antihero/villain arcades?

[qmish]

Were there antihero/villain arcades? Especially in Japan?
I know that such a trope became more and more common on consoles and computers, but arcade machines are kinda different with how public they are... perhaps there was a stigma of society against having such a protagonist.
So, eh, anything comes to mind? Stuff like pac-man, I fear, would be more a wishful thinking, so need something more dark...

no, im not a replacement to xxx1993
however im only 1 year older than him

[BIL]

Rastan, Taito's archetypally Howardesque rogue. He tells you straight-up in the attract, this is a flashback to his time as a thief and a murderer who did what he needed to survive. Beowulf slew his monsters because nobody else could, Rastan's in it for The Big Dirty. Considers abandoning the job midway through, because you can't enjoy the booty if you're fuckin dead! Sticks it out for... gold? Glory? Principle? That's up to you. Main takeaway is buddy got paid.

Technically not an arcade game, but Ankoku Densetsu / Legendary Axe II (PCE) follows a similarly amoral path, one better for its wordlessness. All you really know about its protagonist is 1) he's very good at killing things, and 2) another top killer booted him off a mountain. Endgame resolves nothing, and was never meant to, this being a tale of pure vendetta and supremacy.

I doubt SNK's Guevara was intended as anything but standard action-hero hagiography with a side of verisimilitude, but I have family who escaped Cuba in the 1960s that I'm too nice to show my prized Famicom version to. It'd go over about as well as my MD Advanced Daisenryaku in a synagogue. Localised in arcades and NES as Guerrilla War, presumably to appease Burgerland sensibilities moreso than victims of the Castro regime. Although who knows. Could see the original title being a great way to get your game boycotted / cab vandalised in Miami.

Aren't the Bonanza Bros. bank robbers, or something? Never played 'em at all, just loved the character designs.

[BulletMagnet]

Not sure if it would "technically" count, but I know there are a few shmups where you play as a not-so-subtle stand-in for a pilot somewhere on the Axis side of World War II - Under Defeat is perhaps the most famous, I imagine Daisenpuu/Twin Hawk might be another.

I've always thought of Mars Matrix as a "questionable moral compass" case, since you play as someone sent to violently put down a Martian declaration of independence from Earth.

There are also instances where most of the playable characters are heroic, but one or two, not so much...Bornnam in Mahou Daisakusen comes most immediately to mind. Plenty of fighting games also included the ususally-evil boss character and/or his minions as part of the playable cast.

Of course, the story isn't exactly front-and-center when it comes to arcade shmups in particular (or arcade games in general, frankly), so I doubt most players of any of these games ever even noticed the relevant bits.

[BIL]

I just noticed, the BB flyer assures arcade ops it'll bring all the young ladies (and they coins ) to the yard. Chicks dig a bad boy mirite

re: WWII, a famous Capcom designer - I want to say Yoshiki Okamoto - mentioned to EGM ca. 2001, he got some heat in Japan for 1942. The interviewer asked him to elaborate, and he replied "I mean, imagine if you made a game about the Viet Cong beating the hell out of the US Army." This was around Capcom vs SNK Pro.

I wonder how NAM-1975 is viewed in Vietnam, even if the villain of that game is (shock twist!) not Vietnamese.

Oh! How could we forget the EATER, star of Jaleco's celebrated STG masterpiece Cybattler. lmao just kidding - is actually CHIMERA BEAST! If you've played it to the end, you already know shit got rather real indeed! Won't spoil here, will just link its very nice tunes: HEADPHONES WARNING, LOUD AS FUCK W/SILENT START God, "Fish" is such a happy jam.

I suppose depending on how literal we're being, re: social mores, Young Kunio The Hot-Blooded Tough Guy might count. Youthful sire of an entire goddamn genre. His deeds are always conventionally heroic, but he'd probably need an attentive lawyer to keep his dodgeball scholarship, after stomping several dozen fellow toughs in the open streets - some thrown off train platforms, or into deep water! That's several affray charges in the making at least, son! Tough kid with justice burning in his heart When he punches a rokudenashiko full-blast in the jaw with a closed fist, it's only because the bitch and her five friends beat up his nerdlinger homie! Eventually busts into a local Yakuza's car dealership HQ and batters him after the bitch-ass trick pulls a gun. Legally questionable, morally certain.

[BrianC]

There was Bagman, a French arcade game where you play a convict (in old fashioned striped prison duds) trying to fill a bag full of money and escape. On similar lines, there's also Lock 'n Chase and Lupin III, both with characters named Lupin trying to rob banks, the latter based on a popular anime.

[BulletMagnet]

There was Bagman, a French arcade game where you play a convict (in old fashioned striped prison duds) trying to fill a bag full of money and escape.

That reminds me of the even more on-the-nose I'm Sorry.

[SuperDeadite]

Not arcade, but "Produce" for PC88 is fucking metal!

https://bogleech.com/halloween/hall14-produce

[BryanM]

That gorny light gun game, but I don't really think it counts as a character... Or much of a game.

[BrianC]

That gorny light gun game, but I don't really think it counts as a character... Or much of a game.

Chiller? I think it counts as playing as a villain since the game is all about torturing and murdering people, though I agree it doesn't sound like much of a game. There's also death race where you run over stick figures with cars. Do fighting games count? A few of those let you play as the bosses, and even some non boss characters aren't very heroic. World Heroes has Nazi Inspector Gadget (Brocken) and Rasputin.

[BEAMLORD]

Biggest arcade playable villain? Michael Jackson's Moonwalker on Sega's System 18 hardware. Viewed through today's lense, its narrative is completely flipped on its head. Despite unlimited financial backing and prodigious resources, a worldwide network of child protection agencies try and fail to stop the intergalactic twinkle-toed fiddler.

[Sumez]

Not sure if "anti-hero" is appropriate, but I thought the hero/villain/damsel switcharoo between Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. is pretty interesting.

[Sumez]

A few more thoughts -

Crazy Taxi - Getting rewarded for driving recklessly, and the whole vibe of the game, definitely has some strong anti-establishment antihero vibes.
Karnov - This guy is a villain in every other game he appears in - Dragon Ninja, Fighters History, Joe & Mac, etc. The plot was changed in the shitty home port, making him a hero. But in the arcade he's just looking to steal a treasure to satisfy his own greed. The original Wario?
Rampage - Goes without saying. But in general, this only highlights how that trope is probably much more marketable in the west than it was in Japan
Metal Slug 1 - Of course you're the good guys (or we're told as much anyway). But even if it's played as sort of a gag, the ending designed to make you reflect on all the death and destruction you've caused seems to fit the bill
Elevator Action - Getting the same vibe as Bonanza Bros. from this game. You're secretly infiltrating a building and everyone is trying to stop you. The goal is stealing stuff. I'm not sure if it's excused anywhere, but I'm getting the feeling that Otto is up to no good

[NYN]

I am not in favour for the Bonanza BR0S., at least not for the Mega Driv0 version, yet DANG that ad has white-hot lightning in a sentence:

HERE WE G0, Y0U GANG 0F CL0WNS!

Submit this one to the decked halls! Fits every situation. I am flush with riches, now. Thankers!

[BrianC]

Karnov - This guy is a villain in every other game he appears in - Dragon Ninja, Fighters History, Joe & Mac, etc. The plot was changed in the shitty home port, making him a hero.

The plot was pretty much removed in the NES version (though the manual and box make him sound like a hero IIRC), but the JP version had an odd plot where Karnov did only bad things on Earth before he died and is now a servant of God and is asked to become a hero to redeem himself (so yeah, still makes him a hero).

Spoiler

He becomes God of War in the best ending

edit: Looked up the NES manual and it's pretty much the AC plot where Karnov is looking for treasure!

Elevator Action - Getting the same vibe as Bonanza Bros. from this game. You're secretly infiltrating a building and everyone is trying to stop you. The goal is stealing stuff. I'm not sure if it's excused anywhere, but I'm getting the feeling that Otto is up to no good

I got more of spy vs. spy espionage type vibe from it since you're stealing top secret documents rather than money, but it's definitely not clear which side he is on. Elevator Action EX for GBC definitely gives off an antihero vibe for the characters, all getting instructions from a mysterious bald man.

[Sumez]

the JP version had an odd plot where Karnov did only bad things on Earth before he died and is now a servant of God and is asked to become a hero to redeem himself (so yeah, still makes him a hero).

That's super by-the-book antihero stuff though I think that qualifies too

[Lander]

Aren't the Bonanza Bros. bank robbers, or something? Never played 'em at all, just loved the character designs.

Lovable rogues fun game, that - stealthy breach-and-clear with a gooey slapstick core, vascillates handily between cool ops and panicked chaos, particularly if you have a buddy on hand for 2P. Neat Blackthorne-ish cover mechanic.
I note the flyer captures one of its best moments - on one side, the plucky bank robber escaping by zipline. On the other, a brick wall! Immovable force meets unstoppable object!

Mobo and Robo starred in that arcade party minigame collection thing too, if memory serves. Though the name escapes me - globetrotting variety never seemed quite so compelling as their jazzy heist gig

[BIL]

I am not in favour for the Bonanza BR0S., at least not for the Mega Driv0 version, yet DANG that ad has white-hot lightning in a sentence:

HERE WE G0, Y0U GANG 0F CL0WNS!

Submit this one to the decked halls! Fits every situation. I am flush with riches, now. Thankers!

Cracking line; I like to hear it in Cuphead's conventionally no-nonsense "HERE GOES (｀w´メ)" A real oldschool caper.

Mobo and Robo starred in that arcade party minigame collection thing too, if memory serves. Though the name escapes me - globetrotting variety never seemed quite so compelling as their jazzy heist gig

Ah yeah, Tanto R, if I recall! I was wondering where else I knew them from. Lovable dudes indeed, the character designers should be proud! Even Robo's menacing blunderbuss SHOOTA has a preposterous bicycle-horn charm.

Done 'em dirty AF in the localised boxarts, and not even in So Bad It's God fashion ala KURAKKU-DOWNU!



(the Crack Downers are nice lads - fight MADMURDERER and TERARIST to save the tall building! Cracking game too! )



^ DAT ASS

[Bassa-Bassa]

Tant-R and Bonanza Bros. only share art style, actually. You command non-Holmes and non-Watson against a bunch of criminals on the former, so it's all very heroic there, indeed. Sashissu!, the last game in the series, let's you pick some questionable characters as protagonists, but it's a versus game (and the only one which changed the character design to be totally different).

Rampage-inspired King of the Monsters series has to count, to be more constructive. And Tranquillizer Gun would not pass today's bans.

[BIL]

Set a thief to catch a thief, maybe?

Good point about KotM - I suppose Primal Rage might count too, the various monsters can eat scurrying humans IIRC.

[Bassa-Bassa]

They're really your good old British detectives:

[BIL]

I dunno, I think these wisenheimers are pullin' a fast one on us (■｀w´■) ( )

[Lander]

Ah - right you are, Holmes!
Must've been the fat bloke I was remembering; used to work as a heavy for various financial institutions before swapping careers to the international crime circuit. If you can't beat 'em...

How about Osman / Cannon Dancer? Jack and his cadre of arseholes are obviously villainy, but Kirin himself is really more of a Kurgan than a MacLeod or Ramirez as chosen ones go. R2R through all comers, ultimate prize or not!

U WAN 2 KIRR? GO AHEAD

[SuperDeadite]

I'd say Cotton qualifies, she has no interest in helping anyone, just wants more candy. In fact the ending of Cotton 2 directly says that her selfishness leads to the fairy kingdom being overrun by darkness for all eternity...

[Steven]

Firing both the rifle and the M203 simultaneously without even touching the grenade launcher trigger is quite an accomplishment...

At MCT one of my friends got punched in the face by his rear sight because he underestimated the recoil on the M203. Left him with a very fine rear-sight size cut on his forehead, and then when we went to clean our rifles later that day another friend took the rear pin out of his rifle and the upper receiver pivoted down and the barrel smashed the other guy in the forehead, so he got punched in the face twice on the same day by two different M16s.

You could fire the M203 from the hip like that, but I sure as hell wouldn't recommend it, especially because there is absolutely no way your grenade is going to actually be anywhere near whatever it is that you are trying to kill.

Also lol US Gold. Still haven't forgiven them for the travesty of the Amiga Out Run attract mode abomination.

[Air Master Burst]

Any game where you play as a cop.

The Outfoxies, while technically a fighting game, has a playable roster of nothing but criminals who explicitly kill each other for money.

Does Punisher count? He's about as classic an antihero as it gets, and his game has the added advantage of being fucking dope, although I admit that most of his in-game activities are pretty traditional crimefighting.

AVP lets you play as a Predator and slaughter a bunch of Colonial Marines. Come on now! It is also one of the greatest games ever made.

There are probably plenty of other licensed examples too, like Godzilla and Golgo 13.

I'm not sure it's even fair to count games with the twilight zone surprise ending reveal where you were bad the whole time, it should be fairly obvious during normal gameplay that you aren't a crusader.

I would argue that saving Aerosmith automatically makes you the villain in Revolution X, but I realize that's probably subjective.

[it290]

In Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, you play as Michael Jackson.

[Lander]

Here's one: Sega's pac-a-like political satire Gombe's I'm Sorry!



Play as notorious Japanese prime minister (or Sori - geddit?) Tanaka, snaffling up gold bars for personal gain, while avoiding pop culture icons like Madonna and Giant Baba as they attempt to end your corrupt shenanigans.

Take or leave the political angle, the spritework's a lot of fun. Got a western release too, somewhat inexplicably.

In Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, you play as Michael Jackson.

This made me laugh more than it probably should have

[BIL]

Firing both the rifle and the M203 simultaneously without even touching the grenade launcher trigger is quite an accomplishment...

At MCT one of my friends got punched in the face by his rear sight because he underestimated the recoil on the M203. Left him with a very fine rear-sight size cut on his forehead, and then when we went to clean our rifles later that day another friend took the rear pin out of his rifle and the upper receiver pivoted down and the barrel smashed the other guy in the forehead, so he got punched in the face twice on the same day by two different M16s.

Also lol US Gold. Still haven't forgiven them for the travesty of the Amiga Out Run attract mode abomination.

The ol' rear-sight smoocheroo, never forgotten. ^o^ Being England-based, I've a suspicion the art dept may've been unfamiliar with rifles - although by that same origin, I'd also expect them to have good manners, clearly not the case with that OutRun horror.

Then again, Death Wish III famously had Chuck Bronson M19ing an entire Operation Wolf's worth of crims while gripping the goddamn barrel exhaust. Although maybe he's just that fuckin tough and was using the pain to keep his Rage Combo going.

Take or leave the political angle, the spritework's a lot of fun.

Hell yeah d00d

All set for the Anti Euroshump protests, while graciously accepting generous off-book gift of friendship to port Katakis to MSX

[Steven]

Then again, Death Wish III famously had Chuck Bronson M19ing an entire Operation Wolf's worth of crims while gripping the goddamn barrel exhaust. Although maybe he's just that fuckin tough and was using the pain to keep his Rage Combo going.

Yeah, you can do that for a little bit, but not too long because the barrel shroud is going to get pretty toasty after a while.

Also, the M1919A4 doesn't fire that fast, lol. The AN/M2 variant fires faster than that, but it's clearly not the AN/M2.

[Air Master Burst]

I wanna know what homeboy on the left is doing with that ammo belt that causes rounds to stick out from the grips like that.