Top 5 2D Arcade beat 'em ups

[Erik_Twice]

A lot of great beat 'em ups never got ported like X-Men & Asterix..

Asterix was ported to PC for sure as I remember playing it in my 486. Windows 95 probably.

[the7k]

Yeah, I like Undercover Cops. A lot, even. It's just not among my top five.

Irem has done better beat 'em ups than UCC - namely, Ninja Baseball Bat Man.

[Octopod]

Ok, I stand corrected.

[J T]

Tecmo Knight
It was just so shocking when it was released because nothing was this violent back then. I remember as a kid, I felt sick when I saw the gruesome killings in this game, but then the desensitization set in and I thought it awesome.

Kung Fu Master
Someone's gotta show some respect to the originator!

Double Dragon
I love the ending when you have a 2nd player. After their long journey of teaming up to beat the crap out of thugs, brothers Billy and Jimmy suddenly have to fight each other for Marian's affection.

Final Fight
This is basically the game that defines beat em ups for me. It felt like most all beat em ups afterwards were trying to be Final Fight.

Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
I added this one mainly because the concept is so weird, but it's a great beat em up too.



and if we were not doing arcade only, I would throw in River City Ransom for the NES.

[Ack]

and if we were not doing arcade only, I would throw in River City Ransom for the NES.

Yeah, and I would have now added The King of Dragons on the SNES. I just got a copy, and oh man it's good. All the solid Capcom Beat 'Em Up action I deserve with all the Dungeons & Dragons characters I desire. I don't care if the later DnD beat 'em ups were better, this game is amazingly fun.

[fastbilly1]

King of Dragons was 3 player in the arcade...

[Ack]

King of Dragons was 3 player in the arcade...

I didn't know it had an arcade release. I was under the impression it was console-only.