Beatemups 101

[Gamerforlife]

Excellent article on one of my favorite genres! Congrats gamerforlife!

Thanks, I wrote it just as much for beat'em up fans as I did for people who are just learning about the genre.

I want to say thanks to racketboy and Ack. Racketboy for adding the pics and making a few little changes to my article(he added that nice little bit about Comix Zone making good use of the Genesis limited color palette in the best visuals section)and of course Ack got the ball rolling with his awesome Survival Horror 101 article

[Hobie-wan]

Good stuff.

[MidnightRider]

Nice read. It's good to know there are more beat em up fans out there. It seems like a really under-represented genre, and I wish there were a corner of the internet dedicated to the genre.

I noticed about your links to the discussion threads, the one about "Top 5 2D Arcade beat 'em ups" seems to link to the hard drive of a "Nick" (or a PC named such) instead of the actual message board topic.

Also after looking through the topics, I realize I seem to know of a decent game in the genre, that a lot of genre fans don't seem to know about, or maybe they do, but don't care for?

It's called Shadow Force, and it's by Technos, from 1993(arcade). This game has a 6 button layout, 2 weaker attacks, 2 stronger attacks, a jump button, and a possession button. so on top of 4 characters having their own moves, you can also possess the bodies of common enemy characters with their own unique moves(though they may have a much shorter general move set than the main 4). The game also allows you to sort of(it has 3 pre-arrangements) select the stages you'll play through. Personally I think Technos had the best overall grasp of combat, before putting a weapon in your hands, in beat em up development, if a much weaker grasp of representation than the others(especially Konami).

Another one that doesn't seem to come up, same year, by Taito, is Light Bringer/Dungeon Magic(also arcade, or 6th generation(minus Gamecube, but including PC) via Taito Legends 2). to give it a short description: imagine someone deciding to combine Landstalker and Streets of Rage. There's more to it, you've got a leveling system, that I think(only payed it twice so far) works by the loot you collect. Anyway it's isometric like Landstalker, and other games before it. It's pretty much a hack and slash, but you can find different weapons(including elemental upgrades to your default weapon) anyway, and despite being hack and slash, I can remember pulling off a German suplex(so who knows what else you can do?). You can move crates and barrels around to reach higher areas(another reason I cite a similarity to Landstalker), there are alternate routes you can take, and the 4 characters have differing bits of story.

Also, I think a good site for, even though it's not specifically about, the genre would be: http://scrollboss.illmosis.net/

[wip3outguy7]

Great article! This was a real treat, especially since I have been playing beat em' ups quite a bit lately. It was lengthy but I couldn't stop reading! So much great information here. I fully expect beat em' up prices on eBay to skyrocket now.

[Gamerforlife]

Nice read. It's good to know there are more beat em up fans out there. It seems like a really under-represented genre, and I wish there were a corner of the internet dedicated to the genre.

I noticed about your links to the discussion threads, the one about "Top 5 2D Arcade beat 'em ups" seems to link to the hard drive of a "Nick" (or a PC named such) instead of the actual message board topic.

Also after looking through the topics, I realize I seem to know of a decent game in the genre, that a lot of genre fans don't seem to know about, or maybe they do, but don't care for?

It's called Shadow Force, and it's by Technos, from 1993(arcade). This game has a 6 button layout, 2 weaker attacks, 2 stronger attacks, a jump button, and a possession button. so on top of 4 characters having their own moves, you can also possess the bodies of common enemy characters with their own unique moves(though they may have a much shorter general move set than the main 4). The game also allows you to sort of(it has 3 pre-arrangements) select the stages you'll play through. Personally I think Technos had the best overall grasp of combat, before putting a weapon in your hands, in beat em up development, if a much weaker grasp of representation than the others(especially Konami).

Another one that doesn't seem to come up, same year, by Taito, is Light Bringer/Dungeon Magic(also arcade, or 6th generation(minus Gamecube, but including PC) via Taito Legends 2). to give it a short description: imagine someone deciding to combine Landstalker and Streets of Rage. There's more to it, you've got a leveling system, that I think(only payed it twice so far) works by the loot you collect. Anyway it's isometric like Landstalker, and other games before it. It's pretty much a hack and slash, but you can find different weapons(including elemental upgrades to your default weapon) anyway, and despite being hack and slash, I can remember pulling off a German suplex(so who knows what else you can do?). You can move crates and barrels around to reach higher areas(another reason I cite a similarity to Landstalker), there are alternate routes you can take, and the 4 characters have differing bits of story.

Also, I think a good site for, even though it's not specifically about, the genre would be: http://scrollboss.illmosis.net/

I've also always felt that beat'em ups don't get enough coverage. That's another reason why I wanted to do that article

That's weird about that one forum link, since the other ones work fine. I'll see what I can do about that.

Shadow Force is a game I'm familiar with and it actually does get mentioned in another feature I worked on which is sort of a companion piece to the Beat'em up 101 article, but it's not quite ready to go live yet. It's going to showcase many other games in the genre that are beyond the scope of a beginner's guide to the genre. Some of the games are well known, others are obscure and some I just put on there for being quirky, unusual or innovative in some way. Unfortunately, Light bringer/Dungeon Magic is a game that slipped my mind when working on it, but I do make mention of Konami's Gaiapolis, which is kind of similar and actually came out a year earlier than Dungeon Magic

Thanks for the link, that's a pretty cool website

Great article! This was a real treat, especially since I have been playing beat em' ups quite a bit lately. It was lengthy but I couldn't stop reading! So much great information here. I fully expect beat em' up prices on eBay to skyrocket now.

Haha, now that would be something. Don't know if that would be a good thing or a bad thing lol

You know, my first draft was actually quite a bit shorter. Then I tried to add in some stuff that Ack had in his great guide like the genre conventions and racketboy mentioned some things that people on the forum had said they'd like to see in future genre 101 articles. So I tried to include them as well and expanded the article. Glad you enjoyed it

[racketboy]

I just fixed the forum link -- not sure how I screwed that up...

[MidnightRider]

I'll be interested to see what you bring up, then.

[d123456]

andsuchisdeath said…

Ghost Chaser Densei is still a completely overlooked beat ‘em up. The game had a Super famicom port in 1994. The game was perhaps the first beat ‘em up to include juggles,and on the ground attacks. The game is loaded with special moves and a combo system years ahead of it’s time.

Anyone who loves the genre needs to play this game.

just checked a vid and does look awesome.

[Gamerforlife]

andsuchisdeath said…

Ghost Chaser Densei is still a completely overlooked beat ‘em up. The game had a Super famicom port in 1994. The game was perhaps the first beat ‘em up to include juggles,and on the ground attacks. The game is loaded with special moves and a combo system years ahead of it’s time.

Anyone who loves the genre needs to play this game.

just checked a vid and does look awesome.

I was actually playing that game just recently, it's great. It had a sequel, but it was only released in Japanese arcades unfortunately, with no console port that I know of

[MidnightRider]

I have to confess, I think I'm far too casual a gamer to ever pull this off(it's about AvP):

The point of my last post was, I think I can trust your next article enough to surprise even the most hardcore, that think they know of everything to do with the genre, on top of bringing attention to the better lesser known titles.