Beat 'Em Ups

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:19 am

I've never been that into fighting games -- except for the occasional Super Smash Bros. Melee match or button mashing through a few rounds of Marvel Vs. Capcom -- but I've always had a soft spot for their side-scrolling cousins, the beat 'em ups.

My latest gaming obsession is Tenchi Wo Kurau II. I stumbled upon some website with a guy's opinions of a few dozen Saturn games, and found he thought this game, which I'd never heard of, to be the best beat 'em up he'd played. I downloaded the MAME rom, and I'm completely and utterly smitten. Especially with the occassional decaptitations or the slicing enemies in half. I've been focusing on the middle character, the blue guy with the short sword, although I should experiment with the rest of the characters. The game has shot up to the very top of my to get list, I'll be watching eBay for a deal on a copy.

Every few weeks, one of my friends comes over and we play ourselves some Streets of Rage off my 6 Pak Genesis cart. We've beaten the game twice. The first time, it was some super weird glitch, we were somewhere in the middle of the last level, the screen flashed, and the credits started to roll. Needless to say, this didn't cut it in our book. The second time, we got to the syndicate boss, who undoubtedly is named something silly like Mr. Big, and he offered us positions as bodyguards if we turned on each other. I was anxious and pushed A too quickly, accepting his offer and having to kill my buddy. And then he sent me back to the factory level. Fucker.

I've also always loved The Simpsons beat 'em up. And Sunset Riders, which is really more of a borderliner than a beat 'em up, but it feels like it's in the same vein as all those early nineties Konami bemups. Viewtiful Joe was alright, but it was a little too much like a platformer for me.

Any other fans of the genre?

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:51 am

I'm a huge fan. Go play Die Hard Arcade for Arcade or Saturn. It will make you re-realize the genre.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:58 am

Good ole Die Hard Arcade..nice Bruce Willis box art for the Jap version. I've better memories at the arcade with it, though. I finally found out that the other blonde person was actually a chick in the game.

Right now I'm not playing any beat em ups, though I'm incredibly interested in PuLiRuLa for the Saturn. Sounds amazing.

The last new beat em up I played was Advance Guardian Heroes...bit of a disappointment, but I'll be damned if it didn't have some awesome music and a unique story. Too short, though

I'm itchin for a copy of Sonic Blast Man 2 for the SNES, the first one still rocks my world.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:18 am

Yeah, Alpha, the game you speak of was of course released in the US as Warriors of Fate, and I loved the crap out of that game in the arcade. It is definitely one of Capcom's better moments and worlds better than Final Fighter (it has everything FF has and a lot more!) It is also significantly better than some of their other side scrollers like Captain Commando and Cadilacs and Dinosaurs. I still however feel their very best beat 'em up is Alien vs. preditor, but of course, because of licensing issues, you'll never be able to play this game outside of mame.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:20 am

alpha5099 wrote:I've also always loved The Simpsons beat 'em up. And Sunset Riders, which is really more of a borderliner than a beat 'em up, but it feels like it's in the same vein as all those early nineties Konami bemups.

Eh? Sunset Riders is all platforming, no fighting. More like an old west Contra.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:21 am

HAHAH. I did the very same thing when I first played Streets of Rage.

Except we were playing the JAPANESE version (Back when it was a new game

), and we had no idea of what the heck we were supposed to do. Then I said "Well, each one choose a different thing, at least one will be correct"

Then we were stuck. And I just remembered Double Dragon, when you had to fight against your teammate in the end too. So we did that.

I won

And I fell in the hole too

The best beat'em ups around IMO are the Streets of Rage trilogy, Guardian Heroes on Saturn, and both "Dynamite Deka" games.

The first one is exactly Die Hard Arcade, which indeed is awesome, if too fucking cheap sometimes ( Can anyone 1cc that thing? The last boss is just plain silly sometimes), and the 2nd one is called "Dynamite Cop", it's available on arcade and Dreamcast.. it's Die Hard Arcade 3 times better

dementia · Post by **dementia** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:50 am

I second the SOR trilogy, with the peak being Streets of Rage 2.

FatalError · Post by **FatalError** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:04 am

I'm a fan of the genre myself. Especially Dynamite Deka 2. It's stupid and repetative, but dammit, it's fun.

Streets of Rage 1 and 2 (and Bare Knuckle 3) are awesome as well.
Guardian Heroes is awesome as well.

PuLiRuLa is... bizzare. Level 3 can only be seen to be believed.

MadSteelDarkness · Post by **MadSteelDarkness** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:26 am

I think Capcom beat-em-ups are my faves overall. Both Dungeons & Dragons games are top notch, and Powered Gear:SVAE is metric tons of fun.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:49 am

Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows Over Mystara - Incredibly difficult and fun game. Lots of hidden secret items. Lots of different characters to play as.

TMNT - always loved this game. Easy to pickup, insane to 1cc.

There's a few more I can't remember the names of. My advancemenu RC file suddenly went blank and I lost my collection of "favorites". My last backup was october

Bydobasher · Post by **Bydobasher** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:29 am

My favourite beat 'em up has always been Golden Axe, but there are many others I like as well.

First of all, Death Adder's Revenge is good stuff, although I do like the original Golden Axe much better. Capcom deserves a mention certainly; Final Fight and Alien vs. Predator are both excellent. I've always liked Double Dragon too, in the arcade, on NES and on SNES. Both TMNT arcade games are very fun, and the Streets of Rage series has it's moments. I like Sengoku 3 on the NeoGeo. There is a crazy Battletoads PCB that does away with most of the platforming elements of the NES games and focuses on over-the-top moves and animations -- it's worth a play in MAME. Finally, I think the wackiest beat 'em up I've encountered is Irem's Ninja Baseball Batman -- an awesome game that is definitely worth a playthru or three.

Reiki · Post by **Reiki** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:06 am

I'm all about Little Fighter 2.

And Battle Circuit.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:10 am

I love beat 'em ups. Capcom makes some awesome beat 'em ups. Final Fight, King of Dragons, Knights of the Round, Aliens vs. Predator, The Punisher (which actually got a home port and a pretty good one too), and more.

I also like Konami's X-Men arcade game. That game is just plain awesome. The Simpsons and Ninja Turtles arcade games rock too.

I like TMNTIV SNES better than the arcade. It's missing the four player mode, but the game is better balanced. All of the moves from the arcade are intact and there are some new stages too.

I love Golden Axe and it's Genesis port. The arcade sequel rocks too. Tyris Flare rocks!

I also like the Streets of Rage series. The first two on Genesis are excellent and the GG port of 2 is great too.

One of my favorite beat 'em ups (and probably my favorite on the GBA) is Double Dragon Advance. It keeps every thing that is good about the series while having moves from other DD games that weren't in the original. It has some new and familiar enemies too.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:30 am

Best beat'em up EVER: River City Ransom. Sorry, no other one comes even close.

2nd place: Streets of Rage 2 (also special award for best music on megadrive)

llaoyllakcuf · Post by **llaoyllakcuf** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:26 am

I too, really enjoy this type of game.

Besides the classic Final Fight, these are some other
arcade brawlers that I dig:

- Spider-Man
- Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (great soundtrack)
- X-MEN
- Metamorphic Force (FANTASTIC soundtrack)
- TMNT & its sequel
- Violent Storm
- Golden Axe

PlasmaDancer · Post by **PlasmaDancer** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:57 pm

Everyone's already mentioned TMNT, but I was also a fan of Captain Commando. It's been such a long time since I played it, but I think my main character was CC himself (once I worked out his flamethrower attack). Oh, and occasionally Mack the Knife, for the simple reason that he looked so great

I wonder how easy it is to find the SNES/PSone version...

landshark wrote:TMNT - always loved this game. Easy to pickup, insane to 1cc.

Good grief. I thought it was literally impossible to 1cc a scrolling beat 'em up?

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:33 pm

I love this genre, too. My favorite though is Ninja Baseball Batman. What a bizarre concept! The HOF is in jeoparday and baseballs are the enemy. Anyway, the game is awesome, controls are very easy and the animation is downright hilarious at certain levels. Strange, but one of the best.

I also really love Jaleco's Rushing Beat. It is generic in a Final Fight rip off way, but the sprites were good looking and the game plays without a flaw. Plus, it is super cheap on the SFC right now. I have seen it going for $5 on ebay.

Anarchos · Post by **Anarchos** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:22 pm

Wait a sec, you're telling me that beat em ups always are sidescrolling, and that "fighting game" is the term used for street fighter? Never thought that there was a difference, only two sides of the same coin.

magnum opus · Post by **magnum opus** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:59 pm

living in alaska at least an hour from anything that could be called a town I never got to play TMNT in the arcades, but i did play it constantly for the nes.
can't actually think of any game for the nes that I played more than it.

vek · Post by **vek** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:59 pm

Anarchos wrote:Wait a sec, you're telling me that beat em ups always are sidescrolling, and that "fighting game" is the term used for street fighter? Never thought that there was a difference, only two sides of the same coin.

i think this came up once before on the old forum. it's an american thing. iirc some english guy posted in the trading forum a bunch of 'beat em up games', and lots of americans got confused that he was talking about stuff like street fighter

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:14 pm

Heh heh, yep, I remember that...though perhaps a clearer definition would be to use the term "tournament fighter" to refer to Street Fighter-type games, you don't hear that term much anymore though.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:15 pm

PlasmaDancer wrote:
landshark wrote:TMNT - always loved this game. Easy to pickup, insane to 1cc.
Good grief. I thought it was literally impossible to 1cc a scrolling beat 'em up?

Nope, it can be done. Not by me

MARP has some videos of it being done.

vek · Post by **vek** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:29 pm

BulletMagnet wrote:Heh heh, yep, I remember that...though perhaps a clearer definition would be to use the term "tournament fighter" to refer to Street Fighter-type games, you don't hear that term much anymore though.

us english don't need a clearer definition, we understand already

never heard the term "tournament fighter" ever before!

seriously, i thought it was really simple. both types of games involve doing the same basic thing, fighting, or beating em up, which ever you wish to use. so the ones that scroll are surely just scrolling fighters or scrolling beat em ups. the ones that don't scroll are surely fighters or beat em ups.

i don't suppose it's really worth arguing about, i think most people posting here will know what street fighter is, will know what streets of rage is, and will thus be able to work out what the thread is about without too much difficulty

now, rather than just posting a load of crap off the topic of the thread, i shall at least join in. the streets of rage games are fantastic! double dragon was good too. tmnt and simpsons were amazing, great 4 player fun! golden axe was good too.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:29 pm

Another notable one is a SNES Capcom game (which probably had an arcade release too) called King of the Dragons. There a good handful of selectable characters and you get to level up and gain new weapons and armor. Pretty cool.

Post by **system11** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:37 pm

Another huge fan of the genre here - I like them just as much as shmups. A little while ago I put together a list of all arcade beatemups I could think of. It's seen a couple of revisions and is mostly right now - additions welcome. I didn't start doing console and home computers because of the sheer number of them.

http://system11.org/temp/beatemups.html

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:38 pm

bloodflowers you crazy bastid, leaving out RCR in the Technos section yet you put in Alien Storm for Sega. I must admit, the animations for killing the aliens were crazy...the guy literally hit the alien a few times, got out the flamethrower for a few seconds, and then got out a damn handgun and shot it point blank. Talk about overkill. It made the game all the better, though.

I remember at Chuck E. Cheese's years and years ago I beat Alien VS. Predator and X-Men: The Arcade Game...people came and went, joining me for a few rounds of fighting then left...but I never gave up. Magnificent beat em ups.

Anyone actually like the Rival Turf Trilogy on SNES? Though they didn't have the same names and the box art was bastardized, Rival Turf, The Peacemakers and Brawl Brothers were all in the same series. I bought Brawl Bros. after a guy suggested it to me; has some good music, but making some of the level maze-like (choosing which door to go through -- choose the wrong one and start over in the maze) was retarded.

Post by **system11** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:47 pm

RCR? If there's a game missing, it goes in.

AntiPasta · Post by **AntiPasta** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:59 pm

Battletoads. Moreso when inebriated with various substances.

sffan · Post by **sffan** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:53 pm

I'm not much into fighters, but I've been enjoying "Daraku Tenshi: The Fallen Angels" lately.

CecilMcW00t · Post by **CecilMcW00t** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:02 pm

LOL I remember Rival Turf! I had no idea it was a trilogy! O_o

I guess I liked it though.... but omg that game would piss me off with the cheapness of some of the enemies. And the game's wonderfully cheesy music and characters kept me coming back until I finally beat it. Good ole' Jaleco...

shmups.system11.org

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