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Gaiapolis; the marriage of a beat em up and an RPG. A great example of genre mashups

VGEsoterica

Member
If you've never heard of Gaiapolis don't feel too bad. As far as "awesome games I think more people would enjoy playing" are concerned I'd say Gaiapolis is the least talked about game of that entire mental list I keep in my head lol.

But...if you are reading this now you know it exists...and you should probably go play it today.

It's a legit awesome beat em up that is unique because it uses the vertical (or TATE) orientation compared to most beat em ups and their horizontal setup. The art style and animations are legit on point for a game that came out that early in the 90's and mechanically the attack and parry system give a great feel. Basically it's got everything you'd want in a beat em up.

The most unique thing about the game is it's got solid RPG elements that makes the game basically a "role playing beat em up"...which is a genre you don't see very much of at all. Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom and Shadows of Mystara on the Capcom CPS II are maybe the only other games I can think of that even fit that description. But when you throw the RPG elements on top of what is already a top tier arcade beat em up it really shines! It's a bummer the game was never ported home (I am not counting the NES version...as it's a wholly different game obviously...it's on the NES after all) as it even includes password save features and takes well over an hour to beat the first time. Plus it has a solid amount of replay potential. Would have been a perfect game to port to Saturn!

But it got me thinking....what other games bend two or more genres together to awesome effect? There are the obvious things like the Fallout games with RPG elements on top of first person shooter mechanics...but I am more curious about deep cuts I may not know about.

Oh and if you've never heard of Gaiapolis now you know it exists...so I think you should probably go play it today? lol
 
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