Scrolling Beat 'em ups / Fighting Games

[Compass]

Right, but arcade games are about flexing your skill, too, and if it's impossible to 1-credit a game it can sap your motivation to play it. Some of those mounted-gun shooters have the same problem.You just have to take a certain amount of damage, and you can't perfect your game, and because they're not as skill-driven, they're not much fun after a quarter.

Shmups on the other hand, have a stronger history of being balanced and I think the 1-hit life helps to nurture that kind of balance.

Indeed. I've never been skilled or patient enough to learn to one credit a shmup, but I know it's possible. And I respect that. On the other hand, if you're going to get hit and die at some point no matter how good you are, that feels more like a carny scam to me than a videogame.

Oh no, I agree whole-hearted. That's why for the most part, shmups have stayed the same, or closer to their source material overtime. Closer than any other genre has, and still maintained a solid fanbase.

Beat-Em-Ups had to evolve. Games like Devil May Cry are by products of the genre.

And I love DMC... which of course can be mastered.

[Edit]: But in thinking about it more, if Captain Commando, Final Fight, etc., hadn't been so cheap, I still wouldn't have really been feeling them. They're still just boring to me.

[Imhotep]

I play these games with one credit mostly and there's definitely enough room for flexing your skills and such. Of course memorization is a big part, but that's the same with shmups or any single player game for that matter.

[Frogacuda]

Beat-Em-Ups had to evolve. Games like Devil May Cry are by products of the genre.

Yeah, some of the modern incarnations are alright. I liked Sword of the Berserk as well. Viewtiful Joe was neat and almost great, and yet not.

I play these games with one credit mostly and there's definitely enough room for flexing your skills and such. Of course memorization is a big part, but that's the same with shmups or any single player game for that matter.

The better ones are definitely one-creditable. I'm not saying no one can 1cc Double Dragon or Ninja Gaiden. But there's a lot of dreck in between that people get all nostalgic over that really isn't worthy.

[ChaoofNee]

Ninja Baseball Batman = Win

[Frogacuda]

Just for the name alone.

[kedawa]

So stuff like Bad Dudes or Vigilante aren't considered sidescrolling beatemups?

[Changeling]

I'M BAD!

[kedawa]

HEY DUDES THANKS,
FOR RESCUING ME.
LET'S GO FOR A BURGER....
HA! HA! HA! HA!

My favorites were always fantasy-themed, like the Capcom D&D games, or Golden Axe (which I could 1-credit when I was a kid).

EDIT: That list is missing one very important game;
Guardians of the 'Hood

[Imhotep]

I haven't included Guardians of the Hood because you're always fighting one enemy at a time, and I didn't bother with those games.

Also, there's no universal agreement to what is a scrolling beat 'em up, so I've come up with a definition that made most sense to me (but of course is a compromise on the edges). Those games with a planar playing field use different strategies, so I excluded them.

[Frogacuda]

So stuff like Bad Dudes or Vigilante aren't considered sidescrolling beatemups?

I would think they are. My Hero, too.