SpikeOut: Digital Battle Online

SpikeOut: Digital Battle Online (sometimes referred to as Spikeout: Digital Battle Online) is a beat 'em up arcade title created by Sega and released in 1998.

Gameplay
Players take on the role of one of the four protagonists: Spike, Linda, Tenshin and White and proceed to travel through three huge stages and over thirty different fighting areas.

Combat is very much like Streets of Rage, but adapted for a 3D environment, with players being able to perform area clearing special attacks, fighting through hordes of enemies, picking up weapons and health drops and needing to defeat certain enemies to proceed, with a boss enemy blocking the exit to the next area.

Upon defeating a boss, the player has 30 seconds to break the gate, it's location indicated by a Crazy Taxi style arrow pointing them in the right direction. From there the player will have a little bit of health restored and can choose which area on the map to go to, allowing for shortcuts and differing battle routes.

Areas include streets, back allies, a shopping mall, a disco hall, garden maze and more.

Players also have a charge meter in the middle of the screen, allowing them to charge up for a stronger attack with several points upon the bar indicating different attack powers.

The title has a focus on co-operative play, with the original concept being each player having their very own arcade cabinet to play on. These cabinets would link together allowing for simultaneous play.

Trivia

 * This title is notable for being the first arcade cabinet game capable of communicating with other cabinets for synchronised play.
 * Spike has his toddler son, Spike Jr (who would later be the protagonist of SpikeOut: Battle Street after growing up) with him. Spike Jr starts by holding onto his father's back as he fights, but should Spike be hit hard, Spike Jr will fall off and proceed to follow Spike around and mimic his father's attacks alongside him. Spike Jr doesn't do any damage to the enemies however, and this appears to be an aesthetic addition. When Spike is KO'd, Spike Jr falls onto his back throwing a temper tantrum too.