Couldn't find if there was a thread on this already, so... These are my favs right now what's yours?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzZDtMkars4
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Couldn't find if there was a thread on this already, so... These are my favs right now what's yours?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzZDtMkars4
SoR and most of Capcom's (FF, D&D, etc).
My personal favourites would have to be Golden Axe, Bad Dudes, and SoR 1 and 2.
I also got a surprising amount of fun out of a Beats of Rage mod called Double Dragon Extreme and the fan made Golden Axe Myth.
There are even a few which are admittedly crappy that I still really enjoyed, like Pit Fighter and DJ Boy.
Bulletstorm
I know it sounds hipstery but I'd play Battle Circuit before I would any of the other CPS2 best em ups.
Streets of Rage 2 is my favorite. I loved the hell out of the Double Dragon Neon demo. So much so that I ended up purchasing it, but I have yet to play the full game. If it's any better than it's demo, it would probably dethrone SoR2 for me.
Final Fight and Streets of Rage 2 are the kings. I'm also fond of AvP and the Konami TMNT games.
Urban Champion.
If time actually allowed I thought about blogging through the SNES/SFam beat me up library since it was the glut period for the genre. Had fun with Iron Commando recently. The sprites are huge and reliance on weapons reminds me of Growl.
I love all the SoR games, but for the life of me I don't get why 2 is the best. They took everything that made 2 great and added more in 3... other than the music.
2 was a watershed moment. By the time 3 came out, there was more competition, also people were starting to get hyped for polygons. Plus, the soundtrack for 3 was experimental compared to 2, which was a grab bag of theft from random house musicians. Not that I mind though.
Arcade Capcom was the most consistently great at this genre, but the best game might be Denjin Makai II. Memorable settings and enemy designs, beefy movelists, branching paths, tough with a good difficulty curve, even a fun and flexible combo system to mess with.
I have a soft spot for the Dynamite Deka series, in spite of the clunk. It's not even the zaniness that I like, necessarily (the original's tone is probably my favorite), but all the 3D fighting game throws and the dramatic QTE stuff and the guns.
I like the AvP arcade game.
The capcom trinity (Mystara, AvP, Battle Circuit)
Sengoku III
Double Dragon Advance.
River City Ransom!
Good call on DD Advance!
You know what's not the best? Battletoads. Fuck that game. (I was just playing it)
mmm.. Streets of Rage 2 is probably my fav though I suppose the Streets of Rage Remake on pc is best. I have a huge soft spot for the medieval/fantasy Capcom stuff (Knights of the Round, King of Dragons, D&D).
I wish that Sega would do what they did for sonic and officially pick up that game and release it in HD for steam, ps4 and/or xbone.Quote:
Originally Posted by raystorm
Advance Guardian Heroes is the favorite of favorites.
Surely one of the most under-rated games of its era as well. Every criticism I've read or heard about it dwelled on the fact that it didn't live up to expectations for an imaginary Saturn sequel. As its own game it is a fantastically fun beat-em-up, and IMO, one of the best. I'd rather play it over the first Guardian Heroes.
Spider-Man (Sega, Arcade) is one of my all-time favorites. That Venom sprite ended up in my drawings for a long time after that.
Two Crude Dudes (Data East, Arcade) had that great Escape from New York grimy graffiti aesthetic, it was super awesome to throw cars and soda machines around.
Captain America and the Avengers (Data East, Arcade) best vocal samples in a videogame, ever.
I'd really like to play Taito's "Warrior Blade" sometime, it's a Rastan sequel on the two screen Darius hardware.
There's one I can't remember the name of, it was kind of a boss rush arcade game with crazy segmented bosses and really odd scantily clad main characters, circa 1993. At least one of the bosses was from a shooter. Big sprites, colorful, 3 playable characters.
Warrior Blade is really simplistic. It's worth playing through just to see all of the artwork, but the gameplay isn't very compelling.
Capcom released a couple of medieval beatemups where you play as a dude on horseback. They weren't bad at all.
playing lots of different beat ups, really makes me appreciate the more technical ones. Some of them can't stand on their own when you remove the token feeding.
If you're emulating, bumping up the difficulty dipswitch settings and giving yourself a self-enforced quarter limit makes them a ton more fun.
Currently digging into Battle Circuit, The Punisher, and Mutation Nation via hacked Xbox.
For the mindless quarter munchers like The Simpsons and TMNT, I just set the controls up so that I can control all four characters at once. Shoulder buttons do different directions or jump for each player so I can fan out when necessary.
The Konami ones are all junk. Yes, your favorite childhood pizzaplace one. Yes, that one whose PCB you bought, too. Yes, especially that one you co-op'd with your friend, sibling, parent, or guardian over summer vacation.
And you know what? You knew it was junk all along.
You Bitch
These games were fully designed to take money and not much else. We all understand that at this point, yes?
Isn't that every commercial video game?
There are a few exceptions. The latter-day CPS2 games (e.g., AvP, Battle Circuit) are honest Video Games.
Isn't like every fucking thing on this earth Comercialized to take my money?
So you draw an arbitrary line based on what you personally like and dislike?Quote:
Originally Posted by A Robot Bit Me
I point to an absolute line where it already lies.
Battle Circuit has legible rules. For example, enemies don't just come out of hitstun whenever they feel like it as they do in Konam-'em-ups.
For the Konami games, if it's a good experience to play through them with friends, that makes it worthwhile. I'm paying my quarters to see cool bosses and new levels. If the game does a good job at being a spectacle, I'm getting my money's worth.
Second playthrough is completely dependent on if anything in the game is related to skill. If it's fun to get good, that's going to be a better experience.
PS Monster Maulers is the best Konami beat em up.
Beat-em-ups were my absolute favorite genre growing up, and to my frustration really displayed the gulf in power between the home consoles and arcade hardware. The 16-bit era somewhat rectified that.
While it was vastly improved upon, the arcade Final Fight will forever hold a special place in my heart. After a trip to the movies with the family to watch Home Alone, I wondered into a neighboring pizza restaurant and came across a Final Fight cabinet. I was instantly mesmerized by the huge, detailed sprites, and beautiful backgrounds, especially after getting used to the slow-down and flickering sprites of the NES. I wanted to convince the clerk into letting me take the cabinet home with me right then and there. As for my favorite, it would probably be SOR2 followed by AVP.
One thing that beat-em-ups have taught me is that apparently New York is home to a vast assortment of gangs, crime syndicates, international terrorist organizations, rogue ninja clans, and monster hordes. About 50~75% of beat-em-ups took place in New York, or an ersatz New York. I don't know why anyone would ever want to live there and put up with all of that.
For the sweet background music.
Don't forget the trash barrel turkey legs.
Aliens (arcade)
Astro Boy: Omega Factor
Castle Crashers
The Simpsons (arcade)
I like the Konami greats from the '90s.
Simpsons is actually not that good, gameplay wise. It's weird because everything else is pretty strong in it. There are a lot of homages to other beatemups. And they did a good job remaking the world of the first few seasons. But damn if the actual fighting isn't repetitive.
Eat my shorts.
The combo attacks are a lot of fun!
Two and nope.Quote:
Originally Posted by A Robot Bit Me
It's part of that "dark urban decay" cultural moment in the late 80s-early 90s that also gave us great movies like Tango and Cash, Predator 2, The Last Boy Scout, the Lethal Weapon films, Beverly Hills Cop 1 and 2, Robocop, and so many more great action movies. It also gave us terrible things like "three strikes" laws, the federal Armed Career Criminal Act, and mandatory minimum sentencing laws, but that's an issue for another thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by DirtySouth
I think we had a thread on that.
Movies and events that inspired beatemups.
The Warriors is one.
Streets of Rage Remake on PC is great. It adds some stuff that got cut from the original series, such as SoR3's missing motorcycle battle. Too bad Sega didn't do an official port of it to consoles as "Streets of Rage Special". For official ones, I'd say SoR 2 & BK3 are tied. I say Bare Knuckle 3 instead of SoR3 because the US version is censored. For BK3, just be sure to set the difficulty 1 level higher than you would on SoR3 (where USA Normal = the Japanese Hard mode).
Capcom's Alien Vs. Predator has to be their best. Overall, Final Fight is when this genre got good. However, its sequels needed to be arcade first rather than held back by the SNES's limits. FF2 & 3 on SNES are too easy. Imagine FF2 as a three player arcade cabinet with 8 enemies on screen at once and better AI. Missed opportunity. Golden Axe II & III on Genesis are actually harder than the arcade GA1.
Konami's best IMO would be Simpsons and Violent Storm. They made up for the travesty that was Crime Fighters. I would say Aliens as well but I consider it a run-n-gun.
Double Dragon 2 on the PC Engine CD is good. While it takes an expected graphical hit and has no enemy KO voices, the game speed is generally faster and lacks the arcade's slowdowns.
Another good one from Sega is Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder. That this didn't get ported to Saturn is a grave crime.
Gotcha. Certainly makes sense. I guess New York is just a natural setting to portray that aesthetic.Quote:
Originally Posted by sleeve
New York at that time yes.
From around 75-89 it was a shithole.
Then sometime in the 1990's Mike Haggar was elected.
I mean, all the games mentioned are obviously terrible. The Capcom D&D games had some meat, but, the gameplay is still super jank.
Aren't melee-combat action games the new beat-em-up? The Ninja Gaiden's and Nioh's and DMC's and GodoW's and w/e? Even those dumbass dynasty style games where you do one button press and knock back like 20 mindless drones?
Or is the signature element here the faux-3D plane and sprite-based graphics?
:wtf: That seems akin to saying every game on 2600 is super jank.Quote:
Originally Posted by FuryFox
It's not so much the new as the evolved. You could make a case that Double Dragon turned into Bayonetta and that Contra turned into Vanquish. They're unique genres, because enough changed to necessitate that, but the DNA is there. It's not quite so clean in the Bayonetta case though, because Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden had to go somewhere too. Bayonetta is arguably a mix of both classic genres.Quote:
Aren't melee-combat action games the new beat-em-up? The Ninja Gaiden's and Nioh's and DMC's and GodoW's and w/e? Even those dumbass dynasty style games where you do one button press and knock back like 20 mindless drones?
Or is the signature element here the faux-3D plane and sprite-based graphics?
edit: Let's hope that Musou garbage just goes extinct before it pollutes any future genre.
I really liked that Data East arcade game Bad Dudes. I think you only had like 4 moves plus a few odd weapons you could pick up. I feel like it's more in line with Shinobi and Rolling Thunder, or an evolution of Kung-Fu than a classic BMU.
If that's what the genre became, then Transformers:Devastation is my favourite beat'em up.
I actually prefer the single-plane beat'em ups from the 16-bit days. Bad Dudes and Ninja Warriors Again are right up there with SoR2 and Golden Axe for me.
Good call on Kung Fu. Thinking back, that seems to be exactly what Bad Dudes was.Quote:
Originally Posted by FuryFox
In a way, it's like Aliens. It has a lot of beat 'em up in it but has too much ranged combat to be cleanly included in the genre.Quote:
Originally Posted by kedawa
I don't think I have played a Ninja Warriors game, but I would love to find a super wide arcade cabinet running it someday. It's too bad it's not likely to get the DariusBurst treatment. I definitely fed my fair share of quarters into Bad Dudes though.Quote:
I actually prefer the single-plane beat'em ups from the 16-bit days. Bad Dudes and Ninja Warriors Again are right up there with SoR2 and Golden Axe for me.
edit: Apparently Ninja Warriors is coming to Arcade Archives on PS4. That's awesome.
It's tempting to locate Musou in the 2D Beat 'em Up genealogy, but in 2D Beat 'em Ups, the enemies actually punch back. This is a crucial distinction.
Musou is more of a sophisticated ROM hack of a lawn-mowing sim.
I've only played coin-op Ninja Warriors a dozen or so times, but I've played it quite a bit via MAME whenever I had access to an ultra-wide display(it's letter-boxed even on a 21:9 monitor, but it looks perfect on some digital billboards). It's okay, but the gameplay is very simple.
Ninja Warriors for SNES is a totally different game and much more of a beat'em up with combos and grappling.
Bad dudes has simple two-button controls, but it actually has quite a few attacks that vary based on enemy proximity and hit state. There are a few different jump kicks, a spin kick, and a charge punch, and you can pick up knives and 'numb-chucks'. I mostly played the Amiga version which has one-button controls and lets you release the charge punch while moving, but its pretty close to the arcade. The NES game didn't seem that good from what little I played of it.
I liked Vigilante, too, but I don't think it's great. At least not the SMS version.
Batman Returns (SNES) was good fun.
Beat-em-ups are good fun as a sort of button-smacking drum circle with a few good pals.Quote:
Originally Posted by FuryFox
Outside of that context, not so much.
For me, character action games hit the same notes as a good beat 'em up. First and foremost, a good beat 'em up/character action game asks you to constantly temper your aggression with the threat of dangerous enemies, but gives you the ability to shred most non-boss enemies (or a boss that constantly summons backup) if you've dealt with the rowdy mob efficiently and bought yourself a few precious seconds. Final Fight's large sprites/close camera and large amounts of enemies on screen was great for the first part, but the punchpunchpunch turn punch turn repeat was a lot less satisfying that FF3's punchpunchpunch dash punchpunchpunch QCF+punch type combos. Too bad FF3 had low enemy count/relatively tame enemies.
The cherries on top are timing based mechanics and limited duration periods of increased power. Sometimes that's devil trigger or picking up a limited durability weapon (in the games where that actually feels like an upgrade, a noticeable failing of many of the games in the beat 'em up genre), or charging up a full bar for specials/using specials without losing health, etc.
Oh, and having a diverse enough set of effective moves that you'll play stylishly just because it's fun to do so is a good trait to have, too. Double Dragon Advance is great for that. It was great for object interaction, too. Punching knives out of the air, using the low kick to roll a barrel into enemies, conveyor belts, picking up dropped dynamite or just knocking enemies next to it, etc. I only wish it had special moves/increased damage when you're jumping off a barrel/platform or performing a wall jump.
God I love DDA.
Has anyone here not played DDA?
You should play DDA.
i still mourn the lack of a good Alien vs Predator port on Saturn, but while we're on that system: Guardian Heroes is still one of the finest beat-em-ups ever made.
I really enjoy that japan still loves the main theme song
I finally played Ninja Warriors SNES via hacking the Classic, and yeah that game is legit. Avoids the cardinal beat-em-up sin of enemies all becoming huge damage sponges, and the grappling finishers are soooo satisfying.
yeah, ninja warriors is like my most beat up SNES cart but fuck that game's fun, i hear the arcade one's not nearly as good somehow
It's a total remake, yeah.
The arcade game was just a 3-screen novelty.
I like the arcade game but it's much more on the Spartan X end of things. Very simplistic. Even seeing it emulated at 3 screens width is really cool!
I wouldn't mind seeing a new Ninja Warriors with a wide screen cab for arcades, just with a combat system like the one in the SNES game.Quote:
Originally Posted by kedawa
Vigilante does have a speed-kill trick for the first boss that works on arcade & TG-16. Knock him down, get in close, then start tapping punch+kick TOGETHER rapidly while crouching in front of him. Spam both buttons like this for several seconds. You'll hear a jackhammering noise then the boss will die in seconds. On the TG-16 version, you can't be carrying nunchucks for this to work. Tried the SMS version & it's terrible- also, the first boss speed-kill trick won't work at all.
Played it, loved it. Why couldn't Double Dragon IV have been like this?Quote:
Originally Posted by alan_fatima
I've never understood the love for Final Fight. The characters walk like retards who just took a shit in their pants. And the music is hooooorible.
Anywho, Streets of Rage 2 and Golden Axe 2 are probably my favs, but I enjoy a ton of others as well.
I'm one of the few fans of SMS Vigilante. I replayed it a year ago when I got my Power Base Mini FM. It doesn't play like the other versions, and you can't really play it like a beat 'em up. It's all about timing the attacks. There's a rhythm to it.
Even the CD version?Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurora
Unfortunately, all I hear is either it trying too hard to be REAL ROCKIN' 4 REALZ, or porn music :( Though, there's a few good tunes bits sprinkled within.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater
I love a lot of Capcom music/games from that era, I just really dislike almost everything about the first Final Fight.
Fite meQuote:
Originally Posted by Aurora
You can't fight nostalgia and expect to win.
i wish a boxed copy of Fight Fight on Sega CD wasn't so pricey
Isn't Sega CD the worst way to play it anything?
incorrect.
(but these days I don’t know why you would play an arcade port instead of emulation).
Special cases where the port was significantly changed for the better notwithstanding e.g. nes contra, etc.
I think Final Fight CD is different enough from the arcade game although the hit timing/animation still bothers me for feeling a bit off. I like playing various versions of games, though. Even though better versions exist, I love playing the ultra-pixelly Mega CD port of Night Striker. It has a certain charm to it.
There's something to seeing how different console teams interpreted their ports. There's often a disconnect between graphic fidelity and gameplay fidelity for sure, sometimes the better graphic'd ports completely whiff the gameplay.
SNES ports tend to come off as really sluggish, even when they look better.
yeah, missing bits (hagar's suplex, i wanna say) aside, i thought the CD version was tons better than the SNES one at least
and yeah, we all have MAME but i dig ports. like, i still play & defend the genesis one of Punisher, even though that's apparently out of style
I like the SegaCD port, it is a bit washed out but the game feels good.
I like kicking it with the Sega CD version, the arcade one isn't well suited for couch play.
Oh come on, the game just looks like it was made by retarded monkeys:Quote:
Originally Posted by GohanX
http://rs238.pbsrc.com/albums/ff172/...ight1.gif~c200
Nah, it was the top of the mountain before Street Fighter II. Those synth guitars on the soundtrack are rad as hell.
It's weird in a specific way, which I'll take over generic in a general way every time.
It's not as good as Golden Axe.
They were contemporary. I do tend to agree.
Nothing beats Revenge of Death Adder.
Nothing beats punting those little shit gnomes.
i wanna agree here, but i tend to think Alien Storm > Golden AxeQuote:
Originally Posted by kedawa
i will never get over us not getting a Saturn port of that oneQuote:
Originally Posted by YellerDog
I'm sure whatever resources went in to that really bad nice looking fighting game.
No Final Fight is amazing this is bullshit.
The Sega CD version is really good. I love playing games on old add-on tech, they're my favorite. FDS > TGCD > Sega CD but it's still awesome.
The intro movie has a lot added to it, and the scene at the gym shows Cody punching the mirror the camera is aimed at and it blew my mind to realize that was supposed to be a mirror shot at all.
The only downside to the Sega CD version is the limited color palette and that the sprites don't line up in every frame during Haggar's grapple moves or when swinging a weapon. Still dope as fuck.
The most fun things in FF for me are doing both jump attacks in the same jump and doing Haggar's piledriver. Other than that, the fighting feels pretty basic.
Shout outs for River City Ransom and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, two great tastes that taste great together. I know the progression in SP gets a lot of grief, but I didn't mind it at all. I enjoy having shops to go to in these games, they add a lot of character. It's a shame SP is in Licensed Product Hell now.
Arcade Ninja Gaiden gets overlooked a lot, once you get the hang of the catapult grappling the game turns in to something weird and amazing.
Double Dragon Advance shit all over other game in the genre.
I've actually been having a lot of fun playing that free FF XV beatemup. It's no SoR2, but it's a nice freebie.
:link:Quote:
Originally Posted by kingoffighters
Especially in Golden Axe 2, where they're not just little shits anymore. More like dirty little bastards. After they hit you with magic spells or knock you off your ride & steal it, you REALLY wanna kill 'em.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fe 26
I did that post the oldest thing you bought from Amazon. It was Double Dragon Advance back in 2005.
Feels good.
Troll/Troll 2 double pack dvd in 2005. Suck it.
i apparently bought the first 2 trades of Preacher in february of '99
no ragrets
Cowboy Bebop: Session 3 in May 2000.
I'm not sure if this game fits everybody's definition of a traditional beat 'em up, but I just played Asura's Wrath on the Xbox 360 and thought it was immensely enjoyable. Very underrated game, IMO.
AVP Arcade, bitches. Beneath the awesome artwork and theme lies a fairly deep combat system, especially if you're playing as Linn. I can play that game over and over.
Playing as Linn in that game is a joy. There's so much you can do.