Beat Em Ups - which is the world best?

[eastyy]

Oh that reminds me....really hope Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder gets a port at some point

[Jaz]

Double Dragon, Golden Axe, Final Fight, Bare Knuckle 2 and 3 are all excellent. But the best is Ninja Warriors Again on Super Famicom.

Having said that, my nostalgia driven all time favourites are Shadow Warriors and Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja.

[Leon Retro]

Final Fight
Streets of Rage 2
Vendetta
Violent Storm
Night Slashers

All of them are great.

[Family Fry]

GIF madness.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World


Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds


Castle Crashers


Double Dragon Neon


I’ll end with the LONG FORGOTTEN and criminally ignored

Charlie Murder

[112]

I’m a Virtua Fighter 4 Evo guy myself...

The obvious ones are Street Fighter 2 and Streets of Rage 2.

Final Fight, the original version... the sequels always felt like toned down version of the first game, even though the soundtrack in the third game was decent.

Berserk on the Dreamcast was entertaining, as were the dynamite deka 2, Fighting Vipers 2, Zombies Revenge and of course Rival Schools 2, my word were the characters bizarre...

I’ve never played JoJo’s bizarre adventure, but heard it’s just as crazy as rival schools...

Then there is God Hand on the PS2 and even Turtles Tournament fighters on the SNES.

The SNES had quite a few interesting fighters, including Ranma 1/2 and Dragon Ball Z. A mention needs to go out to Dragon ball Z on the Mega Drive, as that had a lot hidden Easter egg moves for fans to discover and remained quite faithful to the series.

There are absolutely tons to mention and I couldn’t possibly choose a definitive one.

I’m not even going to into the Arcade exclusives... but there are quality multi player side scrolling ones on there...

112

[Shoju]

I liked Final Fight a lot back when it first came out in the arcades but gradually started to think less of it as time went on. I don't why it would be thought of as the best any more. I think Streets of Rage 2 bettered it in every way except for graphics. Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder is another really good one that unfortunately never got much exposure.

[Dogg Thang]

Beat ‘em up, guys! Go for broke!

[Asura]

GIF madness.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds

Castle Crashers

An interesting set.

First off, is that Makise Kurisu from Steins;Gate in that Phantom Breaker game? I may need to check that out.

Scott Pilgrim is a real shame; it was a fun game, looked and sounded great. I didn't think it played brilliantly, but it was certainly fun. Only problem is that due to a licensing dispute, I don't think it's available anymore.

But for the last... I've never been fond of Castle Crashers. I'm going to ruffle some feathers here but I just didn't get why people liked it. It was quirky and visually very charming, but I never thought the gameplay was anywhere near the likes of something similar from the 16-bit days, like Knights of the Round. It just felt very imprecise, and was carried by the level design. It felt more like a scrolling adventure than a beat-em up. Thing is, I know people love it and I'm not suggesting that's somehow wrong; I just wasn't personally a fan.

[QualityChimp]

Downtown

...Abbey?

(I wish I had some pixelart skills to make a mockup)

[QualityChimp]

Didn't Paul Roberston do some scrolling beat 'em up with a Falling Down-style down trodden man with glasses getting revenge?
I can't find it.

[QualityChimp]

I really love One Finger Death Punch!

It's such a simple idea - punch left or right - but it's genuinely thrilling, funny and knowing.
It's like a Guitar Hero beat 'em Up!



Searching for a video of this shows there's actually a One Finger Death Punch 2 in the works, hurrah!

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/03/05/one-finger-death-punch-2-announced/

[Nu-Eclipse]

I liked Final Fight a lot back when it first came out in the arcades but gradually started to think less of it as time went on. I don't why it would be thought of as the best any more. I think Streets of Rage 2 bettered it in every way except for graphics. Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder is another really good one that unfortunately never got much exposure.

Yuzo Koshiro's music aside, I've never particularly seen Streets Of Rage as anything other than a mish-mash of ideas ripped off from other beat-em-ups (both scrolling and one-on-one) and arguably not particularly well ripped off either.

For me, Final Fight is comfortably better in all aspects - challenge, art-style, etc. I'd go as far as to say that there are PLENTY of coin-op scrollers that are better than SoR2.

That said, the SNES/SFC Final Fight sequels are quite rubbish - clearly Capcom didn't expect the original to be as seminal as it was and thus rushed out follow-ups. Also, the less said about Revenge and Streetwise the better - both awful.

[Family Fry]

An interesting set.

First off, is that Makise Kurisu from Steins;Gate in that Phantom Breaker game? I may need to check that out.

Scott Pilgrim is a real shame; it was a fun game, looked and sounded great. I didn't think it played brilliantly, but it was certainly fun. Only problem is that due to a licensing dispute, I don't think it's available anymore.

But for the last... I've never been fond of Castle Crashers. I'm going to ruffle some feathers here but I just didn't get why people liked it. It was quirky and visually very charming, but I never thought the gameplay was anywhere near the likes of something similar from the 16-bit days, like Knights of the Round. It just felt very imprecise, and was carried by the level design. It felt more like a scrolling adventure than a beat-em up. Thing is, I know people love it and I'm not suggesting that's somehow wrong; I just wasn't personally a fan.

It is Kurisu but she’s paid DLC, £3.29 on PS4 or £2.39 on 360 (backward compatible on Xbox One)
I believe the game is also £2.39 on 360 at the moment, which seems like a sale price or misprice, at least in the UK.

https://marketplace.xbox.com/en-gb/Product/Phantom-Breaker-Battle-Grounds/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025841125d

Aye Scott Pigram vs The World is a sign of how bad licensing can get within the digital games world. I believe the film didn’t do too well and the game didn’t either, so that doesn’t help your case when the rights are split between Ubisoft and Universal. Also it features a licensed soundtrack which the label/band will have a say with those rights as well. It’s a mess I didn’t wish happened, maybe they will come back to it next year for tenth anniversary?!
At least I can still play it on my OG 360.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I have Scott Pilgrim on my PS3 and I love it. I wish it has gone to Vita and of course now the Switch but that won't happen now. Rights are messy and, given the long tail that great games have, I'm often very surprised at how publishers and devs will often sign up to what is a very limited licensing period. Not all games are overnight hits and take time to build and, if they do make it, it's possible that the game could be sold again 10 or 20 years later so putting large amounts of money into a game that has to be a quick hit and can only be sold for a few years seems kind of crazy.

[Leon Retro]

That said, the SNES/SFC Final Fight sequels are quite rubbish - clearly Capcom didn't expect the original to be as seminal as it was and thus rushed out follow-ups. Also, the less said about Revenge and Streetwise the better - both awful.

I've often wondered why Final Fight 2 & 3 are so bland next to the inspired original. It's such a shame that the creators of the console sequels didn't stick with the overall look and vibe of the first game. I can only assume that the people behind the console sequels just didn't get what made the first game so special. Capcom might have simply put together a team to create sequels and they just didn't have the vision and passion to deliver something anywhere near as brilliant as the first game.