century, but it gradually faded into the long river of history with Sega's fate, and it was not until more than 20 years later that it was revived. Let's review its story today.

Because of the content of "Iron fist of Wrath", we divide this video into two episodes. The first part focuses on the first generation and the second generation, and the second part is the third generation and modern sequel "Iron fist of Wrath 4". As always, if it is not convenient for you to watch the video, we have prepared a text version of the content.

Dilapidated city, full of street thugs, corrupt law and order, three lone heroes alone to destroy the forces of crime. The protagonist is dressed in white and blue trousers, blond hair and blue eyes, and the signature action is an upper hook. At this point, many players smile, this time it must be a quick fight. The Iron fist of Wrath.

The action of the hero of "Iron fist of Wrath" really has a nose and eyes, just like Capcom's "Fast whirlwind", many people must have a very similar clear version of the clearance game-"Iron fist of Wrath" in their childhood. In particular, the second generation is particularly popular, with a sense of slapping, the right difficulty design and a rich must-kill system, all of which make the game unconventional and without the impression of "quick whirlwind" following the trend.

Sega mainframe and "Iron fist of Wrath 2" of course, another reason why the "Iron fist of Wrath" series is so popular in China is that it is an original game for household machines. Whether you play the original or assembled Sega MD console, or the Xintianli VCD with MD games, you may have played it, and some people have come into contact with the modified arcade version. But after the MD host, the series disappeared, faded out of people's sight, and became the work that many people looked forward to in their "lifetime" until the Iron fist of Wrath 4 was launched by Lizardcube authorized by Sega in 2020, with an interval of 25 years.

Who are the developers behind this series, and what happened during the long vacuum? let's walk into this "hot street" today.

The IP time that was born in the "fast whirlwind" craze first went back to the late 1980s, and the popularity of the once-booming shooting games has declined, led by "double interception dragons" and "fast whirlwind". Clear version clearance games began to rise quietly in the arcade hall. In particular, "Quick whirlwind" can be said to have led an era. Not only did it top the arcade coin list in 1990, but in 1991, Gamest, an arcade game magazine, also held a voting campaign to select the top 30 most popular works among all arcade games. The second most popular game is "hit the whirlwind".

Such a popular game, Capcom naturally had to be transplanted to the most popular home phone at that time. On December 21, 1990, a month after the launch of Super Nintendo, the super version of "Quick whirlwind" made its strong debut. Although there are many regrets in the portability of the game, it is very close to the picture quality and feel of the arcade, which makes it pass the million mark.

Everyone wants to rub off the popularity of this fighting version, and Sega also wants its MD console to have a "whirlwind" game, so a project called "DSWAT" arises at the historic moment.

The man in charge of the project was Sega's ace producer at the time, and he was also the biological father of another popular style of the MD mainframe, Super Ninja. He combined the popular clear version games on the market at that time, and absorbed a lot of inspiration from the classic police TV series "Police Shuangxiong" and "Tianlong Special assault team", and finally gave birth to the "Iron fist of Wrath" series.

The Japanese version of "Iron fist of Wrath" was originally called "Bare Knuckle: iron fist of Wrath". "Iron fist of Wrath" is actually the subtitle of the first generation of the game. Bare Knuckle means unarmed combat. So in the past, some people called it "unarmed magic fist". As for the VCD machine with game function, it is taken from the American version of the game, Street of Rage, translated as "hot street". In the case of pirates, the game is named "fighting trio", "fighting quartet" and so on according to the number of people available. There are a variety of names, and the latest book "Iron fist of Wrath 4" is also given an official translation.

The story of the first generation of Mr. X's Iron fist of Wrath is simple and clear. A calm and beautiful city is suddenly controlled by a gangster named Mr. X and his criminal organization syndicate, and even the police become its lackeys. Violence and fear pervade the city. In despair, three police officers Axel, Braz and Adam, who quit the police station, are ready to fight violence with violence and break through Mr. X's lair.

There are no characters in the game whose actions obviously refer to the design of "Quick whirlwind". Each character has four consecutive hits, and can also grab the top of the enemy's knee or throw people out. It is worth mentioning that Dachang Guisheng believes that the most important thing in the clear version of the game is the strategy to control the situation, and the character must avoid being surrounded by the enemy, so in "Iron fist of Wrath 1", he also designed the action for the character to catch the enemy and jump behind him as a means of movement.

When you encounter a large number of enemies, you can also summon a police car to clear the scene with a rocket, which is very refreshing. In view of the weakness of the SFC version of "Quick whirlwind", the Iron fist of Wrath is almost entirely on the weakness of the opponent. SFC "quick whirlwind" can not play doubles, "wrath iron fist" will support; SFC "fast whirlwind" on the same screen no more than 3 enemies, "rage iron fist" later stage soldiers often 10 together; SFC "fast whirlwind" only two characters available, and "wrath iron fist" has three.

To deal with so many ghosts and animals, we can only use lightning swinging fists. Does this mean that "Iron fist of Wrath 1" can be used to fight "fast whirlwind"? Not necessarily, the weakness of "Iron fist of Wrath" lies in the core feel, with a very low number of character frames, stiff movements, and a lack of the pleasure of "fast whirlwind" boxing into the flesh. The sound processing is relatively weak, which sounds like aluminum foil. Although the number of people on the same screen is large, but the AI is very low, under high difficulty, many people often do mirror movements, especially ghosts and animals. But the shortcomings do not outweigh the shortcomings, although the game does not provide a refreshing experience like "Quick whirlwind", it is still an early masterpiece of MD and lays a popular foundation for follow-up works.

At that time, the ancient Suke3 "Iron fist of Wrath" operated for Sega's CS2 department at that time. In addition to winning the big market, TINON, who developed the "Anti-Terrorism Special Police" (ESWAT), was also involved in the project. Do you still remember that the development code name of this game is "DSWAT"? in fact, the police car in the end of "Anti-Terrorism Special Police" is the one that fired rockets in "Iron fist of Wrath". It can be seen that these two games are originally sister stories.

As for the music, the arrangement is even bigger, it is the electronic music master who composed countless famous songs. In ancient times, considering that Sega MD consoles sold more strongly in North America than in Japan, the Iron fist of Wrath experimented with high-tech dance music and house music, incorporating contemporary rhythm and blues and hip-hop elements. In particular, the title music of the game uses a swing rhythm called Ground Beat, which can be heard in famous songs such as Soul II Soul's Keep On Movin' and Ingma's Sadeness (Part I).

In addition to the opening song, such as the first level of Go Straight, Boss battle of Never Return Alive, and the third level of Dreamer and other BGM, are deeply engraved into the player's DNA, is still regarded as a classic. In the course of the game, players often can't help shaking their bodies with the beat of the music, and even give the game a sense of rhythm that does not exist originally. It is the best example of how music affects the game experience.

It can be said that music accounts for at least 40% of the comfortable feeling of "Iron fist of Wrath". This war not only greatly enhanced the influence of ancient Suke3, made it more deeply involved in the development of the game, but also marked the subsequent works with his label, and planted the seeds for the glory of the second generation.

The pinnacle of the family workshop in December 1992, "Iron fist of Wrath 2: the Soul Song of the Deathfighter" was first released in North America and received rave reviews and was recognized by many players as the pinnacle of the series. The story of "Iron fist of Wrath 2" continues in the early days. After three policemen defeated Mr. X with an iron fist, the city regained a brief calm, but Mr. X and his syndicate resurrected, not only regaining control of the city, but also captured the protagonist Adam for revenge. So Axel and Braz, together with the new wrestler Max, Adam's brother Sammy, and four men for peace in the city and Brotherhood, once again challenged Mr. X's criminal empire.

"Iron fist of Wrath 2" can be described as a world of difference compared with the original generation. The proportion of characters becomes larger, the content of the scene is rich, the feel is solid and crisp, the sound effect is powerful, and the enemy's AI will outflank the guerrillas, and even change according to the difficulty. Character added similar to the fighting game of the trick system, →→ B is a lossless must kill, A key can use blood consumption to protect life skills, instead of the previous police car rockets, input → An is an offensive blood-consuming skills, play a lot of enrichment, not to mention the sense of pleasure.

The handsome moves make people want to follow the example of the second generation of junior high school. The two new characters are very distinctive. Big Max looks like a rough pitching character who grabs his opponent from behind and jumps and smashes the ground with astonishing power. you can also throw enemies to the ground in the air. Max is a powerful character in high difficulty, and his painstaking skill "Lightning collision" can not only break through, but also kill in a second if the enemy can defend. Sammy is a little black boy, a difficult character chosen by the designer, with low power, short hands and high mobility, and is the only one of the four who can sprint and move on roller skates. Although it is not fun to use, it provides richer character features.

In the face of defensive enemies, Max can kill him with one move. In fact, the Iron fist of Wrath 2 has grown by leaps and bounds only a year later, which is neither a miracle nor an accident. Instead, the game's production team changed from Sega to another company called Ancient. In addition to "Iron fist of Wrath 2", Ancient's work should be best known to domestic players as the "successor of Light" on MD, which we can talk about when we have a chance.

Ancient is the composer of the Iron fist of Wrath, a game company that opened in ancient times. After Yusan successfully cooperated with Sega in ancient times, Sega said whether he could be commissioned to develop a complete game, but if he was commissioned to produce the game, there must be a company system, so Ancient was established against this background. Ancient means "ancient" in English, which is a pun on the surname of the ancient Suisan, and it also implies that the company is a family workshop enterprise of the ancient family. The representative of the company is the mother of ancient Suke3, and Gu Cai, the sister of ancient Suke3, also works in this company as an art worker, and pulls all his high school peers into the company.

At that time, the ancient Cai Nai is said to be famous as a beautiful designer, and some people sent fan letters to the editorial department for a big change in the production team of "Iron fist of Wrath 2". The planning and system design of the game was made in Taito, the third book of the "Bobble Dragon" series, "Parasol Star". The ancient Cai, who was responsible for the game images, also arranged part of the design work of the game, after all, in such a family workshop. Everyone's division of labor is not very clear, the color is to design the role image at the same time, the role of the overall style design, role performance are all round. Since both ancient Cai Nai and his brother Yuesan liked "Street Fighter 2" very much at that time, a similar continuous skill system was added to "Iron fist of Wrath 2", using a few ordinary attacks first, and then ending with a must-kill skill and blood-consuming skill. It's like a classic three-paragraph company in a street bully.

In ancient times, you San often participated in the electronic music scene, and the angry iron series music was also his reserved repertoire. In order to make the game perfect, Cai spent extraordinary energy. On the other hand, the sound effects and music parts of the game are still made by the ancient Yousan on a PC-8801 computer. Because of the popularity of "Iron fist of Wrath 2", the music of the second generation is more widely known. In ancient times, Yousan had a generation of experience, played more openly in this sequel, and introduced more types of music, such as funk and folk music. He also used a FM synthesizer to simulate the sound of classic drum machines such as Roland TR-808, pushing the sound source of the MD host to the limit.

Many musicians speak bluntly about the impact of "Iron fist of Wrath 2" on them, and its quality is almost indistinguishable from music played on a 16-bit home mainframe and high in nightclubs, making it a repertoire for people who don't play games. As for the sound effect part has also made great progress, written in ADPCM, compared with the previous work on aluminum foil dry feeling, the second generation voice is clear and loud, when attacking with water pipes, there is even an echo feeling, very happy.

Most of the voices in the game are processed after recording their own voices in ancient times. Axel's signature move with a hook is very powerful in the second generation, and many people like to end with this trick. The voice of the protagonist is "Grand Upper", which means big hook. There is an interlude. Ancient Yousan once said in an interview that he recorded all the voices of "Iron fist of Wrath 2", but this claim was denied by his sister, Ancient Cai Nai. Only the voice of the female character Braz was recorded by ancient Cai and her female friends.

It is believed that the most brainwashing for angry iron players is that the excellent voice of "Iron fist of Wrath 2" with a hook is almost of crushing quality in the clear version of the home machine game at that time, and you can also wrestle with Capcom's yellow blood game when you take it to the arcade. There are many players around the world who have deep feelings for the angry iron series based on "Iron fist of Wrath 2", so the question is, can Iron fist 3 of Wrath continue its brilliance?

After returning to Sega's development, the substantial third work, Iron fist of Wrath 3, was released in March 1994, just one day short of its release in Japan and the United States. The story of the third generation is much bigger. At the beginning, a bomb was detonated in a city called Oak City, killing 30,000 people. The bomb contained a radioactive substance called Laxine. The syndicate once again seized Laxine, kidnapped a general, Patnov, and found an impostor to start the war. In the end, the plan was naturally wiped out by the protagonist.

This generation of American version of "Iron fist of Wrath 3" has a completely different story, in which Mr. X sets up a robot factory in a vain attempt to conquer the world by impersonating American dignitaries with the produced robots. Laxin-related content has been deleted.

The magnificent opening of "Iron fist of Wrath 3" has increased the cassette capacity of "Iron fist of Wrath 3" from local gangs to nuclear war level to 24m, which is also the richest in the series. Strong Max was switched out of the fighting quartet, joined by Dr. Zan, a syndicate who abandoned the secret. He was seriously injured in the experiment, so he transformed himself into a half-human, half-mechanical body capable of ejecting flying fist. You can also give the enemy a set of electroshock therapy.

A large number of new systems have been added to the game, such as the previous one, which only Sami can sprint, and now all characters can, and can also roll up and down. →→ B's moves can now be upgraded to grow three times as long as you reach a certain score, becoming a more advanced skill. A key cost blood skill now has an energy slot, after automatically rising to the top, you can use the skill for free, the character moves faster and more vigorously, and everything is in line with the faster pace of the game.

The most advanced must-kill of Breeze in Iron fist of Wrath 3, the characteristics of the moves will be completely changed and even three generations have added a real route branch design. There are a total of four endings, one of which is a simple and difficult clearance, and the other three are produced in the checkpoint. If the player rescues General Patnov at level 6, he will fight Mr. X at level 7; if not, he will go to the White House to fight Siva, the enemy pretending to be General Patnov. In the battle with Mr. X, if it takes more than three minutes, the bomb will explode.

Personally, I prefer the character who is available at the end of the war between the White House and Siva, and the third generation is also the most. In addition to the quartet, Vikti, the medium Boss boxing kangaroo that appeared in the second level, can also join after defeating its owner; the Boss-- in the first level is the pervert (Japanese version only), and the big Boss Siwa can be selected through secret tricks. Coupled with some super enhanced version of the role, from the momentum is worthy of the end of the series.

So why is the claim that "Iron fist 2 of Wrath" is the pinnacle of the series so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people? The main reason is that Iron fist of Wrath 3 is no longer developed by Ancient, but by Sega's internal AM7 research. Although the content is piled up, it is very different from the second generation in many core experiences.

The first is the sense of hitting, although the third generation has accelerated the speed of action, but the strength is slightly insufficient, coupled with weak and occasional percussion sound effects, it is difficult to produce the thrill of the second generation. The power of →→ B moves is greatly weakened, there is no longer a "must-kill" feeling, although it can be upgraded, but the upgrade requires a lot of scores, and the death has to start all over again, which is not practical.

On the other hand, half of the music is still performed by the ancient you San, but the style is very different from that of the second generation. During this period, the ancient Yousan replaced PC88 with PC98, thus being able to compose music in a more radical way. The repertoire of the third generation was not written entirely in ancient times, but he experimentally created a program to write music, allowing these programs to generate their own music in a way similar to a programming language. Songs written in ancient times in three generations have become so grotesque that many players cannot accept them. Today, the music of Wrath Iron fist 3 still has mixed reputations. although you San in ancient times did not regret creating such works, it did give a discount in the minds of the public.

Finally, there is the question of version differences. Maybe Sega wants to crack down on the game rental market, so the American version of "Iron fist of Wrath 3" is much more difficult than the Japanese version, and the enemy attacks are tricky and more powerful. The difficulty design of the "Iron fist of Wrath 2" is one of the reasons for its popularity, and it can be said that the difficulty of the third generation is at the end of the game. In addition, in 1994, the MD (Genesis) mainframe in the United States has become the end of the tension, the third generation of popularity is not as popular as two, it is conceivable.

However, although the third generation is not as perfect as the second generation, there is no doubt that it is still a very good game. Far from reaching the level of word-of-mouth decline and the destruction of the series. The development plan of "Iron fist of Wrath 4" was actually put on the agenda a long time ago.

It has been blank for more than 20 years, why did the late "Iron fist of Wrath 4" and "Iron fist of Wrath 4" come more than 20 years late? The most important reason is that the mainframe after MD has entered the alternating period of 2D and 3D generations. Most of the 2D game brands of 16-bit consoles are either abandoned or transformed in 3D. Therefore, it was not common to produce sequels step by step at that time.

However, Iron fist of Wrath 4 did set up a project at that time, and more than once. At that time, Sega launched a clear version of the 3D modeling clearance game on the arcade, called "hit the criminal". It is rumored that this is what the next generation of Iron fist of Wrath looks like. Actually, it's true. At that time, the American company CORE DESIGN, the company that made Tomb Raider, was inspired by "hit Criminal" and made a similar game called "fighting Power" (Fighting Force). The game was then planned to be released as "Iron fist 3D", but Sega stopped working on it on the way to development.

"fighting Power" is also a multi-platform game, launched on PS,PC and N64, has become Saturn alone, the game quality is mediocre. However, in terms of character design, we can still see some shadows of the iron fist of anger.

From the "fighting strength" of the final product, we can see the shadow of the angry iron series. The second "Iron fist of Wrath", which was established, will go to Sega's last game, DC, and has also shown a technical demonstration film of the game. In this film, you can see that the game can also fight with the enemy from the main point of view. But the effect of the picture was very rough, and in the end, the technical demonstration did not become a real game.

Can you accept DC's "Iron fist of Wrath 4" technical demonstration? In this blank 20 years, Sega never tried to revive the brand, but this did not hinder the enthusiasm of fellow authors. In 2003, a Spanish homosexual organization called "bomb Game" wanted to reproduce the "Iron fist of Wrath" trilogy, and it worked well. The game reproduced the levels of the first, second and third generations and rearranged them, and the feel was restored to place. But in 2011, eight years after development, Sega's legal team finally found them, and the reproduction project was cancelled.

Spanish colleagues do not seem to be much different from the original angry iron, but the roles and moves have been carefully adjusted, and there are also new scenes that are originally just a tragedy of the demise of the classic IP in history. But fortunately, an independent game studio called the lizard Rubik's Cube made a match with Dotemu, which released the old game, and asked Sega for a license. Sega thought that the IP was rotten in her own hands, so she agreed.

In fact, when the news of "Iron fist of Wrath 4" first came out, I believe many people thought the same way. Think that showing off feelings, dog tail mink is very likely. This is not only because the production team lizard Rubik's Cube and Guard Crush Games are both European and American developers, so it is not easy to reproduce the fun core of "Iron fist of Wrath". And the picture style of "Iron fist of Wrath 4" is hand-drawn cartoon style, although each playable character has about 1000 frames of action, which can be called silky and smooth, but it is very different from the realistic painting style of the original "Iron fist of Wrath" series. To put it simply, it is "not what I imagined it to be".

But all this is no longer a problem after getting started. "Iron fist of Wrath 4" feel and sense of attack are excellent, but the most important thing is to restore the previous kind of battle of wits with the enemy, the need for players to keep busy, control the scene of the core game. This is also the basic skill of the previous Japanese-style clear version of the game, the enemy does not rely on forced hegemony, high output, first-time killing and so on to increase the difficulty, but through the characteristics of different arms to put pressure on players. Over the years, there have been a lot of independent games doing clean-up games, but most of them still lack some "inner flavor". Some hit people like stones, and some look like fighting games and do not look like clear versions. "Iron fist of Wrath 4" does a pretty good job in this respect.

In addition to the five new characters, the game also provides 12 characters from the first three, especially the second and third generation characters mentioned in the trailer that can use the first three generations of anger iron, but also completely perfunctory. Although they are hidden characters, they are specially designed for the new system, which not only retains the style, but also increases the sense of pleasure than the original. In particular, the three generations of characters have achieved a certain sense of "reproduction" in "Iron fist of Wrath 4".

The exorcism of DLC Nightmare released a year later is further integrated into a survival mode that combines Roguelite elements, adding three new characters and hidden kangaroos, and can unlock new tricks by challenging survival mode, greatly prolonging the life of the game. Through the upgrade of various talents, it is not a dream to hit tens of thousands of consecutive hits in this mode.

More than twenty years have passed. Sega is no longer a dominant player in the gaming industry, and the "Iron fist of Wrath" brands have also been lent to other companies. Many old players who were looking forward to the release of new works and waiting to grow up will always feel that the game is still as fun as it was then.

This sentence, the president feels that it is not completely unreasonable, when I was a child to play the game, there are then the design principles and development team. No matter how excellent the game is now, it can't replicate the feeling of that year. But sometimes, like "Iron fist of Wrath 4", it touches the heart of the game, when operating the hero roars out that "Grand Upper", there are some fragments of childhood memories of that afternoon.

This article is from the official account of Wechat: game Research Society (ID:yysaag), author: president

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