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I don't think anyone has started a brawler forum yet... so I guess it's up to me to bring up this topic. Here's my favorites:

Final Fight - THE classic. Body-slamming hookers is always fun.

Alien vs Predator (arcade) - When I was little I loved the Alien movies and the Predator movies and I also happened to like brawlers. This game combined 2 of my favorite franchises and excecuted it with flawless and suprisingly deep game play.

The Punisher - This game is BRUTAL. Quite often, your beating someone with a wooden bat untill the bat BREAKS... and then you use the splintery end of the broken bat to STAB them! I bet even Charles Bronson would've cringed at some these methods!

Guardian Heroes - Succsessfully combines RPG elements, fighting game elements, and SAXOPHONE MUSIC. Lots of fun.

Streets of Rage2 - This was the first Genesis game I ever owned and I still really enjoy it to this day.

Battletoads (Arcade) - This game is crazy... you HAVE to play this game! Possibly one the best games EVER.

Vendetta - A hilarious "party" game. The voice samples used for this game are some of the best I've ever heard, especially the death-scream of the bosses. It NEVER gets old! "WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"

Golden Axe - The atmosphere of this game is dreary as hell... and I love it.

Golden Axe 2 (arcade) - The thing I love about the Golden Axe games is that you get a real sense of heroism. Like, for instance, when you come across peasants who are being brutalized by the bad guys and you get to kill the bad guys and save the peasants... I'll bet that's how Indian Jones felt when he rescued those kids in Temple of Doom.

X-Men - Not a whole lot to it, gameplay-wise but the overall presentation is pretty good. There's lots of scaling effects and the music is great.

Now, what about you guys??? What are your favorite brawlers?

SoR2, Guardian Heroes, Ninja Turtles ones (anyone remember them?), Final Fight, Golden Axe, Double Dragon, Die Hard Arcade

X-Men Arcade
Read this to find out why: http://www.racketboy.com/roomplay/2006/ ... binet.html


Simpsons and TMNT were also great brawlers from Konami.

Comix Zone and Guardian hereos were some of my favorite console ones.

The style was incredible in Comix Zone (full review http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2006/01/ ... drive.html )

Guardian Heroes was cool because of the depth from the RPG elements and it also had some nice graphical effects.

River City Ransom has a great style despite its 8-bit limitations. It also had some quirky RPG elements.

I also enjoyed the original Double Dragon in the arcades. It just defined a small piece of my childhood and had so many iconic moments such as battling your brother to the death at the end in order to win the girl.

The Combatribes for Super Nintendo. (lol forgot how to spell the name, had to look up my SNES cartridge) I picked up The Combatribes sometime around 04/25/98 at Blockbuster. Its my favorite brawler because once you defeat the enemies, you are able to play as them in 2-Player Arena mode! The sprites resembles Sega Saturn's Crows: The Battle Action, but the gameplay is very addicting.

Coin Up Arcade Review
Review 10/10
Gamespot Images

Other favorites include: Guardian Heroes, Die Hard Arcade, Final Fight, Captain Commando, XMEN, TMNT.

Its nice to see Guilty Gear Isuka try to revive the Side-Scrolling genre with its GG Boost Mode.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4, Guardian Heroes, Streets of Rage 2, Comix Zone.

I guess I forgot the TMNT games and the Simpsons.
I really have to check out Comix Zone one of these days. Brawlers GLORIOUS brawlers!

Hahaha the Combatribes... I found an article about videogame depictions of women that talks about the advertisement for that game... I should post a link for it if I can find it again. Although I think it would be most appropriate in the Controversial ads forum.

I've been playing Golden Axe 2: Revenge of the Death Adder(The arcade game) recently. If you guys haven't played this game you NEED to!
It's an unforgettable epic fraught with excitement, danger, suspense and the proverbial "high adventure!"

The emulation on my computer is really shitty but the game's bad-ass-ness still manages to shine through.

you guys gotta try sengoku 3 for mame! hot brawler, made in 2000 i think!!!


other faves:
capt. commando
capt. america/avengers
final fight 3
streets/rage 2
king of dragons
double dragon advance
super double dragon
river city ransom
etc

Interesting GameFaqs Top Brawlers: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/top10/246.html

X-Men 2 Clone Wars on Genesis hasn't been mentioned yet. It's a great beat em up that pushed the system hard, though 2-player mode brings the frame rate down quite a bit. It's probably better as a single player experience.

My top 5 would have to be...

1. TMNT 4: Turtles in Time (SNES)
2. Battletoads/Double Dragon (NES)
3. Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (SNES)
4. Battletoads (NES)
5. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii)

If you guys can't tell, I LOVE Battletoads. I'm not 100% positive that No More Heroes would count under this, but I've always thought of it as a modern 3D beat-em-up. I know it's not retro, so don't shoot me, but it's a good game.