Your Top 5 Arcade Side-Scrolling Fighters!

[QualityChimp]

These are all great! I've heard most of them, but not all. I couldn't get that Night Slasher to work, but I had a go on Burning Fight in my lunch hour, that was good!

I just looked up Undercover Cops
"Dr.Clayborn and his henchmen have taken control of the city. Commissioner Gordon (no, this is not Batman) made one last call for help and contacted three of New York's Finest undercover cops: Bubba, an ex-professional football player; Flame, a former Miss America; and Claude, a retired philosophy teacher. They must fight every henchman and vanquish Dr.Clayborn and all his accomplices in order to restore law and order to the city."

So... not that undercover, eh?

That Dynamite Deka 2 reminds me of a game I played where you're fighting against Zombies. Fairly recent (newer than Night Slasher). Can't remember that one's name though. Hmmm... that's for another thread!

Keep your choices coming!

[Oh_Mutants]

That Dynamite Deka 2 reminds me of a game I played where you're fighting against Zombies. Fairly recent (newer than Night Slasher). Can't remember that one's name though. Hmmm... that's for another thread!

Keep your choices coming!

Zombie Revenge.

The reason nobody's mentioned Knights Of The Round, i would imagine, is because it's aged poorly and is basic in the extreme - even for a 2d beat em up.

My choices;

1. Final Fight - Classic game, awesome artwork, characters and levels. A real solid feel to the attacks, just an amazing game especially for it's day. Oh, and Poison, my first gaming fetish

2. Captain Commando - Again, absolutely brilliantly designed, the four main characters are all fantastic and wonderfully varied (ok, maybe not Jenetty). A real close one this, nearly got my No.1 vote.

3. Vendetta - Awesome, so many neat little touches (baddies throwing up when you beat them, the weapons, Hulk Hogan, the humping dogs ).

4. TMNT - Aged badly, admittedly but the 4 player coin op was awesome back in the day. The music and SFX blazing out, bright and colourful, holds a lot of good memories for me

5. Undercover Cops - Superb, solid game with a different look to many of the similar games at the time. Grimy atmosphere, thumping attacks, a real underrated beauty.

[Escape-To-88]

1. Final Fight (Jap version uncut)
2. TMNT (1st one)
3. The Simpsons
4. Golden Axe 2: The Return of death adder
5. The Punisher

I would put Streets of Rage in there somewhere if it had ever been a coin-op.

Am I mistaken, but didn't it come out on one of the SEGA multi-system MEGA-Tech/Play machines with Revenge of Shinobi, Sonic etc.?

[QualityChimp]

Zombie Revenge.

Nice work! That's the fella. Didn't rate it much, but thanks for helping my memory!

Some of these games have got great little touches. Getting kicked in the nuts in Vendetta, the little TV showing R-Type in Undercover Cops. I used to love these little Easter eggs!

[Nembot]

In no particular order.........

1) Shinobi
2) Double Dragon
3) Golden Axe
4) Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja
5) Splatterhouse

[Nu-Eclipse]

The reason nobody's mentioned Knights Of The Round, i would imagine, is because it's aged poorly and is basic in the extreme - even for a 2d beat em up.

Aged more poorly than the likes of The Punisher, Undercover Cops and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (and others on this thread)?

More basic than the likes of Vendetta, Double Dragon & Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja (and plenty others on this thread)?

Come now, that's nonsense. On MAME, I think that you'll find that KotR holds up extremely well against any title listed in this thread, tbh.

[Oh_Mutants]

Aged more poorly than the likes of The Punisher, Undercover Cops and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (and others on this thread)? Yep, absolutely. Played it lately? The games you mention there all have more moves, better level structure and more depth to their play in general.

More basic than the likes of Vendetta, Double Dragon & Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja (and plenty others on this thread)? Perhaps not, but what you're missing is the fact it's not considered a 'classic' like Bad Dudes (which admittedly is also basic, but it's an older game set on a one-dimensional plane to be fair) or innovative for it's time like Double Dragon, which is why these games get a lot of deserved mentions imo.

Come now, that's nonsense. On MAME, I think that you'll find that KotR holds up extremely well against any title listed in this thread, tbh.

I disagree. It's fun enough, but very simplistic compared to many of the other titles on here, including most you mention.

[SuperDanX]

I rather liked KotR when i played it on Capcom Classics Collection 2, not in my top 5 though which are, with a bit of cheating
1) Final Fight,
2) Zombies Revenge,
3) Captain Commando,
4) The Punisher,
5) and, ahem, Streets of Rage 2 or Splatterhouse.

[JazzFunk]

1. Final Fight
2. Double Dragon
3. Crime Fighters
4. Vendetta
5. Gang Wars

I would also agree that KOTR is quite fun after playing it a fair bit on Capcom Classics 2 over the last week. I hated the mushy, funless SNES version, though, and I think my memory of this game was sullied by that.

[JazzFunk]

Anyone remember Legionnaire? (This is a crap quality vid, but the only one I can find) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uhVTrPIZQ0

[Leon Retro]

Here's my Top5 off the top of my head

1. Final Fight

2. Alien Storm

3. Golden Axe

4. The Simpsons

5. Violent Storm


The first two are definite choices. The others could make way for different games, but at the moment they're the ones I remember having a lot of fun with.

Capcom, Sega, Konami. Not a surprise that these companies made my favourite scrolling fighters.

[Shou]

Hard to pick just 5 but these are the most influential and fun for me...

Double Dragon - the original 2P simul beat'em up, tons of options..knee them in the head, throw them into the hole, magic elbow defeats all!

Golden Axe - atmospheric and unsurpassed by its followups, still imitated

Final Fight - like SF2, unintentional gameplay bugs made it great, varied stages with superb visuals

Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom/Shadow over Mystara - new 4P simul team mechanics that were later imitated by IGS with unbeatable Japanese fantasy style

Zombie Revenge - not a masher, you need real skills to 1 credit this one, the Black Jack costume is too good

[Widegoat]

Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom/Shadow over Mystara - new 4P simul team mechanics that were later imitated by IGS with unbeatable Japanese fantasy style

I'm surprised that this hasn't cropped up more - I wasn't sure about listing it, but I thought more would.

Got to say I agree the KOTR has aged badly - nice bosses and that, but the characters that you can control seem clunky and limited.

[QualityChimp]

3. Crime Fighters
4. Vendetta

I've just found out Vendetta is the US name for Crime Fighters 2!

I'm scared Oh_Mutants and Nu-Eclipse will have a side-scrolling fight of their own. Nice to see you're passionate about the topic.

It's incredible how many people rate Final Fight so high. It really did get the balance right, didn't it? I still find myself saying Mike Haggar's "here here" and "arooreyep!" battle cries...

How could I forget Splatterhouse? What a classic! Quick, hide in the bottom-left hand corner and duck-kick as quick as you can whilst the maggots attack. Don't forget the last one in the corpse...

Anybody downloaded anything after reading this thread? I've tried Vendetta, Wild Fang and Burning Fight just after reading your suggestions!

Thanks!

Ooh, has anybody played Spider-Man The Videogame? Best superhero side-scrolling beat 'em up platform arcade game ever? Footage here.

[JazzFunk]

Ooh, has anybody played Spider-Man The Videogame? Best superhero side-scrolling beat 'em up platform arcade game ever? Footage here.

How could I forget that??! I remember when that came out - my jaw dropped. They had one in Storeys arcade in Leeds and in the first few weeks it came out, you had to wade through people to get a look at it. Not only did it look beautiful, it played great, too.

Sega did another side-scrolling beat 'em up around that time (maybe 1989/1990) which was quite similar to Vendetta but with subtler, more detailed 'realistic' graphics and less outlandish characters. I wish I could remember what it was called, though I don't think it was that memorable in terms of gameplay.