Beat Em Ups - which is the world best?

[Finsbury Girl]

Side scrolling for me is Warriors of Fate. God Tier. This had everything - complex moves, multiple player characters, secret chests, weapons etc. Such a fantastic game.

1 v 1 - Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition / Turbo Hyper. Perhaps Championship edition slighty edges Turbo. I appreciated the increase skill level required for combos on Turbo. GOAT.

I'm only referring to arcade - I hate console versions of these games - I need a cab for beat em ups

[Shoju]

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.

I agree about the art style/graphics but I much prefer the core combat in Streets of Rage 2 and others over Final Fight. I like having more moves at my disposal in a scrolling beat em up otherwise it feels too restrictive and repetitive. SOR2 has better characters and bosses. In Final Fight it all feels a bit too limited.

A new one that came out of a Kickstarter that I like the look of is Okinawa Rush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8R50-J1T90

[Nu-Eclipse]

I agree about the art style/graphics but I much prefer the core combat in Streets of Rage 2 and others over Final Fight. I like having more moves at my disposal in a scrolling beat em up otherwise it feels too restrictive and repetitive. SOR2 has better characters and bosses. In Final Fight it all feels a bit too limited.

Can't agree with any of that at all.

Most scrollers have copied Final Fight's Attack/Jump/Special control scheme because it is satisfyingly tight and it just works perfectly. SoR2's controls/moves are loose in comparison because most of them are just there for the sake of it and not actually needed - a clear case of style over substance meaning that they don't actually add anything to the gameplay imo.

Also, there's no way that SoR2 has better bosses or characters than Final Fight. In gaming terms, Cody, Guy, Haggar, Damnd, Sodom, Rolento, Edi. E., Andore/Hugo, Roxy, Poison, Two.P, etc. are some of the most recognisable videogame beat-em-up characters around to the point that they've appeared in many other Capcom games.

Outside of the playable characters in SoR2 (who are mostly rip-offs based on characters from other games), everybody else in it is completely forgettable. I sure as hell can't name any of SoR2's bosses and I would wager that most can't either.

[Asura]

I just want to concur with some of the other opinions about 1-v-1 fighters; I think it's a real struggle to name something that holds a candle to Street Fighter II, though you can submit whatever particular version you prefer - short of the genuinely bad ports, I think all of them have some merit.

The arcade version of Super Street Fighter II is still as playable now as it was back then. It's still really skilful, superb fun, great for beginners and experts alike.

Later games have come and gone. Soul Blade. Virtua Fighter 2. Tekken Tag Tournament. Soul Calibur. Street Fighter Alpha 3. The Last Blade 2. King of Fighters '96. All of them were fantastic at the time and are great in their own way, but I just don't feel that any of them can possibly compare.

[superturd1]

I just want to concur with some of the other opinions about 1-v-1 fighters; I think it's a real struggle to name something that holds a candle to Street Fighter II, though you can submit whatever particular version you prefer - short of the genuinely bad ports, I think all of them have some merit.

The arcade version of Super Street Fighter II is still as playable now as it was back then. It's still really skilful, superb fun, great for beginners and experts alike.

Later games have come and gone. Soul Blade. Virtua Fighter 2. Tekken Tag Tournament. Soul Calibur. Street Fighter Alpha 3. The Last Blade 2. King of Fighters '96. All of them were fantastic at the time and are great in their own way, but I just don't feel that any of them can possibly compare.

theres an argument for Soul Calibur being better than SF2

[Anpanman]

Tekken 5DR
Tekken 3
Soul Edge
Tekken 2
Soul Calibur
BA Toshinden

Honourable mentions
IK+, Bruce Lee and Barry McGuigan's boxing - the last two a bit tenuous sorry.

[Nu-Eclipse]

theres an argument for Soul Calibur being better than SF2

There really isn't and I'm saying that as somebody who enjoyed Soul Edge/Blade and the first two Soul Caliburs. SF2 redefined the vs. beat-em-up in a way that the Soul games don't remotely come close to, both in terms of basic play and the intricacies of its metagame.

Besides, in all honesty, Soul Calibur has been sh1t for years now. A franchise well and truly past its best.

[Shoju]

Can't agree with any of that at all.

Most scrollers have copied Final Fight's Attack/Jump/Special control scheme because it is satisfyingly tight and it just works perfectly. SoR2's controls/moves are loose in comparison because most of them are just there for the sake of it and not actually needed - a clear case of style over substance meaning that they don't actually add anything to the gameplay imo.

Also, there's no way that SoR2 has better bosses or characters than Final Fight. In gaming terms, Cody, Guy, Haggar, Damnd, Sodom, Rolento, Edi. E., Andore/Hugo, Roxy, Poison, Two.P, etc. are some of the most recognisable videogame beat-em-up characters around to the point that they've appeared in many other Capcom games.

Outside of the playable characters in SoR2 (who are mostly rip-offs based on characters from other games), everybody else in it is completely forgettable. I sure as hell can't name any of SoR2's bosses and I would wager that most can't either.

I wasn't talking about who ripped off what or legacy or anything like that but about the core gameplay. SOR2 has more moves allowing for more creativity. The variety is really there between the characters (Skate and Max for instance). How do you decide what are necessary or unnecessary moves? The bare minimum to get by? A lot of games could cut out a lot by that reasoning.

The Final Fight bosses don't have much at their disposal to make them interesting. None of them can compare to Shiva from SOR2.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I wasn't talking about who ripped off what or legacy or anything like that but about the core gameplay. SOR2 has more moves allowing for more creativity. The variety is really there between the characters (Skate and Max for instance). How do you decide what are necessary or unnecessary moves? The bare minimum to get by? A lot of games could cut out a lot by that reasoning.

The Final Fight bosses don't have much at their disposal to make them interesting. None of them can compare to Shiva from SOR2.

More moves in SoR2 are all well and good but they're not actually needed to progress in the game and there is no inherent reward for using them which pretty much makes them a waste of time imo - they're pretty much there for style over substance purposes. Again, there is a reason why literally most scrollers post-Final Fight adopted the same control mechanic of attack and jump with at most an extra button for the melee attack - it just works and is more than enough.

SoR2's Shiva is as generic, bland and clichéd a Ninja-type henchman boss as they come - nothing creative about him whatsoever and totally forgettable. He definitely isn't better than Final Fight's Sodom or Rolento. In fact, the other FF bosses Damnd, Abigail and Belgar are a hell of a lot more creative and memorable also.

[Arashikage]

Gotta agree about Final Fight, it is the template to what other belt scrollers adopt. It's crazy how well programmed that game is, each enemy encounter is like a set piece that other beat em up's could only dream of. SoR2 is a great game but it's no Final Fight, it sends me to sleep in some places.

[QualityChimp]

I really like SoR2. Probably more than FF, but I'm glad they both exist.


Playing the SoR trilogy, made me realise that playing 1, I missed the move set of 2.
Throwing the baddies you have in a hold at other enemies for crowd control, double-tap attack for dash attacks, flying kicks, drop attacks, back kicks - they all play their part and you need to use all of them to progress.


You can't just elbow through the whole game like in Double Dragon.


Playing FF on the recent Capcom Collection shows how it's developed with the arcade in mind - benefiting from two players and a lot of coins to put in it.


Like I say, I'm glad both games exist.

[Escape-To-88]

I've never been able to elbow my way through Double Dragon. Even though I know it's a 'thing'.

[Escape-To-88]

Scrolling Beat 'em up: Final Fight
1 on 1: SF II Hyperfighting
3D: Tekken 2

[Zaki]

+1 for Violent Storm.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Playing FF on the recent Capcom Collection shows how it's developed with the arcade in mind - benefiting from two players and a lot of coins to put in it.

The vast majority of scrollers from that era, if not most coin-ops full stop, were serious coin-guzzlers so FF isn't alone in that regard.

FF can be easily 1CC'd in one-player if you make the effort to learn how to manage the enemy waves/patterns properly and that is a damn sight more than can be said for other scrollers of that era - Konami's two TMNT coin-ops are way more difficult than FF ever was, for example.