Genesis beat 'em ups

[samsonlonghair]

That looks like a fun game, but I'm not even sure if I want to review imports let alone Chinese pirate games.

[samsonlonghair]

I just played Superman: man of steel. I think it was just called Superman in NA. The first level plays sort of like a beat 'em up, but overall the game is an action platformer. This is the hardest distinction to make for some games. I'm having the same problem with Cutthroat Island. The first level plays like a beat 'em up, but the rest of the game is action platformer.

Edit: By the way, can anyone tell me if The Ninja Warriors for Sega CD was ever released in North America?

[lisalover1]

If you want to be doing pirates as well, I recommend the chinese title Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan:

Am I the only one who thinks this looks a LOT like Knights of the Round for the SNES?

[Hobie-wan]

If you want to be doing pirates as well, I recommend the chinese title Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan:

Am I the only one who thinks this looks a LOT like Knights of the Round for the SNES?

Maybe a hack of Warriors of fate since the setting of the game already matches. Definitely looks like a Capcom beat um up rip though.

[samsonlonghair]

Here's what I've done so far. I've written short reviews for these games:

Adventures of Batman and Robin - I'm cutting this one
Alien Storm
Altered Beast
Batman Forever
Battletoads
Battletoads and Double Dragon
Captain America and the Avengers
Cliffhanger
Cyborg Justice
The Death and Return of Superman
DJ boy
Double Dragon
Double Dragon 3
Golden Axe
Golden Axe II
Growl
Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl - Considering cutting this one
Ka-Ge-Ki: Fists of Steel - considering cutting this one too
Last Action Hero
Mazin Saga Mutant Fighter
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - This one is getting cut
Might Morphin Power Rangers The Movie
Mystical Fighter
The Punisher
Splatterhouse 2
Splatterhouse 3
Streets of Rage
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist
ThunderFox
The Tick

I'm writing a review for Comix Zone tonight. That just leaves a few still to review. I still need to write reviews for these:
Final Fight CD
Hook
both Spider-man and Venom games
Streets of Rage 2 and 3
Toxic Crusaders
Two crude dudes
Ultraverse Prime
and any imports

[Jrecee]

Mazin saga is an awesome game. Or maybe it's just my memories of it. I still thought it was a pretty creative take on that genre though.

[FiftyDollarCurse]

My bad on Superman, I may have gotten it confused with the Death of Superman game. Which also has some of those side-scrolling shooter levels.

Has anyone else been thinking about why Beat-Em-Ups are so awesome. I have.

1) It's the only genre I can think of that only existed within the 16-bit period of time. The major of good B-Mups are on the Genny, SNES and Arcade machines. If those were your formative years, as they are mine, those games are awesome. Sure there were some retro-active 8-bit games, like Mighty Final Fight or Battletoads, but they kind of sucked. And some 32-bit game like Fighting Force, but they REALLY sucked.

2) Easy to learn, difficult to master. Is there any other genre that are so basic (press A, A, A, to beat up a guy) but so dense (press run, A, A, A, jump backward, A, B, A, run, slide attack, A, A, C, to beat up a lot of guys) but if you want to be good you need to practice.

[fastbilly1]

32 bit beatemups of note:
Dungeons and Dragons series
Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Cop
Guardian Heroes
Silhouette Mirage
Three Dirty Dwarves

I agree that the vast majority were in the 16bit days, but you cant write off the 32bit ones for Die Hard Arcade alone.

[FiftyDollarCurse]

Die Hard Arcade had more shooting than punching though. Guardian Heroes was excellent. But was it anything that couldn't have been done on the arcade machines of the time? And I've never heard of the other games you listed. So my point still stands.

[timewarpgamer]

Sounds like a great project. I'm really looking forward to it. I did a top 10 beat 'em up feature (http://timewarpgamer.com/top10s/beat_em_ups.html) at my site a while back, but I never delved this deeply into the Genesis library. In general, I was kind of surprised by how few great beat 'em ups there were for 8- and 16-bit consoles in general. Hoping that you'll uncover some Genesis greats that I missed.