When classics start gathering dust and no major company shows interest in a remake, fans often step up and use their creativity to bring them back. That vision gave rise to developments like Beats of Rage, a game engine inspired by the Streets of Rage saga, and its later open-source version, better known as OpenBOR. Today, we’ll present several games created with that engine.
There are many ideas, but you always need the right tools to bring them to fruition. This is especially true in the world of video games, which has seen a notable increase in indie projects inspired by classic titles and old 8- and 16-bit consoles. In some cases, developers chose the Early Access route, complicated and treacherous as it is. Only a small percentage (25 percent) of Early Access titles end up completed, and players’ distrust tends to turn into repudiation. But then there are those freeware games built from scratch using open source tools, textures from other titles, and characters from different universes.
One of those tools is OpenBOR. Originally presented in November 2003 as the game Beats of Rage, this customizable game engine has made its way through the years and new platforms to establish itself as one of the most important resources for creating fighting games. What kind of games exactly? The inspiration for the original Beats of Rage was none other than the Streets of Rage series on Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, but if you’ve played classics like Final Fight and Double Dragon, you know exactly what I’m talking about. OpenBOR is still in development, but it’s a bit complicated to track down. Its SourceForge page is outdated, and the version there has stability issues. The latest build is available on the portal known as Chrono Crash, and to access the download you’ll need to create an account.
Fortunately, loading games in OpenBOR is relatively simple. From a certain point of view, its mechanism is similar to MAME. When you unzip the OpenBOR file, you’ll see it comes in three versions: Windows, Linux and Nintendo Wii. A double-click on “Windows” and another on “OpenBor” will give you access to the folder called “Paks”, and that’s where you place games with the .pak extension. A simple double-click on the OpenBOR executable and the game should start automatically; otherwise, select the game from the list (you can load more than one if you want) and press Enter. Now, many game creators have decided to incorporate OpenBOR directly, so adding the .pak to the folder isn’t necessary. In those cases, just unzip the game to a temporary folder and double-click the exe.
Now, what games can you download? Honestly, the web has dozens of pages, but in the vast majority of them, I’ve only found broken links pointing to hosting services that ceased to exist many years ago. Chrono Crash itself serves as a distribution point for several projects (or at least you’ll find links to the latest versions), and then there are the sites Streets of Rage Online and GameJolt. From the wide offering out there, we’ve chosen six games for your delight.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
The historic animated series, with its colorful characters and the Power of Grayskull on our side, has been turned into a fighting game, and I must say the result is surprising. He-Man, She-Ra, Orko, Battle Cat, Skeletor and all the others can be used to overcome the multiple levels of this solid game. The “platforming component” is quite important, and I recommend studying the attacks, as they can make a difference in the most critical moments of a match.
Dungeons & Dragons - The Rise of Warduke
Looking for something based on D&D? Well, this is exactly what you want. The Rise of Warduke is inspired by the Greyhawk campaign, and its developer knows the canon well, invoking names like Iuz. Several characters, item management, spells, and complexity that demands respect (it takes a bit to get oriented at first, and the intro is quite long) make it a near-perfect blend of fighting games and everything you’d expect from an RPG.
Super Final Fight Gold
Reviving the Final Fight adventure is no small thing... but what if we do it with Street Fighter characters? OpenBOR allows all kinds of crossovers, and Super Final Fight Gold is one of the best we’ve found. Ryu and Ken rescuing Haggar’s daughter? Of course! Or do you have a better idea than a couple of Hadoukens to clear each area? If so, you should know there are 23 characters available. (You’ll need to copy the PAK into OpenBOR as explained above for it to work.)
The Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror
Finally, another classic to close this section. Some genius decided to bring one of the best Simpsons games (its original arcade) to OpenBOR through a tribute titled Treehouse of Horror. Characters that help our heroes or distract enemies, levels with vehicles, shooting, explosions, and the Simpson essence at every step are not to be missed.
Streets of Rage Remake
Although not necessarily linked to OpenBOR (SoR Remake was developed in SOR Maker), it would be crazy to overlook this fabulous gem. Streets of Rage Remake has a rich history dating back to 2003. Fan effort, a cease and desist from Sega, several patches and ports to different platforms add flavor to what is already an extraordinary fighting game. The battle of Adam, Axel and Blaze against Mr. X is not over, and the group of heroes, accompanied by their closest friends and colleagues, must clean the streets once more with punches and kicks.
Streets of Rage - Silent Hill Edition
Another developed in SOR Maker that we didn’t want to leave out. Imagine for a moment that Silent Hill 2 is not the survival horror we remember. Consider the possibility that James Sunderland arrives at the mysterious town, and instead of facing monsters and lost souls full of terror, he uses his best martial arts and mows everything down in his path. James is just one of the many characters available in Streets of Rage - Silent Hill Edition, and if you want to fight something beyond group thugs, you should give it a look.
Well, that’s all for now. Once again, just in case: Some games require being saved in the OpenBOR Paks folder, and others are already ready to run. Either way, your fun should be guaranteed. Good luck!
