What's your favorite Beat'em Ups!

[kedawa]

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.

[Yoshi]

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.

Good call on Kung Fu. Thinking back, that seems to be exactly what Bad Dudes was.

[Yoshi]

If that's what the genre became, then Transformers:Devastation is my favourite beat'em up.

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.

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.

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.

edit: Apparently Ninja Warriors is coming to Arcade Archives on PS4. That's awesome.

[A Robot Bit Me]

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.

[kedawa]

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.

[magnifiedplaid]

Batman Returns (SNES) was good fun.

[Bacon McShig]

I mean, all the games mentioned are obviously terrible. The Capcom D&D games had some meat, but, the gameplay is still super jank.

Beat-em-ups are good fun as a sort of button-smacking drum circle with a few good pals.

Outside of that context, not so much.

[alan_fatima]

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.

[IrishNinja]

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.

[Fe 26]

I really enjoy that japan still loves the main theme song