Top 10 beat 'em ups for 8/16-bit consoles?

[elvis]

Batman Returns (SNES)

Agreed. It's one of the better SNES beat 'em ups. Heaps of cool features like interaction with multiple enemies, tossing enemies into scenery, etc. Not to mention fantastic graphics. Heaps of fun. Not the wide range of moves of Final Fight 3 on the same platform, but still definitely worth playing.

AvP (SNES)...[I have only played the arcade version, so I don't know if this version is awesome too]

The PAL/US version was garbage. Crap animation and only a smattering of basic moves made it no fun at all. The SNES version is totally unrelated to the arcade version, and not even 1% the value or fun.

As for the SoR 2 vs 3 debate, I'll chime in for SoR2 being better. SoR3's run function was a useless gimmick. The music was god awful, and Axel got nerfed big time.

Have a look at "Streets of Rage Remake" on PC/Windows (plays OK on Linux/WINE). It's what SoR3 should have been if more time/effort/budget was put into it.

[marurun]

I personally think Comix Zone does not fit. It is indeed a wonderful game, and in my top 5 games for the Genesis, but for me it doesn't have the game mechanics to be called a true beat-em-up.

I disagree. It does lack the faux 3D movement most games exhibit, but the actual fighting mechanics are actually better, in some ways, than many beat-em-ups. It is a different sort of beat-em-up, but I think that's one reason to keep it on the list, to demonstrate the flexibility of the genre.

[Mozgus]

As for the SoR 2 vs 3 debate, I'll chime in for SoR2 being better. SoR3's run function was a useless gimmick. The music was god awful, and Axel got nerfed big time.

Have a look at "Streets of Rage Remake" on PC/Windows (plays OK on Linux/WINE). It's what SoR3 should have been if more time/effort/budget was put into it.

Congrats on completely contradicting yourself. SORRemake incorporates all the SOR3 controls, including your psychotic label of the gimmicky run function. SORR plays and looks like SOR3, because it's the best.

Can't you form a compelling argument? I'll even give you one for free. Beats of Rage was built around SOR2's minimalist gameplay instead of 3. There you go. Use that one.

[elvis]

Congrats on completely contradicting yourself. SORRemake incorporates all the SOR3 controls, including your psychotic label of the gimmicky run function. SORR plays and looks like SOR3, because it's the best.

SoRR lets you customise the controls. It defaults to SoR3's crappy controls, but you can turn that off and switch back to the far superior SoR2 controls, game speed, etc.

Congrats on not exploring the options menu completely.

[Mozgus]

Congrats on completely contradicting yourself. SORRemake incorporates all the SOR3 controls, including your psychotic label of the gimmicky run function. SORR plays and looks like SOR3, because it's the best.

SoRR lets you customise the controls. It defaults to SoR3's crappy controls, but you can turn that off and switch back to the far superior SoR2 controls, game speed, etc.

Congrats on not exploring the options menu completely.

Because defaults are totally not there for any reason, no sir. It would just be too logical to configure a game you make to controls that would serve the player the best. That's just crazy.

Seriously, don't even try. SOR2 is 2nd best. Any gamer with no pre-exposure to the series would come to that conclusion upon sampling.

[elvis]

Because defaults are totally not there for any reason

So the suggestion is to never configure a game away from defaults?

Man, I must playing them all wrong then. Me and my silly upping of difficulty levels, changing control inputs, using hidden/unlocked characters....

Seriously, don't even try. SOR2 is 2nd best. Any gamer with no pre-exposure to the series would come to that conclusion upon sampling.

I have no qualms with personal opinion and preference. You like Sor3, and that's cool. Making silly blanket statements like the above is not cool.

Further more, to prove your "any gamer" statement incorrect, all I need to do is find one single example of a gamer with "no pre-exposure" who does prefer SoR2. Having given all three in ROM format not less than 3 months ago to a good friend with "no pre-exposure" (not even my own opinion to guide/influence him), he chose number 2.

By all means keep your own preferences. But don't go claiming things of other people's preferences that aren't true. Live and let live, brother.

And at the end of the day, it's just a game. If you get this fired up about something so trivial, one wonders how you react to people of different faiths, cultural backgrounds, or sexual preferences.

[Mozgus]

I have no qualms with personal opinion and preference. You like Sor3, and that's cool. Making silly blanket statements like the above is not cool.

Further more, to prove your "any gamer" statement incorrect, all I need to do is find one single example of a gamer with "no pre-exposure" who does prefer SoR2. Having given all three in ROM format not less than 3 months ago to a good friend with "no pre-exposure" (not even my own opinion to guide/influence him), he chose number 2.

By all means keep your own preferences. But don't go claiming things of other people's preferences that aren't true. Live and let live, brother.

And at the end of the day, it's just a game. If you get this fired up about something so trivial, one wonders how you react to people of different faiths, cultural backgrounds, or sexual preferences.

This would all be fantastic if SOR3 weren't better than SOR2. For reals. No joke. It's a fact. Statistics were involved. Calculations were made. Science has spoken.

[Doctor Fugue]

I personally think Comix Zone does not fit. It is indeed a wonderful game, and in my top 5 games for the Genesis, but for me it doesn't have the game mechanics to be called a true beat-em-up.

I disagree. It does lack the faux 3D movement most games exhibit, but the actual fighting mechanics are actually better, in some ways, than many beat-em-ups. It is a different sort of beat-em-up, but I think that's one reason to keep it on the list, to demonstrate the flexibility of the genre.

I agree the fighting mechanics far exceed almost any beat-em-up, and I think they are even too far evolved. But really what I think takes it out of the genre is the lack of repetition. There should be a huge army of palette swaps that you must wade through in a constant stream. Comix Zone has no flow in that way (but it is still a perfect game), and there are too many specialized panels and areas that involve pseudo puzzles or environment related action. I would go so far as to call it action-adventure.

Actually, I think this repetitive nature is one of the most overlooked aspects of the beat-em-up. The way I see them, beat-em-ups should be defined by their simple yet satisfying method of killing enemies that devolves almost into hypnosis. Over and over again, the enemies walk up to you, and over and over again you kill them. No thought, just reaction. It becomes, like the shoot-em-up, an exercise in "Can you survive THIS many enemies?!? How about some MORE!!!" It is a survival test, an endurance test, and a war of attrition. Any other mechanics or play elements that override this too many times, and it loses the beat-em-up feel.

[Citizin]

Nice list, timewarpgamer. You have stuck good ones in there and a few I'll stil need to try.

Racketboy could use an article on non-vs beatemups also. I find non-scrolling fighters like Street Fighter and King of Fighters utterly boring.

[ThunderPrince]

Can't you form a compelling argument? I'll even give you one for free. Beats of Rage was built around SOR2's minimalist gameplay instead of 3. There you go. Use that one.

Can't you take other opinions into consideration instead of responding with a poignant "NYUH UH UR WRONG ALL DAY!" ?
Do you even read what you type? SoR2 has "minimalist gameplay"? I hate to break it to you, but aside from running the gameplay is damn near identical to 2.

and the SoR2 vs SoR3 debate continues.