The "Beat 'em ups" Thread. (or why is this genre dead?)

Very few of the old school beat-em ups hold up today, and it's mostly because they were so damn repetitive. Many of them were really short too, so there isn't a lot of incentive to play through them now that they're on home consoles and you don't have to worry about quarters. Unlimited continues rob them of a lot of their limited fun.

The genre is still alive and well in my opinion, but it's transformed into games like God of War, Ninja Gaiden, No More Heroes, and Devil May Cry. Some are far more reliant on weapons, and all of the modern ones seem to have power-ups/experience points, upgrades, etc. I guess to combat the simplicity of the old ones. A few of these are kind of cross-genre I guess, throwing in puzzles, exploration, and light RPG elements occasionally, but I sill consider them the heir to the brawler throne. Action fighting games first and foremost.
At least they're moving things forward, as opposed to something like those last few TMNT games.

Most of my old-school favorites are just a chore to play now, and it's a shame. Even the Simpsons arcade game! If it weren't for the license I couldn't imagine playing through it now. I still enjoy a few, but it's not often I play them. Got the Genesis Collection not so long ago, and I'm happy to say Streets of Rage 2 still holds up nicely. Same goes for River City Ransom but the GBA remake/upgrade is just way better.

I remember loving the hell out of the 2nd Double Dragon on the NES. Other than the flicker issues I wonder how it's held up.

I want to attribute the decline of this genre to the decline of arcades in general. I have fond memories of the X-Men game, TMNT, the Simpsons game, etc., but most of these games are pretty badly designed. I bought TMNT XBLA and it's such an awful unforgiving game designed to force you to put more quarters in. The console ports are usually from the same poisoned tree. You can only buy so many games that you can't even beat the first level of until you decide you do not need anymore. And yet I still want to buy the new XBLA Final Fight game, but Nexus probably hit the nail on the head. The technology of action games have evolved far beyond that of the Beat Em Up formula.

Holy shit I had blocked that completely out of my mind until you brought it up. Maybe I don't want to play it again, as those disappearing platforms were worse than any even Mega Man could muster. Truly awful. As I recall, to jump in that was A + B, and for something like that it was just... oh wow I hated that stuff.
I still can't get over how many times I used to die on the 3rd stage of the first NES Double Dragon. The little bridge with a gap in it near the beginning. It should have been really, really simple, but no. I still want to punch the idiot(s) who programmed that.
I never played God Hand, but a lot of the same people worked on Viewtiful Joe and MadWorld, both of which are pretty awesome modern brawlers. Repetition is still a big factor but I enjoyed them a lot. Viewtiful Joe 1/2 are difficult as hell at times, be warned.

My favorite beat em up? Capcom's...The Punisher! Nick Fury and The Punisher vs The Kingpin Of Crime...Awesome! Other faves are...Konami's X-Men, TMNT, The Simpsons Arcade, Final Fight, Double Dragon, Capcom's D and D games, Streets Of Rage 1-3, Double Dragon, Gauntlet, Captain America And The Avengers, and Data East's Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja!

What about the Koei/Tecmo...Fist Of The North Star Warriors for the 360/PS3? I would love to play this game. It is the first Koei Warrior game to be...M rated. Also...Sengoku Basara 3 is rumored to land on the Wii, later this year, another beat em up.

Nexus-7, Unlimited Continues are...Awesome! That is how I played the original Beat Em Ups in the arcade! Just add more quarters. The beauty of finishing a game in an...Hour, is I actually want to play it multiple times. I cannot stand most of these...3D alleged beat em ups. Where are the power ups? I was hoping the Watchmen game would be a great Beat Em Up, but the game has...Puzzles. Ugh! I cannot stand those. In these modern games you actually run out of enemies to fight, til after you solve something. The repetitive nature of the genre is one of the things I love about it. I will...EASILLY, take Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja over...Ninja Gaiden, and their ilk any day of the week!

duke fleed, have you played the new Final Fight Double Impact for Xbox 360. It is the Final... word... when it comes to Final Fight. It comes with Magic Sword as a bonus

Battle Toads was great even though it was extremely hard and impossible to play with a friend. I was also quite fond of Battletoads & Double Dragon. Other than new Mario games, I can't think of a more "Must Buy" game from the NES era.

Hans Gruber's EYE CONDITION! I would play the new...Final Fight, but it is a...Downloadable game, and I prefer...games on a disc.

ryoken, If...Final Fight, eventually arrives on disc, I will play it, but til that happens, I will happily play...Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja, on the Wii! I have a...360, and a Wii, and the 360 includes...Streets Of Rage 1-3, and Golden Axe 1-3 on the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection.

Would games like Castle Crashers or Alien Hominid count? Those certainly feel like their roots are deep in Double Dragon territory. They're low-budget, non-mainstream releases, but they're out there.

Castle Crashers definitely counts.

God Hand is all kinds of crazy.

My relationship with beat 'em ups has always been good. Sophomore year of high school I wrote a paper about my "right of passage" and made it a slightly dramatized account of the time my cousin and I first beat The Simpsons as kids. Got an A on it!

Like others have said, I think the fallout, as it were, lies with the death of arcades. Most of the fun was getting together with friends, picking your favorite character and just having fun. Knowing that quarters are on the line makes you try harder and if you die off early, the repetitive nature won't get to you. Then again, you could be playing X-Men which wasn't that hard and rewarded you by making you play again.

That said, on the home consoles, Streets of Rage 2 is the king.

I always felt one of the reasons the genre slipped away was that they never really got it right in 3D. Even the best 2D brawlers were simplistic in a time when that was okay, but nowadays we tend to want more complexity in our gaming fisticuffs (maybe as the result of Street Fighter II and all that followed) -- a game like the arcade TMNT or Final Fight or Double Dragon just doesn't feel worth the $60+ anymore.

I don't think God of War exactly counts, because a lot of the time Kratos isn't really interacting with the creatures he's cutting to shit, he's just swinging wildly and if they're in the way, they get hurt. Which, sure, is pretty much what TMNT arcade was, too, but like I said, I think we need more complex fighting these days to be satisfied. But every time a game tried 3D hand-to-hand brawling, there was always an awkwardness (I can't speak to God Hand, unfortunately).

Until recently. I found The Matrix: Path of Neo handled it quite well, and then the brawling elements of Batman: Arkham Asylum were perfect. Granted, that's only a portion of a diverse game, but if you made that combat engine the primary focus of a game, I think it could still be damn good.

I just wanted to say, I was all over the NES Double Dragon 2. It's a great game. And with enough persistance, even the hard as nails platforming at the end is do-able. I suppose it's one real flaw is once you could regularly execute the 'super knee' move it does absolutely destroy everything.

For me the key aspect to the genre is co-op. We'll still play Final Fight (PS2 Capcom Classics) and just swap the controller between 3 or 4 of us.

Besides God Hand one of the best Beat em Up successors was The Warriors. After all most of the 80's games like Double Dragon were inspired by the movie, and the game was really fun.
I can't believe how many hours I played co-op with my cousin in 2005-2006, with whom I used to play all those NES classics (Double Dragon Trilogy, Mighty Final Fight, River City Ransom, Bad Dudes) when we were kids, it was like going back in time.
I'm still waiting for the 360 to support the original Xbox game that I still have.

CAPCOM'S ALIEN VS PREDATOR is all kinds of fun.

SUPER DOUBLE DRAGON on SUPER NES was loads of fun. The multiple kick owned i.e. you grab the baddie and multiple kick his face. Just fab.

IMHO: STREETS OF RAGE could've been way better. The premise was there - but I never liked the gameplay.

Yeah, Warriors was the shit. I wouldn't consider GOW to be a direct descendant of the brawler genre, but there's a funny thing I noticed when playing GOW the 1st: the way the enemies swarm you, with a slightly hunched pose, is oddly reminiscent of the enemies' stance in Golden Axe (I don't know if that makes any sense...can't find the right screenshots to illustrate my point)

I'm surprised the Yakuza series haven't been mentioned here yet. They're basically Streets Of Rage + adventure + roleplay elements.

I was big on 'Battle Toads' and 'Battle Toads and Double Dragon.' Yeah they were as hard as they come, but they were a ton of fun.

Arcade era beat-em ups were a social experience for me. Whether it was playing Golden Axe with my brother or that X-Men game during highschool lunch hours with my friends. It's that kind of good hearted social interactivity I wish you could find on x-box live, but for the most part can't. Also, sadly there aren't many co-op next gen beat-em up style games (excluding Castle Crashers of course). Borderlands is the only recent instance where I've been able to wrangle some friends over to our basement for system link co-op on a Saturday night, with Left 4 Dead thrown in for good measure.

If a developer would make a xbox live/psn networked (and system link capable) game I'd be all over it in a heartbeat. The last major beat em up style game I can remember playing through is that Two Towers EA game.

Double Dragon was the key reason I begged and pleaded for a Sega Master System way back when.

I'm racking my brain trying to remember the name of that side scrolling cop beat-em up where you started off as patrol cops and got a promotion into robocop-esque mech suits. The goofy homo-erotic expression of glee as the two cops suited up made us laugh so much the first time we saw that cutscene.

Random thoughts before posting:

- Knights of the Round (which I just played last night) features a character named Skywalker who seriously looks like Cocknocker from the Jay and Silent Bob movie.
- The closet for our bathtowels and linens makes that bass/drum sound from Golden Axe title screen when we close it.

I wouldn't count Alien Hominid personally, that was more a shooter like Metal Slug. Castle Crashers definitely counts though. I don't know how I didn't think of that when pondering modern beat-em-ups. Probably the best example, even with the RPG elements. Kind of a modern River City Ransom.

Battletoads was a victim of RARE being too ambitious. If they had stuck to the format of the first stage(with variety, of course) it would be an out and out classic of the genre instead of a game mostly remembered for being nearly impossible(Justin beat it!), doing great things with the NES hardware, and having amazing pause music.

I never played Battletoads and Double Dragon. I assume it was more straightforward?

Nexus-7, Double Dragon was...Awesome!

Another one I have really fond memories of is the Batman Returns game on the SNES. Still a bit repetitive, but they mixed it up nicely and the recreations of the Elfman music was fantastic for it's time.

I'm still a HUGE fan of Kung Fu on the NES. It's really simplistic but a ton of fun. Might be my favorite old-school beat-em-up. I never played it on other systems but the NES version is exceptional. I wish it was on the Wii VC but I figure there are rights issues holding it up like Goldeneye, because Irem made the original(Kung Fu Master?) but Nintendo made the NES game.
One that HASN'T held up well is Kung Fu's unofficial sequel Vigilante. I dumped a ton of quarters into that one back in the day, but playing it recently it just wasn't very good or responsive, and the bosses power bars were insanely high(a problem with a lot of these games. gotta have those quarters!). I was playing the Turbografx version though, so maybe that was a sloppy port or something.
Haha yeah I kind of figured you liked it. I was referring to the DD with Battletoads game though, I should have put quotation marks around it.

E-SWAT? I think it had a different name in other countries, but it was definitely E-SWAT.

And Hard Puncher . . . I know it was a boxing game as opposed to a beat 'em up, but that game rocked BALLS!

mongycore, E-Swat, is available on...Sega's Ultimate Genesis Collection! The game should be about...$15, or so, as it did come out last year on the 360 and PS3.

haha, hell yeah it was E-Swat thanks. I knew I remember playing it recently, forgot it was on the Sega collection. Good times.

I'm still waiting for the definitive bar brawl type game, where everything is interactive and physics and animation are key. It would be a fantastic idea for a party game with many players etc in a brawl.

Something like the Warriors game on the PS2 and x-box (why is it not backwards compatible on the 360?). Like that brawl option that has your gang vs another gang while a band plays (who can get drawn into the brawl if you go on stage etc).

Wow I love that idea. Hitting people with bottles, breaking chairs over people's backs, etc. I'm imagining 32 player online with this(with AI guys just to help populate the bar) and salivating.

Or 4 players on one system(for party fun!). The brawl begins with the 4 people at your table calmly standing up... then shit gets real... ludicrous.

Definitely goes on my list of one of the all time great arcade games. The SNES version is such shit.

So, how do people feel about Die Hard Arcade/the Dynamite Cop series?

Personally, the former is one of my childhood greats. I can recall one of the best birthday parties I ever attended where, somehow, someone had racked up 99-odd lives for that thing and we made absolute certain that someone at the party was attending that game at all times, allowing nobody else to play. It was 3Dish and fun as hell.

Mr Coombs, Die Hard Arcade is worthy of a...Yippee Ki YA M.....F....r! To me though, Nothing comes close to the greatness of...Capcom's The Punisher! Marvel's best video game adaption...EVER! It also, never arrived on video game systems.

OH damn, I definitely remember playing the Die Hard Arcade game and having a blast. I'll also echo the love for Capcom's Alien vs. Predator arcade game and Castle Crashers (which I still need to play through and beat!).

The X-Men arcade game (I AM MAGNETO... MASTER OF MAGNET! MWA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA) was also pretty epic, as was Captain America and the Avengers ("YOUUU... CANNOT. BEAT ME.... HAHAHOHO HAAAAA" -Red Skull).

Of course, I also have to mention the Simpsons beat 'em up arcade game which was only available in the movie theater of the small town that I lived in.

Streets of Rage 2 had excellent music.

Straight-up goofy - but it had a quirky-ass charm and was a lot of fun to play.

I saw Die Hard Arcade at a flea market for 30 bucks. I almost bought that and a Saturn but I didn't really fell like pissing 80 bucks away on a beat-em-up. Maybe I'll pop in Die Hard Trilogy and cruise around an insanely shitty New York.

X-MEN WELCOME TO-DIE!

Oh motherfucker, it's my most wanted thing to come to Live and PSN(disks even?), and it will probably never happen (prove me wrong Capcom) due to who owns the rights (Atari has the game rights now I think) etc.

And that, is a travesty because the amount of ass those 2 D&D arcade games kicked, was immense.

The thing I love most about Capcom beat'em ups is the animation, and that delicious art style.

Take Hauzer from Red Earth:



That's what i'm talking about.

Is Guardian Heroes the sequel to Gunstar Heroes? I saw "Treasure" on the box. Such an amazing company, but Gunstar was certainly not a beat-em-up, it was an on-foot shooter ala Contra and Metal Slug, just amazing with GREAT effects for it's time.

For all I know, Guardian was a fighter.

Completely different games (Guardian is basically what I was hoping a next gen Golden Axe would be, and look how that shitheap turned out), although the final boss from Gunstar shows up at one point, which was fucking awesome.

In recent years I had gotten rid of a lot of the valuable old school games I had, but Guardian Heroes was one of them I had gotten rid of WAY too long ago that I used to regret. I still don't know what I was thinking at the time, and I can't even remember why I had traded it in in the first place. I wouldn't think twice about snapping up a port of that one. It was a blast, especially with friends.

I used to really enjoy old school fighting games. A lot of them were an awful lot of fun, some better than others though. Super Double Dragon turned out a lot better than I had expected back then and I had plenty of fun with that one with a buddy of mine, but one of the best is, and will always be, Streets of Rage 2. All the pieces with that one just sort of clicked. It was accessible as all heck too. Hell, I think I even used to play it with my sister. It was a long ass game too, for the type, and it got played through from start to finish many, many times. It's still fun to play too. I need to get that Genesis collection for the PS3 or 360...

Hate to be the asshole to go obscure, but anyone remember Jaleco's beat em ups for the SNES? Rival Turf or The Peace Keepers? Kinda hard to forget a game that had the balls to name a guy Prokop, or have the girl's special move be a Run Lola Run scream that clears a room.

Actually, never played Tuff E Nuff. I'd been burned by Street Fighter rip offs one too many by that point. Was I missing that much?

kinda retarded for this thread, gang

y'all my doggs

Captain America and the Avengers was mentioned earlier. I adored this game, and back when I was a young lad, it introduced me to the Marvel characters in the way only a poor Japaneese to English translation could. Hawkeye was typically my Avenger of choice.

"I... can't... move! OK, Go!"

And the cameos? Sub-mariner! Wonderman (I thought Cap was calling him 'Mendoza')! Wasp!

Attention Joss Whedon! Adapt this into a two-hour fever dream.