Is it strange that I miss
the arcade era? While I had to pay for every 90 seconds of game time, needed to
wait in line to play the next-gen hotness, and always ended up with hands that
smelled like the inside of a tire, the adrenaline rush of walking into an
unexplored arcade and not knowing what wonders awaited me made it all worth it.
I would often find myself drawn towards the fist-swinging luster of the beat-em-up,
a genre of arcade that satisfied my lifelong urge to pummel neon-haired punks
until they faded away into oblivion. Capcom’s Wii-exclusive Spyborgs not
only draws inspiration from many of these legendary brawlers, but also tries to
make this neglected genre relevant again. And no, the title isn’t referring to a
group of undercover cybernetic pigs. Drats.
Spyborgs
might as well begin with an “insert coin” prompt, as that is the exact
experience that you are getting when you fire it up. After a
blink-and-you’ll-miss-it opening cinematic that introduces the Spyborgs—an elite
team of mechanically-enhanced soldiers–the player is asked to choose two of the
three available characters. The roster is made up of the sword-wielding female
ninja Clandestine, a hardened grunt named Stinger that has a mammoth firearm
attached to his wrist, and a mechanical brute called Bouncer. Each character has
their own array of weapons, combos and special moves, with Clandestine’s speed,
Stinger’s powerful weapons, and Bouncer’s unrelenting force being their most
distinguishing features. You are allowed to switch between your two chosen
characters at any time during gameplay, with the game’s artificial intelligence
or a second player taking control of the other Spyborg.
The game’s combat is very
smooth and consistently engaging, as Bouncer’s lumbering yet powerful melee
attacks can be complimented by switching to Stinger and sending a few fire
blasts at this juggled opponent or to Clandestine for lightning-fast slicing and
dicing. These maneuvers can be made more powerful through the game’s upgrade
system, which allows you to use points earned during levels to increase a
character’s strength, health and move set, though doing so doesn’t unlock any
new combos or weapons. Each character also has a few special attacks, which are
motion-activated and will instantly vanquish the unlucky adversary. The player
will have to settle into these moves quickly, as they will need all the help
that they can get against the plethora of robotic monstrosities found in each of
the game’s 35 levels. All of these deviants—from miniscule, monkey-esque buggers
to hulking, tank-like scorpion-bots—always attack in large numbers, ensuring
that your characters fists and firearms will be in constant use.
Games within the beat-em-up
genre have always been fairly mindless, and Spyborgs’ ‘smash everything
that appears on-screen’ approach can definitely feel that way at times. You die
very quickly on the default difficulty setting, with a few fleeting shots from
the whip-arm of a single robot demolishing
