Mame Beat em' ups

[lilmanjs]

been playing some beat em ups on consoles lately, and been wondering if there are any for mame that are worth checking out. there seems to be tons out there, and I'm not the greatest at knowing what makes a good beat em' up and what makes a crappy one.

[Ruldra]

Tenchi wo Kurau 2 / Warriors of Fate
Armored Warriors
Violent Storm
Metamorphic Force
X-men (welcome to die!)
Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
The Punisher
Golden Axe series
Alien vs Predator
Ninja Baseball Bat man
Dungeons & Dragons series

That should keep you busy for a while.

[Krimzon Kitzune]

*

[lift]

Alien vs. Predator - Game of the year. EVERY YEAR.

Though that's probably my nostalgia talking. Battle Circuit and Dungeons & Dragons are good too. Hell, anything with a Capcom logo is bound to be enjoyable, they pretty much dominated that market on arcades.

[lilmanjs]

I totally remember playing Alien vs. Predator as a kid and loving it, but sucking so horribly at it.

[Drum]

Ruldra's list
plus:
Warrior Blade Rastan Saga III
Battle Circuit
Shadow Force
Knuckle Bash
minus:
X-Men (it's shit)

I also love Tecmo Knight but YMMV

[Jon]

Undercover Cops

[lilmanjs]

thanks for the recommendations. I know I'll be playing these for a long time to come. I remember the x-men game as well, but not really much of it, but my arcade was more into fighters and shooters rather than beat em' ups, but from time to time they'd have the odd beat em' up, but usually was just Aliens vs. Predator.

[saucykobold]

Final Fight
Knights of the Round
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Crime Fighters 2 / Vendetta

The Japanese and "Alpha Renewal" versions of Undercover Cops are great. Avoid the US and World versions, as they're missing a lot of content.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Captin Commado
Night Slashers
Teenage mutant hero/ninja turtles
Simpsons

If you like beat em ups check out OpenBOR its the mugen of beat em ups http://lavalit.com:8080/index.php?PHPSE ... isj5j6e9n1&

[Ex-Cyber]

Sengoku 3

[EinhanderZwei]

X-Men
Robo Army
The Punisher
Golden Axe
Undercover Cops (first bossfight is freakin' epic)
Double Dragon
Aliens vs Predator
TMNT

[CptRansom]

Dungeons and Dragons games
Knights of the Round
Aliens vs. Predator

Those four should be enough to hold you over for a very long time. Or maybe that's just me. I'm fucking horrible at beat-em-ups.

[lilmanjs]

I got round to playing the second D&D game this morning, and I never knew it was a capcom game. that first boss always scared me, but hey, I was only a little kid at the time and stuffs. still thanks again for the help. I'm having fun playing all these new games. though is Gaia Crusaders considered a good beat em' up? used to play it when I had my psp homebrewed.

[Ex-Cyber]

is Gaia Crusaders considered a good beat em' up? used to play it when I had my psp homebrewed.

I enjoyed it, but I have no idea whether it's "considered" a good one. FWIW, Sengoku 3 is pretty much the unofficial successor to it (same developer, similar combo system, nothing like Sengoku 1/2 apart from being a 2.5D beat-em-up with undead soldiers as enemies). To me, thinking of a "bad" beat-em-up basically conjures up low-budget Final Fight clones, so I'm not sure how to judge games that significantly depart from that concept unless their mechanics are flagrantly shitty.

[third_strike]

Cadillacs & Dinosaurs

Sometime ago had a C&C cabinet in each corner tavern in Rio de Janeiro. I really believe which the real WR for this game is lost in some place of RJ done by any engraxate chit. Even I which sucks in Beat em' ups could all this game in arcadeat max level using only two lives.
C&C and KOF 2002 fucked the arcade scene in Brazil.

[Ruldra]

C&C and KOF 2002 fucked the arcade scene in Brazil.

No. Charging absurd prices for credits did.

[drunkninja24]

Ninja Baseball Bat Man is the only beat-em-up you will ever need to play.

[third_strike]

C&C and KOF 2002 fucked the arcade scene in Brazil.

No. Charging absurd prices for credits did.

30 centavos no bar da esquina e 50 no centro nunca saiu disso até hoje!
C&C, KOF 2002 e lan house trio chato do caralho!

[Ruldra]

No shopping daqui uma partida num jogo antigao sai por 1,30 no minimo. Pra jogos mais recentes o preco sobe pra 2,50 e ate ja vi por 5 reais.

[andsuchisdeath]

Denjin Makai II/Guardians

[Observer]

This thread is awesome by default. Thanks for the AvP recommendation. This is how the movies should've been: a true Predator/Human co-op butchery against xenomorphs in another planet with muscles and over the top ridiculousness oozing all over the place. How fucking awesome. Right with Armored Warriors and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs... Now those were videogames.

But, yeah, some of these beat 'em ups are just so damn badass that I feel bad when I see the current archetypes and characters.

Speaking of The Punisher, I even remember this one from the arcades. How does it fare today? What is the general opinion? As a kid, everything was spectacular and great for me so I can't rely on my childhood memories.

(For those of you in Brazil, does anyone remember Açao Games/Action Games? We had the spanish translation of this magazine and it always brought nice news about the arcades, including The Punisher and many many many more, such great times...)

[Leandro]

^Yes I remember, in fact I think I still have some number of Ação Games around

About the arcade scene here in Brazil: it was fated to die anyway, but it went down faster due to Lan Houses coupled with the Counter Strike phenomenon, and the whole digital inclusion thing here in the late 90s/early 2000s...
C&D and Kof 2002 surviving is a testament to the appeal of both games... C&D deserves every bit of the popularity it has, I think it is the definitive beat'em up, even though Capcom released technically better ones. I'm not a fan of KOF 2002 though, but I know it's not only Brazil who is/was passionate about it, I've heard this game was the top arcade in China years after it's release.

My favorite mame beat'em ups are the Capcom ones... I think the best of them are Final Fight, Knights of The Round, C&D and D&D: SOM. Played each of these to the point I could 1cc it, definitely worth my time.

Thinking about it, I'm amazed at the fact Capcom could put so many quality arcade games in such a short amount of time... Good times

[Vamos]

This thread has sparked some interest in this genre , how do you guys approach beatemups if playing for the 1cc?

[Drum]

Speaking of The Punisher, I even remember this one from the arcades. How does it fare today? What is the general opinion? As a kid, everything was spectacular and great for me so I can't rely on my childhood memories.

The Punisher is one of the very best games in the genre.

This thread has sparked some interest in this genre , how do you guys approach beatemups if playing for the 1cc?

Play the one you want to 1cc a lot, basically. The bosses are the real bottlenecks in these games and often they just require memorisation. The rest is just skill and knowing crowd control/spacing.
Couple of easy ones: Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder, Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga III. The latter is maybe the fairest game in the genre I've played - bosses are a little on the easy side, but they are also not cheap either.

One nobody mentioned yet:
Pu Li Ru La
Gameplay is straightforward, everything else is completely mental.

General discussion question:
Where is the genre revival? No genre - nothing - is as dead as belt-scrolling bmups. They're comparitively easy to make (though I guess the spritework would be involved and choresome) and, further, there are a lot of improvements that could be made. People just stopped trying, suddenly, in the mid-nineties. Like an asteroid hit or something. I guess there's Castle Crashers and Scott Pilgrim, but I was hoping for something a little ... better.
If Capcom did a Monster Hunter-themed bmup in the style of D&D, that would be glorious.

[Ruldra]

No genre - nothing - is as dead as belt-scrolling bmups. People just stopped trying, suddenly, in the mid-nineties.

I think the genre died when companies made the shift to 3D games. Beat-em-ups just aren't the same thing when you're using polygons for some reason. I played a bunch of them in the PSX era and they were all mediocre. Fighting Force, Star Wars, Jackie Chan Stuntmaster...I can't think of a single 3D one that's actually good. Even when you pick a classic like Golden Axe and remake it in 3D...all of a sudden it becomes shit.

And then you have Castle Crashers, Scott Pilgrim and Shank released these days which are all sprite-based and pretty good bmups.

[Ex-Cyber]

I think it's mainly that there's no distinction between "beat-em-up" and "hack-and-slash" anymore, and that arcade-driven design elements (e.g. needing to keep quarters coming in, needing to keep multiple players visible on the same screen) have given way to console-driven ones (e.g. needing to entertain a single player for tens of hours to justify a $40-60 purchase).

[Obiwanshinobi]

If your beat 'em up definition requires 8-directional movement and 2-directional combat, then with polygons it feels lame indeed. That said, there's no shortage of polygonal games with close combat done right (most notably God Hand).
Speaking of Night Slashers, check out the mod for the PC, the original Xbox and the PSP called Night Slashers X. More claret (not in the PSP version, unfortunately) and quite a few gameplay improvements.

I think it's mainly that there's no distinction between "beat-em-up" and "hack-and-slash" anymore, and that arcade-driven design elements (e.g. needing to keep quarters coming in, needing to keep multiple players visible on the same screen) have given way to console-driven ones (e.g. needing to entertain a single player for tens of hours to justify a $40-60 purchase).

The Red Star and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks being designed with co-op in mind, you can't say nobody tried to do the right thing.

[stryc9]

Arad Senki/ Dungeon Fighter Online.

OK so i'ts not MAME but it's on PC and it's free to play, the graphics are all 2d and are stunning, and the gameplay is like an arcade side scroller on steroids, It really is the best thing to happen to Beat em Ups for years and years. Sought of like when SOTN added the action RPG elements to Castlevania. I am level 27 now and you should see the shit I can do. There are many enemies on screen at once, more than SOR 1, and SOME OF THEM ARE ALMOST AS TALL AS THE SCREEN. Violent impacts, new specials learned and added to hotkeys or mapped to the pad wherever you want...

[Ruldra]

Too bad Dungeon Fighter is limited to people in the US, Canada and Oceania. I might join if they ever support South America.