Brawl Brothers is a beat’em up from Jaleco. I did review this game a while ago, but for some reason, I didn’t write a blog post for it. That is what I’m going to do today!
I played this game a few years ago, and I revisited it for this. Back then, I thought the game was okay, but not exceptional. Then I played Rushing Beat X, and I got all excited. That game was okay, but not really great. Which is how I feel about the entire series.
The Rushing Beat series is very odd. The releases outside of Japan were a little mangled when they were localized. All references to them being connected were removed for some reason. Rushing Beat X tries to connect a few of them. Let’s get into Brawl Brothers.
TLDR: A decent game that isn’t as good as many of the Capcom beat’em ups on the SNES.
Narrative
Sadly, the story was cut out of this game. It was replaced with something completely different that doesn’t reference what happened in Rival Turf. If you didn’t know this game was a sequel, then you’d have no idea.
I had to go to the manual to get the story. Back when I was collecting games, I normally picked up loose cartridges, which meant I’d never have the full story. After reading the story in the manual (Link), I don’t think I’ve missed anything.
In the four paragraphs of stuff that I’m given, three people have been kidnapped from your gym, and you have to get them back. The game takes place in Bayside City, there is a gang you have to fight, and the main characters are known by two different names.
The story that Jaleco came up with was very bland. I don’t know exactly what the original version of the game’s story was, so this is a little odd. It isn’t anything special, and it feels very generic.
Gameplay
The gameplay is perfectly fine for a game like this. There isn’t anything special about this game, but it is competently made. Brawl Brothers has good controls, fun stages, but isn’t too different from the other beat’em ups on the SNES.
This is a fairly standard beat’em up for the time. The controls are good. There is a button for your special attack, regular attacks, and jumping. Despite not being in the arcades, it has an arcade feel to it.
Brawl Brothers has a big cast of characters. There are five playable characters in the game:
- Hack
- Slash
- Wendy
- Lord J
- Kazan
There are the standard health items that you can get in each stage. The levels are decent enough. They’re longer than some beat’em ups, which is nice to see. There just isn’t anything memorable about them.
The gameplay in Brawl Brothers is okay. It is what you should expect to see in other beat’em ups on the home console or in the arcade. This is a pretty average game, unless you have some memories of it. I don’t, so it doesn’t really stand out to me.
Visuals
Brawl Brothers look good. I don’t have anything to complain about when it comes to how things look in this game. The stages look very good, and the character sprites are well detailed.
The character sprites were rather good. They were large and detailed. Each of the playable characters and bosses look very good. Enemies are decent.
It is pretty easy to see the power ups and what you can destroy. The stage design isn’t all that different from most of the beat’em ups. There is a formula to games like this, so many of them have similar levels.
Overall, the graphics are perfectly fine. They’re better than some of the lower end beat’em ups on the SNES. Nothing really stood out to me, but they were pretty good.
Reviews at the Time
Brawl Brothers received above average reviews at the time. Many of the scores I saw were between 5 and 8.6/10. Back in the early 1990s, these were average to excellent scores.
Nintendo Magazine System gave the game an 84/100. Based on the scores they gave it, I’m not sure how the average dropped that far. The reviewers called it an “outstanding beat’em up” that has some minor issues.
Gamefan had four people review this game, and for some reason called it Rival Turf II. While correct, it isn’t how the game ended up, and raises a few questions about the marketing. After sifting through this assault on my eyes of a magazine, I found the reviews. It received two 80/100s, an 89/100, and an 85/100. These are short and don’t say much. Even the lengthy review doesn’t really say anything.
Nforce Magazine gave the game a 74/100. In one of the more bizarre things I’ve seen from these old magazines, the game is listed as Rushing Beat Run, and there is only a one sentence review.
I find it odd that some of these magazines got the name of the game wrong. I would like to know more about the marketing of Brawl Brothers and how it got so messed up. While Rushing Beat Run was probably the name of the game in Japan, I’m not sure why it was used in a review. At this point, I’m going to go sit down somewhere and come back to this strangeness later.
7/10. There isn’t anything in this game that really stands out to me. It is better than the first game in the series, but not by much. Brawl Brothers is better than some of the beat’em ups on the SNES, but nowhere near good enough to be a great game.
Pros
- Decent gameplay
- Good Graphics
- Five Playable characters
Cons
- Nothing special
- A bit too repetitive
Conclusion
I thought I had already done a review of this game, and I did. The problem is that I didn’t actually write down what I said about it. So, I came back to write down how I felt about it. This means I’m reviewing this series out of order.
If you didn’t know the history of this game, then you’d have no idea it was a sequel or part of a series. That is probably the biggest problem with the series as a whole. Jaleco made some odd choices with the localization of these three games.
When I went back to play this game, I couldn’t help but compare it to the better beat’em ups on the SNES. Playing this made me want to play something else. I would rather have played other games like King of Dragons, Knights of the Round, or Pirates of Dark Water (which is another game I need to write a post for).
If you liked this post, check out some of my other beat’em ups posts. Such as Peace Keepers or King of the Dragons.