Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Creepy Brawlers’ on the NES

August 27, 2017 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Review Fix chats with Mega Cat Games’ Lauri K. who lets us know all about this fun Mike Tyson’s Punch out inspired Boxing game on the NES,

For more on Mega Cat Games, click here.

About Creepy Brawlers:

After a spectral hand pulls you out of your seat and into the silver screen, you become the underdog in an underworld championship. lace-up your gloves and get ready to duck, bob, and weave as you punch-out a marathon of movie monsters, including the wolfman, backwoods psycho, and a very slick vampire. dodge special attacks and time your counters perfectly, because a ko means losing the round…and your soul.

Review Fix: How was this game born?


Lauri: We wanted a modern take on the classic Punch-out. Punch-out hit the nail on the head with such precision, we took great care to make the game play unique while maintaining some foundational feel.  We added counter attacks, achievements, some very unique enemy attacks, and something we call enemy evolutions, where they change forms, styles, and patterns during the bout.

Review Fix: What was development like?

Lauri: This game does many things that push the NES hardware pretty hard, with large moving graphics, multiple split points and four-direction scrolling for our hero. Those took some time to get glitch-free.  We were happy to contribute some new functionality that other community devs might find useful for their projects at some point.

The other special part is the number of animations. Packing this many frames into a normal cart required tender, loving care and massaging. The 256kb of CHR was 
constantly getting full, and the metasprites took a huge chunk of PRG space too -
uncompressed the final metasprites took 40kb!

Review Fix: What makes this game special?


Lauri: It’s a boxing game for the NES, in 2017.


Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?


Lauri: Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out

Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Lauri: The game was on the final stretch, and working great in every emulator & clone console, but still glitching on an original NES. One of those oh geez moments, haha.

Review Fix: How does this game disrupt the video game landscape?


Lauri: The main point in Punch-out, discovering patterns and timing, is not used much in modern games. And it’s a new, fresh NES game, proving yet again the platform is not dead, or even resting.


Review Fix: Who will enjoy this game the most?


Lauri: Besides original Punch-out fans, we hope to reach some younger gamers who enjoy the same thing, but never got to experience the original.

Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered?

Lauri: That thing where you threw your controller at the wall, tried again, and finally 
conquered a difficult enemy? That.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Lauri: Retro development is far more fun than modern platforms.

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13856 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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