#Swing City is an in universe pokemon game series and it's been a ton a ton of fun to write about

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Pokemon Swing City

Swing City is a video game series consisting most famously of isometric side scrolling beat em ups. The games are usually set in or heavily feature the eponymous Swing City, a large city in the Ferrum region. They are mostly made by Endeavor Studios though spin off games have been done by other developers. 

The People

The first game, released in 1986 is simply called Swing City. It was made to compete with other Beat Em Ups at the time and included only pokemon, helping the game stand out visually. 

The all pokemon concept is credited to the game’s artist and lead designer, Tsuburaya Oda who had long had a fascination with a world in which pokemon developed their own societies. Many of the stage backgrounds for Swing City take inspiration from drawings he did in his free time of buildings he thought pokemon would make to accommodate their needs. Oda had been pitching an all pokemon game to the Endeavor studio bosses for several years and being assigned to lead designer made him see his opportunity.

To make the game feel like pokemon battles, Oda helped assign two programers, Blaze Albright and “Professor” Olive to the project. Blaze was a former professional battle trainer who went to victory road in two regions. Olive was a former grad student in pokebiozoology who dropped out to pursue the flourishing field of computer science.

Both men had invaluable expertise, according to Oda and helped turn the game from a generic Dragon Dance Fury clone into a game that spawned a well loved series. 

The final team member added to this small crew was Irene Carpenter. Irene came from a theater background, performing ballet and movement opera. She provided the music and sound effects as well as another essential piece: according to Blaze, her martial arts background and bold, confident attitude was the inspiration for Blaziken, the game’s main and mascot character. 

The Characters

The main playable characters are Blaziken, Machamp, Lucario, and Gardevoir.

Blaziken is the face of the game and *the* all-rounder. Her special command is Taunt which when she doesn't have a full Special Bar, raises her special and when it's full, makes enemies target her. Her Super attack is Blaze Kick, a jumping kick that damages all enemies in a line.

Machamp is a close range high damage tank, good against bosses. His special command is Throw and his Super attack is Mooncrush Suplex, a German Suplex that sends his opponent into the ground, dealing them high damage, dazed, and deals damage to all enemies in a radius around the impact. 

Lucario is another all-rounder with a little more heath and speed and a little less damage dealing then Blaziken. His special command is Aura Sphere, a single target high damage ranged attack. His Super Attack is Meteor Mash, a large radius AoE ranged attack. 

Gardevoir is a committed ranged combatant, with low health and low but long range damage. Her special command is Dazzling Gleam which has a shorter range but hits in a wave pattern. Her Super Attack is Draining Kiss which is a single target medium damage move that also heals her.

The Game

The story of the first game is very simple: Tyranitar, a crime boss plots with his underlings to “take over the world”. From there, the game is a progression from stage to stage, starting in the forests outside Swing City, to its streets, to its literal underbelly, to the volcanic lair of Tyranitar. After defeating Tyranitar, the player with the highest score receives a short slide show ending for their character: Lucario and Blaziken train together, Machamp wrestles a Charizard, and Gardevoir meditates in a forest.

Bosses were Incineroar , Haunter (couldn't be hit by melee attacks, had to have items thrown at him), and Crabominable with Sawk and Throh being a combo mini boss before being introduced as elite enemies. 

The main enemies are Scraggy and Pawniards with Scrafty and Bisharps acting as more powerful mooks later in the game. Tauros is a rush across the screen type obstacle enemy. 

Gym Mode

Starting with the first game, each game includes a bonus fighting mode called Gym Mode. Originally included because of talks the four would have about Black Belt Fighting, a hobby they all shared, Gym Mode quickly became an integral part of the series’s success and identity.

Gym Mode featured all four playable characters as well as Incineroar, Haunter, Crabominable, and Sawk and Troh, all with slight modifications to make them more balanced. 

Gym mode stood out from other fighting games at the time by taking place on isometric battlefields similar to the base game instead of traditional 2d environments. In addition, skills from the base game transferred well to gym mode, making playing both modes feel valuable.

The Release

After Swing City was released it became a modest success for several months until the school year ended. During the summer, many arcades had long lines to play the games and more orders for cabinets flooded Endeavor Studios.

Both game modes proved extremely popular and both received separate ports to the NES, changing both from 4 player games to 2 and simplifying many of the graphics and sounds. Still, these home releases proved popular enough to encourage Endeavor to make a sequel game: Swing City 2: World Tour.