Fun beat em ups

[radicallexical]

Looking for beat em up recommendations

 

[ciro64]

Double Dragon Neon
Shredder's Revenge

 

[RustySK]

My personal go-tos are usually either the Dungeons & Dragons duology (Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara) or Alien vs. Predator from Capcom.

If you're in the mood for something more modern though, you can't go wrong with Fight'N Rage either.

 

[SpcDaicon]

Well, you'd be spoiled for options.

River City Girls (Steam and modern consoles)
Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (Steam as "Chronicles of Mystara", Arcade)
Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara (Steam as "Chronicles of Mystara, Arcade)
Armored Warrios (Steam as "Powered Gear", Arcade)
Kunio-kun series (multiple plataforms)

 

[groundbeef]

The Takeover, Mother Russia Bleeds, Castle Crashers, TMNT Shredder's Revenge or Streets of Rage 4 on PC. The Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle is solid. I personally love the entire Sengoku series. Mutation Nation is also available.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

For Classics:
Alien VS Predator
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
DnD Shadows Over Mystara
Final Fight and Streets of Rage are a given
Double Dragon Advance
The Punisher
Knights of the Round
Golden Axe (doubly so Revenge of Death Adder)
Night Slashers
Sengoku 3
Denjin Makai

Modern:
Streets of Rage 4
Double Dragon Neon and Gaiden
Fight N Rage
River City Girls 1 and 2
Ninja Saviors Return of the Warriors (Remake of SNES Ninja Warriors)

That's off the top of my head, probably missed some.

 

[BadMrFrostii]

Capcoms Knights of the Round is my personal favorite. Always a blast.

 

[legsrjust4show]

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is one of my favorite arcade games that Capcom ever did and it's my go to for some dumb fun.

The Ninja Warriors on SNES is another go to of mine to replay and it's maybe the most 90s a video game can get what with it's cast of Ninja robots rebelling against a corrupt world.

There's been a big resurgence of arcade-y beat 'em ups these days and some of the ones listed by SpcDaicon and ciro64 mentioned are great stuff. Some other ones modern ones worth looking at:

Slave Zero X is styled to look like a brutal SEGA Saturn game and it's Awesome. Just good stuff. Buy it twice.

Towerborne is a really recent one that's still in early access that's big on getting loot and it's almost like an MMO. They've done so big changes lately and it's been pretty good.

The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors is a total remake of the same game I mentioned earlier, The Ninja Warriors, and it's also extremely good.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is a short and sweet no nonsense arcade-y adventure. Has a heavy emphasis on replaying over and over to see all the routes.

Streets of Rage 4 needs to be played and replayed. Maybe still my favorite of all the new stuff??? If you somehow don't get around to it then at least listen to it's soundtrack.

If you wanna get extra philosophical about it all then the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series can be considered a beat 'em up series and I highly recommend it endlessly forever.

 

[cjl8336]

try openbor if you haven't yet - I think pretty much every beat em up you can think of has been remade with that engine

data east's night slashers is one I enjoyed

 

[groundbeef]

Streets of Rage Remake and its mods are all over the internet. That's a fun time.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Also, if you're open to OpenBOR fan games, Ultimate Double Dragon is really good too.

 

[oxyhime]

Streets of Rage Remake and its mods are all over the internet. That's a fun time.

I second this. SoRR is a megamix of everything cool about SoR. I wish it could be hosted here.

 

[SecretStrategist]

Aside from the usual recommendations of Final Fight, Double Dragon, Kunio-kun, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, X-Men, TMNT, Power Rangers, and Battletoads, there are some other beat-em-ups that you should definitely check out (Warning: It's a long list):

Big Fight: Big Trouble in the Atlantic Ocean (Arcade)
Zero Team 2000 (Arcade)
Denjin Makai (Arcade and SNES) and its sequel Guardians (Arcade)
Legionnaire (Arcade)
Undercover Cops (Arcade and SNES)
64th Street: A Detective Story (Arcade)
The Rushing Beat Trilogy (SNES; avoid the butchered localization versions)
Sonic Blast Man (SNES) and its sequel Sonic Blast Man II (SNES)
The Combatribes (Arcade and SNES)
Captain Commando (Arcade and SNES)
Battle Circuit (Arcade)
Knights of the Round (Arcade and SNES)
The King of Dragons (Arcade and SNES)
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade)
The Dungeons and Dragons Mystara Duology (Arcade and Saturn)
Warriors of Fate (Arcade)
Armored Warriors (Arcade)
The Simpsons Arcade Game (Arcade)
Crime Fighters (Arcade)
Vendetta (Arcade)
Violent Storm (Arcade)
Metamorphic Force (Arcade)
Gaiapolis (Arcade)
Burning Fight (Arcade)
Mutation Nation (Arcade)
Robo Army (Arcade)
The Sengoku Trilogy (Arcade)
King of the Monsters 2 (Arcade and SNES; the Genesis version is a standard fighting game)
Arabian Magic (Arcade)
Dungeon Magic (Arcade)
Growl (Arcade and Genesis)
Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga Episode III (Arcade)
Silent Dragon (Arcade)
Arabian Fight (Arcade)
Spider-Man: The Arcade Video Game (Arcade)
D.D. Crew (Arcade)
Die Hard Arcade (Arcade and Saturn) and its sequel Dynamite Cop (Arcade and Dreamcast)
Zombie Revenge (Arcade and Dreamcast)
DJ Boy (Arcade and Genesis) and its sequel B. Rap Boys (Arcade)
Bad Dudes (Arcade and NES)
Two Crude Dudes (Arcade and Genesis)
Night Slashers (Arcade)
Captain America and the Avengers (Arcade and Genesis; avoid the horrible SNES port)

 

[Jeff]

TMNT arcade (NES and Arcade
Turtles in Time (SNES and Arcade)
TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist
TMNT Shredder's Revenge
The Simpsons Arcade
X-Men arcade
Vendetta
Violent Storm
Double Dragon (NES and Arcade)
Double Dragon II: The Revenge (NES and Arcade)
Double Dragon Neon
Battletoads Arcade
Battletoads-Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team (NES, SNES Genesis and Game-Boy)
Spider-Man Arcade
Spider-Man & Venom in Maximum Carnage (SNES)
Captain America & The Avengers
Streets of Rage 1, 2 and 4
Golden Axe Trilogy (Arcade and Genesis)
Metamorphic Force
The Punisher (Arcade)
Final Fight trilogy
Mighty Final Fight
Captain Commando (Arcade)
Alien Vs. Predator
Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
Hook
Ninja Baseball Batman
Undercover Cops
64th Street
Asterix
Arabian Fight
Eight Man
Robo Army
Growl
Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (Arcade, SNES and Genesis)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (SNES)
Bad Dudes (Arcade and NES)
Ninja Warriors (SNES)
Batman Returns (SNES and NES)
Kishin Douji Zenki FX (PC-FX)
Guardian Heroes (Saturn)

 

[_-_AceDragon_-_]

Some great suggestions on here so far!
I'll try not to repeat ones already mentioned by others. (Unless I missed it)

PS1 had some fun beat em ups, first two are exclusive to that console:

Mad Stalker (remake) (single player game) single plane combo beat em up with simple controls and satisfying gameplay.

Panzer Bandit (up to 2 players) similar controls to mad Stalker, more colourful like guardian heroes with dual plane, less the rpg elements.

Fighting Force (up to 2 players) - the closest thing you'll get to streets of Rage 3d imo, nicely designed, compact and varied levels.

Ps2 I think has a few that I'd count as beat em ups:
Beatdown fists of vengeance
Final fight streetwise
God Hand
Urban Reign
Death by Degrees

You might also like streets of fury on steam. Up to 4 players I think.

Enjoy!

 

[Zerohour2k12]

I'd also recommend the classics and also these.

 

[Tonberry]

The King of Dragons is my all-time favorite beat-em-up. It’s a Capcom title where you ”level” up between levels which feels cool and the levels and characters look great. It definitely feels like the forefather for the Mystara games and Dragon’s Crown.

 

[ThirteeTooBeets]

Gonna shill for my pfp and say King of the Monsters 2

Captain Commando and King of Dragons are very good too

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Looking for beat em up recommendations

My time to shine

-River City Girls 0, 1, & 2 (multiplat)
-Scott Pilgrim vs the World (multiplat)
-Battletoads (NES)
-Streets of Rage 1-3 (Genesis)
-Final Fight (Arcade)
-Kouryuu no Mimi (SNES)
-Yakuza franchise (most are on PC minus the exceptions below)
-Yakuza (PS2)
-Yakuza 2 (PS2)
-Yakuza Black Panther or Kurohyou 1 & 2 (PSP, fan translated)
-Yakuza Kenzan (PS3, untranslated)
-Yakuza Ishin og version (PS3, untranslated)
-TMNT: Turtles in Time (SNES)
-MadWorld (Wii)
-Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PC)
-God Hand (PS2)
-Sunset Warriors (Arcade)
-Odin Sphere (PS2, remastered on PS3)
-Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii, remastered on Vita)
-Princess Crown (Sega Saturn, ported to PSP but that version is untranslated)
-Dragon's Crown (PS3, ported to Vita and PS4)
-River City Ransom (NES)
-Golden Axe 1-3 (Genesis)
-Mega Man Battle Network's entire franchise (GBA/DS, but there's a Multiplatform Legacy Collection)
-Renegade (NES)
-The Ninja Warriors (SNES)
-Viewtiful Joe (GameCube)
-Okami's entire franchise, and be sure to check out the sequel when it releases
-the Rushing Beat trilogy (NES/SNES, best to patch them as they are victims of localisation and the naming convention was confusing as hell)
-Devil May Cry franchise
-Darksiders franchise
-Dungeon Fighter Online
-Anarchy Reigns (PS3)
-The Adventures of Batman & Robin (Genesis, important to note the Sega CD, SNES, and Genesis versions are all completely different games)
-Dan the Man (Mobile)
-Panzer Bandit (PSX)
-Advance Guardian Heroes 1 & 2 (Game Boy Advance)
-Nekketsu Oyako (Saturn/PSX, PSX for the better overall game but Saturn for better sound and graphics)
-Ninja Baseball Batman (Arcade)
-The Simpsons (Arcade/Xbox 360)
-Spider Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage (SNES)
-Asura's Wrath (PS3)
-Spikeout series
-Sifu (multiplat)
-Tokyo Beat Down (DS)



OK that's a lot and I already know you aren't playing all this shit, so if you're looking for the biggest highlights, check out Viewtiful Joe, Golden Axe, Nekketsu Oyako, Devil May Cry, The Simpsons Arcade, Sifu, Streets of Rage, MadWorld, Ninja Baseball Batman, God Hand, Mega Man Battle Network, the Vanillaware quadrilogy (Princess Crown/Odin Sphere/Muramasa/Dragon's Crown), Okami, Yakuza, TMNT Turtles in Time, Battletoads, The Ninja Warriors, and River City Girls.

And Sleeping Dogs which my stupid ass completely neglected to mention

 

[UnDubious]

If we're talking classic 2D beat-'em-ups, there are 4 heavyweights: Technos (creators of the genre), Sega, Capcom and Konami.

Technos: meatier feel, more brutal, slightly more moves than average. Favorites: Double Dragon 2 (PCECD), Super Double Dragon, Combatribes SNES, Kunio-kun series (Kunio-tachi no Banka especially).

Sega: No specific style. Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, Golden Axe 3, Streets of Rage trilogy
Pioneers of early 3D beat-'em-ups: Die Hard Arcade (my favorite beat-'em-up), Dynamite Cop, SpikeOut

Capcom: Redefined the genre with Final Fight. The original arcade version is still the best of those. Also Captain Commando, The Punisher, Battle Circuit. Maybe Warriors of Fate.

Konami: The 4-players beat-'em-ups. Still fun solo. Vendetta, Metamorphic Force, Turtles in Time. Maybe X-Men.

 

[RetroLuvr]

Recently I've been playing Arm of Revenge. It's an old flash game but has an updated release on steam and it's very cheap rn. I really enjoy it

 

[Mamato4525]

The Warriors (PS2/PSP)
Yakuza series

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

Don't sleep on Ninja Baseball Bat Man! I cannot believe this never got a home port of any kind.

 

[moonbits]

Guardian Heroes on the SEGA Saturn

 

[groundbeef]

Guardian Heroes on the SEGA Saturn

Also available on Xbox 360 and playable through Xenia emulator.