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30 Things I Like #12: Urban Reign

Urban Reign is a multiplayer Fighting\Beat 'em up game developed by Namco in the tradition of famous "Beat 'em" up games like Final Fight, River City Ransom, and Double Dragon. The game has a very strong multiplayer component. Its fighting engine was influenced by Power Stone, Tobal 2 and Ehrgeiz. The game also features two characters from the Tekken series of games, Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law, as unlockables.

Shoutouts and credit for the background information on this game goes to the Urban Reign page that is part of FANDOM's Tekken series Wiki.

Plot

The plot of Urban Reign follows the exploits "brawler-for-hire" Brad Hawk, who is hired by the scantily clad swords-woman Shun Ying Lee to find a kidnapped gang member. Brad fights his way through the street gangs of Green Harbor, a fortified city in the U.S.. As he does so to get some answers, the true machinations of the protagonists reveal themselves and things become more complicated.

Gameplay

Urban Reign features a robust fighting engine for both single player and multiplayer action with both multiple AI opponents and human controlled characters on the same screen fighting at the same time. While the move sets of the characters are not nearly as rich as Namco's vs. fighting games such as Soul Calibur or Tekken, the ability of characters to freely move in the environment, pick up weapons, throw objects, give instructions to AI partners, and pull off moves on multiple opponents at once makes up for the lack of base moves.

Especially rich is the grappling system. There are low and high grapples, air grapples, counters and encounters each with its own animations for each character. The grapple system is highly reminiscent of Tobal 2.

The combo system is simplified and reduces the necessity for memorization of long combo strings specific to each character. Although characters have optimal combo strings, most combos start with three presses of the attack button, the third of which will juggle an opponent. Then the player has choices of an air grapple, special move, simply continuing the combo or even running away to pick up a weapon or reposition.

A major difference in Urban Reign from other Beat 'em ups is the replacement of a block action with dodge. Neutralizing attacks by opponents is done with a single button press that must be timed to the moment of the attack. Also, if the player presses up or down on the keypad while pressing dodge at the correct time, his character will reverse an attack, if possible. Even when cornered by multiple enemies, it is possible to dodge all oncoming normal attacks.

Finally, "special arts" can be pulled off with a press of two buttons. Special arts cannot be countered, reversed or dodged except by another special move, and they can be buffered. Like Street Fighter and King of Fighters, characters have a "special arts meter" that must be at a certain level for a move to be attempted. The meter is expended when a move is pulled off, and increases when characters take damage, successfully dodge attacks, or strike their opponents with attacks.

Initially, it is not possible for two players to play through the single player missions together like Double Dragon, but once unlocked, the game includes ample game modes for multiplayer action, including four-player brawls with a PlayStation 2 multi-tap and extra controllers. There is a code that can be entered to play through the single-player missions with a second human player, but unfortunately the camera will only follow whichever player is using the player 1 controller. In other multiplayer modes, the game makes use of a panning camera to keep all characters on the screen at all times. While still playable, it can be difficult to identify what is happening from some of the distances necessary to keep all characters on screen.

Double team moves are possible in this game... along with double team counters. It's all fair game.

Yes... you're seeing that right. This game has combos that can transition from just about any situation in this game's diverse combat system that anyone can contribute or extend tag team style.

Playable Characters

Tekken Guest Characters

The render art used was from Tekken 5 as both games came out the same year.

Paul Phoenix

Marshall Law

Major Characters

While Urban Reign has a huge amount of minor characters, the game also has a decent amount of major characters that take part in the storyline. These characters have more extensive movesets and backgrounds compared to the minor characters.

The major cast are as follows:

Brad Hawk
The main protagonist of Urban Reign. His past is a complete mystery and he is none too privy about it. Hired by a Chinese gang leader, Shun Ying Lee, to sort out the mess in Green Harbor.

Brad's fighting style, All-Round, is heavily influenced by Kickboxing, Wrestling and Submission Grappling.

Shun Ying Lee
Shun Ying's fighting style, "Kung Fu", is based on Baguazhang and resembles Ling Xiaoyu's style. Her Chinese Sword fighting style is also quite similar to Soul Calibur's Chai Xianghua's style of fighting.

Dwayne Davis
The leader of the Zaps gang. After losing his family at a very young age, he values his gang members and homeboys. After having one of his closest members, KG, disappear, he suspects that Shun Ying and her Chinese gang may have taken him and begins to attack them.

Dwayne's fighting style, Rush, can be seen as a street fighting type of style. A style that utilizes Boxing and Wrestling.

Glen Kluger
A thorough Biker gang stereotype, Glen is the leader of the Hell's Legions biker gang. Hired by Dwayne and the Zaps, he is out to fight Brad Hawk and Shun Ying Lee.

Glen's fighting style, Power, is influenced by both wrestling and street fighting.

Sho Kadonashi
The grandmaster of the Kadonashi Dojo. In pursuit of the, "American dream," he traveled to the U.S. from Japan and opened his very own Dojo. Kadonashi is not fluent in English.

The Karate style that Kadonashi uses is Kyokushinkai. A lot of his moves are also based on Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima's fighting styles.

Jake Hudson
Ever since giving up Amateur Wrestling from an injury, he has now become a muscle-for-hire. Hired by Dwayne to take down Brad and Shun Ying.

Jake uses a more professional wrestling and technical fighting style than Alex Steiner. A lot of his moves are based on technique in pro wrestling.

Grimm
A former world-ranked boxer who also began to practice pro wrestling as well. Not thinking of others, he uses his strength and muscle to bring others around him.

Grimm uses a street type of boxing, which would convert to both boxing and street fighting and grapples. He is similar to Steve Fox. His hoodie reads "Iron Fist", a reference to Tekken being involved in the making of Urban Reign.

Chris Bowman
A man who has grown from a middle class family background and a practitioner of Capoeira. He does not tolerate being ridiculed for his middle class background, and will lose his temper if he is.

Chris's Capoeira is quite authentic to the real life Capoeira, along with the use of Acrobatics and Gymnastics. His Capoeira resembles closely to Eddy Gordo and Christie Monteiro.

Dae-Suk Park
Park uses the art of the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF), and uses both Moo Duk Kwan Tae Kwon Do and Olympic art of Tae Kwon Do. Park is very similar to Hwoarang and Baek Doo San.

Tong Yoon Bulsook

A former Muay Thai champion back in Thailand. While usually being a lone wolf, he's been recently getting involved with gang feuds, due to having fallen into hard times.

Tong Yoon uses many elements in Muay Thai, such as the brutal knees, elbows, kicks and fists in their attacks. Tong Yoon also performs a very brief Wai khru ram muay for his Charge-Up SPA (Down Circle+Triangle). He is similar to Bruce Irvin. Tong Yoon is also loosely based on Tony Jaa's character Kham from The Protector aka: Warrior King. Also the name of the character Tong Yoon is similar to the original Thai name of the movie Tom-Yum-Goong.

Alex Steiner
An enforcer from Green Hill. He's an athlete who built his strength through American football and Amateur Wrestling in his school years. However, he also has street fighting experience as well (possibly a reference to profession-wrestlers Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner).

Alex's style of Wrestling differs from Jake's style of fighting, mainly due to Alex's use of more power instead of technique and submission.

Douglas McKinzie
He formed the gang known as the Shadow Platoon after he was discharged from his military service for abandoning his post. He enjoys destruction and chaos and will answer anyone from an underground network to cause mayhem.

While McKinzie uses submission holds in his grapples, his strikes are made up of kickboxing. McKinzie is similar to Bryan Fury, but his true strength is using combat knives to perform deadly strikes.

Napalm 99
After doing time in prison, he rounded up a bunch of convicts and created his own gang, The Outlaws. He despises all good in society and enjoys social disorder and conflict.

Mighty is a street fighting style that utilizes large amounts of strength and grappling. Very similar to wrestling.

Lillian Evans
A woman who lives in Chinatown. She is fond of Shun Ying, whom she considers to be like her older sister. She has committed herself to a daily ascetic regimen to become as strong as Shun Ying.

Kelly Bowman
Chris' younger sister and a capoeirista. She takes after her brother in brashness and pugnacity. Despite her good looks, she's always fretting that she'll never find a boyfriend.

Vera Ross

Jake's high school sweetheart, and a former amateur wrestler herself. When the two of them get fighting, everyone around needs to steer clear.

Golem
After killing an opponent during a wrestling match, Golem has since then fought in underground fights. He's devoid of all sense of pride and humanity.

Mighty is a street fighting style that utilizes large amounts of strength and grappling. Very similar to wrestling. He is physically similar to Craig Marduk.

Lin Fong Lee
Lin Fong's hand-to-hand style is similar to Feng Wei. His Broadsword fighting style is similar to Soul Calibur characters Seong Han-Myeong, Hwang Seong-Gyeong and Hong Yun-Seong.

Shinkai
The leader of the Mushin-Kai Yakuza. Shinkai was hired by a mysterious person to turn Green Harbor into chaos.

Shinkai's style, Master, is a mix between Karate and street fighting. His personal katana, Shinkai Katana, is known to be the deadliest of all weapons in Urban Reign when it is in the hands of its master.

Bordin
The mayor of Green Harbor.

Bordin's fighting style is influenced by street fighting and wrestling. His personal weapon is a pistol, which can be unlocked with a cheat.

Anyone familiar with Hwoarang or Baek Doo San's fighting styles in the Tekken series should feel right at home with Park.

The sickest thing about this combo is that it's not even over after the wall splat. No, that's only the beginning and one of the many beauties of this game's combo system.

Why Do I Love It So Much?

Urban Reign... This fucking game, y'all. This is easily my favorite fighting game from the PlayStation 2's entire console era. It's easy to pick up, difficult to master, and an absolute blast to play, especially when you get up the maximum of 4 players (via multitap) going in a single match. For wrestling fans, there's a lot of references to that genre of games with the various gameplay modes (Survival, Tag Team, etc.) and even in a lot of the playable fighters' movesets. If that's not enough, some characters play like they could step right into the ring with the fighters of Soul Calibur with weapons allowed in bouts as well. You have all of this craziness in this game and it never feels unfair, thanks to a robust counter system. You have to time your reversals properly or you will leave yourself wide open to further punishment. It wouldn't be one of these console fighting games without unblockable combos and instant kill-chains, so there's that novelty too for those who want to explore that aspect of the game's combat. Even if you think that's a lot of stuff to take in, there's no complicated button inputs nor special moves to remember, everyone has the same combo chains and button inputs for special attacks. It's as easy to pick up and play as the Super Smash Bros. games.

On a side note, I should mention this too... (Laughs) As someone who played Shinkai with his signature katana exclusively at one point, you will have a LOT of salty friends from exploiting those instant kill-chains, so use at your own discretion.

I discovered this game on a whim when I used to accompany my parents onto the nearby military base for shopping and would visit that base's BX that offered electronics, groceries, and clothes. It was there when I noticed the game in one of the bargain bins and I took a chance in the dark on the game since I never heard of it before. The packaging alone sold me onto it with the Tekken guest stars of Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law being unlockable characters.

The single player campaign is a story mode consisting of 100 missions of varying difficulty that serve as your means to unlock all of the playable characters, as well as all of their special moves and other gameplay modes. Even I will admit that a lot of these missions are absolutely filler and simply exist to pad out your gameplay time for solo play, but it does serve as a great tutorial to the ins and outs of the game's combat and reversal system. Alternatively, you can simply input a cheat code and unlock everything right off the bat and simply dive straight into the various multiplayer modes with friends. Another cheat code can allow a friend to accompany you in the single player campaign, but only on the missions that provide you with a partner. The story itself isn't anything revolutionary nor groundbreaking, but it serves as a lengthy tutorial of sorts to help you master the ins and outs of the game's combat from top to bottom.

I have gotten close friends hooked to this game and having an absolute blast when we have hung out over the years and suggested it to countless others. It always brings a smile to my face when I see a random streamer stumble across this game and are blown away at how fun and great it is. This is a multiplayer brawler/fighter that should be in ANY gamer's PS2 collection.

This was a game that came out at a time when a lot of Japanese game developers thought that they should do more beat 'em ups in the same vein of Final Fight and/or Def Jam Vendetta in a 3D environment. Thank God that this wasn't horrible in any capacity unlike Final Fight: Streetwise. With the same team members of both Soul Calibur and Tekken series onboard for this game, they took some pieces of the formula that made the Tekken Force mode(s) in those games enjoyable, but didn't use the Tekken license to market this game as something set in that same universe. Instead, this game is its own new IP but merely uses two established/known Tekken characters as unlockable fighters as an extra caveat. Sadly, that fact ends up being to its detriment as this game flew underneath a LOT of gamers' radars - and continues to do so.

Maybe if Namco branded this game with more recognizable Tekken characters from top to bottom, then this game may have faired better in the long scope of things.

If you missed out on this game, you're in luck though. Brand new copies tend to go for $20 to $50 brand new online, so you don't have to break the bank to own a copy of this game. To my knowledge, it has never been re-released digitally, so a physical disk is your only means to experience this game. I think Bandai Namco are really missing out on some easy money with a re-release to this game with online functionality. I think this is a fighting game that would definitely thrive within the online fighting game community, especially with rollback netcode and/or GGPO. It definitely deserves to have more eyes on it since it fell underneath a lot of gamers' radars back during the heights of the PlayStation 2's shelf life.

If this game ever popped back up on modern consoles in ANY capacity, I would be the first one pre-ordering not one, but multiple copies for myself and close friends to enjoy again. If you have a PlayStation 2, there's absolutely no excuse that you shouldn't deny yourself from experiencing this game at least once in your gaming tenure.

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