Your first beat 'em up/brawler?

[Turbo Kid]

For me it was Double Dragon on the NES as my first console beat 'em up, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as my first arcade beat 'em up (and the first arcade game I ever played).

Here's a little something fun from one of my favorite youtube channels in tribute to the classic Double Dragon series and Konami's classic turtles games.

 

[therabidfrog]

Probably Double Dragon 2. When I was a kid me and my dad used to play and the entire point for us was to be the first to rush the ladder in the opening stage so we could kick the other person off it.

 

[bjork]

Maybe Kung Fu Master on Commodore 64? Not sure what I would've encountered prior to that.

 

[NovumVeritas]

Streets of Rage 1 / Bare Knuckle
On Sega Genesis / Mega drive.
Yuzo Koshiros music is still a banger.

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

My first beat'em up I owned was Kung Fu (1985) on NES and first rented was Double Dragon (1988) on NES. For arcade it was either X-Men (1992), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989), or The Simpsons (1991).

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Double Dragon 1 on NES.

 

[Eclipse14]

TMNT II on NES is the one that comes to mind.

 

[pai]

for me was retro city ramson, definlty one fav nes games
which makes this funny when you know that double dragon is the grandfather of retro city ramson

 

[JustLooking123]

Bare Knuckles 3 (md)
(the japanese version of Streets of Rage 3)

 

[Octopus]

Either Turtles in Time or Maximum Carnage probably. I think Maximum Carnage may have even been the first SNES game I played, followed very close by SF2.

 

[SamFisherman]

Mine was "Splatterhouse 3" on the Sega Genesis.

Was a also a big fan of horror as a kid (still am) and was probably the goriest game I had ever played to that day, so it had me ballin' for a while.

 

[Bakuma1997]

TMNT Ii for me, i played before even touching an Arcade, considering Fox Kids Reran the OG series, it was a jam

 

[qw90700]

Battletoads on NES.

I remember the day I played it. One day one of my friend came and said "dude I can't beat this shit game. I wanna play after the level I can't beat. I'll even pay you to beat it" so I was like "ok" and started playing the game.

Battletoads is an amazing game for its time. It's not just a beat 'em up, it has creative ideas for scenes and boss fights that never seen anything like that before. The level my friend couldn't beat was this one:

It wasn't that hard, you just shouldn't underestimate it. But eventually my friend said he found another harder level and gave up playing the game lol.

 

[Scotty]

The "Streets of Rage" series via "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection". I sucked horribly at those games as a kid. Nowadays, I much better at them; Not quite "beat it all on one life" good, but decent enough.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

The already mentioned Kung Fu master in the arcades or Double Dragon also in the arcades.

 

[CanicheSlayer]

I can't remember. I was less than seven/eight years old. In all likelihood, it's between Renegade, Target: Renegade, and Double Dragon. With an Amstrad CPC (464 or 6128)

 

[Bonkers225]

Chip N Dale on the NES, but not what you're thinking. The brawl, and the beatings are from picking each other up, and throwing the other off ledges between cousins.

 

[Scotty]

Chip N Dale on the NES, but not what you're thinking. The brawl, and the beatings are from picking each other up, and throwing the other off ledges between cousins.

Considering how you can literally THROW the other player, I too would classify it as a brawler.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

Chip N Dale on the NES, but not what you're thinking. The brawl, and the beatings are from picking each other up, and throwing the other off ledges between cousins.

this reminds me of the mostly famous Chip N Dale mmorpg extreme PVP action.

 

[Jeff]

TMNT: Turtles in Time and The Simpsons arcade.

 

[ThatOneLum]

The original Streets of Rage for sure. I spent so many hours in that game it was unreal, and I wasn't even any good at it to boot.

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

Maybe it was Fighting Force 64.

 

[Morgana Veil]

Probably Cadillacs and Dinosaurs in the arcade. I probably played something earlier than that, I'm almost sure of it, but this was a long time ago. I honestly couldn't tell you the actual first beat'em up I played, any more than I could tell you the first game I ever pirated

 

[Bakuma1997]

Battletoads on NES.

I remember the day I played it. One day one of my friend came and said "dude I can't beat this shit game. I wanna play after the level I can't beat. I'll even pay you to beat it" so I was like "ok" and started playing the game.

Battletoads is an amazing game for its time. It's not just a beat 'em up, it has creative ideas for scenes and boss fights that never seen anything like that before. The level my friend couldn't beat was this one:

It wasn't that hard, you just shouldn't underestimate it. But eventually my friend said he found another harder level and gave up playing the game lol.

The Famicom version makes the level easier Along many more

 

[OPT1MUS]

My first was Kung-Fu Master (1984)

Then came:
- Renegade (1986)
- Double Dragon (1987)
- Bad Dudes (1988)
- Ninja Turtles (1989)
- Golden Axe (1989)
- Final Fight (1989)