unique beat em ups

[ott0bot]

I would suggest Cannon Spike for Dreamcast and The Red Star for PS2. They are very similar style, kind of towing the line between a ground based shmup and a beat em up with some leveling up elements. Also if you like that style and want even more RPG and pot elements I suggest Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Great fun on multiplayer.

For classic beat em ups with a little variety I suggest Final Fight 3 on snes. Classic final fight with street fighter type moves added for some variety. Guardian Heroes on Saturn has similar moves as well and is also a great game. River City Ransom for the nes is such a fun game and has a great free roaming aspect and rpg elements such as increasing stats and collecting items. Way ahead of its time. Another great game is Metamophic Force (arcade only), which adds the ability to change into an animal. Plus it just looks great and is a blast.

[Gamerforlife]

If you want games that go against beat'em up norms, try these:

Comix Zone(it's pretty much an interactive comic book. Very cool)
Mortal Kombat:Shaolin Monks(lots of moves and combos, good variety of enemies, weapons, fatalities, environmental kills, creative boss fights and lots of little surprises and secrets. It's better than every single other MK game in existence)
Dynasty Warriors 3 and 5(nice mix of hack n slash gameplay with strategy and rpg elements. You could lose many hours just collecting items and powering up characters like a true rpg. Simply no other beat'em up or hack n slash will provide the large body counts and epic scale of the battles in these games. Those are the two best in the series so far)
Viewtiful Joe(Lots of cool super powers that allow you to manipulate enemies and environments in ways you'd never see in another beat'em up)
Panzer Bandit(Guardian Heroes rip-off, but easy to get into than that game is)
Battletoads ARCADE(Nice variety of gameplay styles and lots of cartoony over the top attacks, weapons and bosses, but this one has more pure beat'em action than the other Battletoads games so you can pretty much ignore the rest of them.)
Armorred Warriors(you can pick up new parts and attacks from defeated enemies Mega Man style and your mech dashes around the screen unlike the slow walk of other beat'em ups)
Castle Crashers-Just play this one. I couldn't do justice to this crazy game in words, but it's packed with humor, interesting little details and an artistic direction you'll find in few other beat'em ups. You will not get bored
Buffy the Vampire Slayer(Xbox)-It's a hard game, but certainly different from most beat'em ups. Pretty cool combat system, environmental kills(alwas a plus in my book)and a nice bunch of weapons you can use.
The Adventures of Batman and Robin(S-NES)-Though you spend most of your time punching, kicking and throwing, each level throws different types of challenges at you beyond beat'em up gameplay. Feels more like an action platformer at times

There are quite a few other beat'em ups I would recommend, but they are more "typical", which I think you're trying to avoid. Games like Cadillacs and Dinosaura and Final Fight 3 are fun, but pretty typical beat'em ups. As are most of Konami's arcade beat'em ups(i.e. X-Men, TMNT, etc.). I quite like the original Golden Axe because of the animal riding and magic attakcs. Plus, it's just short enough to not become repetitive or boring

God Hand is extremely difficult, random and completely unaccesible. Very awkward controls too. I don't know what they were smoking when they designed that game. Only recommended for the truly masochistic or dedicated.

The Red Star is awesome though. Beat'em up+2-d shooter+balanced difficulty+strategic combat+well designed levels with lots of variety and new challenges=awesome! Highly recommended

[Abras]

May I suggest the SNES version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers? I don't recall anyone ever talking about it but it really is a good platformer/beat 'em up. I'm guessing it gets passed over by most people, apart from the fact that it's a licensed game, is that they associate it with the crappy fighting game that came out for the Genesis with the exact same name (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Mor ... video_game)#SNES). Alright, it's not that different, but it has two things going for it: 1) most of the game is played on a strictly 2D plane, and 2) the platforming elements. It's at least worth trying on an emulator for five minutes to see if you like it.

[GSZX1337]

And if you prefer arcade emulation or hunting down cabs:

He doesn't want to pay $80 for Guardian Heroes, I doubt he's going to go and get an arcade cabinet.

I haven't played it myself, but Mazin Saga: Mutant Fighter looks pretty interesting from this review.

[Ack]

And if you prefer arcade emulation or hunting down cabs:

He doesn't want to pay $80 for Guardian Heroes, I doubt he's going to go and get an arcade cabinet.

I haven't played it myself, but Mazin Saga: Mutant Fighter looks pretty interesting from this review.

Yeah, I didn't think so either, but he wanted unique.

[Pulsar_t]

There's always SSF

[ott0bot]

And if you prefer arcade emulation or hunting down cabs:

He doesn't want to pay $80 for Guardian Heroes, I doubt he's going to go and get an arcade cabinet.

I haven't played it myself, but Mazin Saga: Mutant Fighter looks pretty interesting from this review.

Actaully the side scrolling parts are ok, but the fighting parts are horrid. Worse combat system then Heavy Nova....ok maybe not that bad....but it's pretty aweful.

[wip3outguy7]

I would definitely pick up The Red Star for PS2 if you haven't already. I would not be surprised if it becomes a cult classic with high eBay prices (Guardian Heroes) in a few years.

[GSZX1337]

And if you prefer arcade emulation or hunting down cabs:

He doesn't want to pay $80 for Guardian Heroes, I doubt he's going to go and get an arcade cabinet.

I haven't played it myself, but Mazin Saga: Mutant Fighter looks pretty interesting from this review.

Worse combat system then Heavy Nova....ok maybe not that bad

Do I smell another Classic Game Room fan?

[the7k]

No one suggested Battle Circuit? It only came to Europe and Japan, but its definitely one of my favorite CPS2 beat 'em ups; ranks right up there with Dungeons & Dragons and Armored Warriors. If I had to describe it in a couple of words, 'unique' would be one of 'em. (Along with 'great' and 'fun'.)