Genre of the Month (MAR 2024 TR) - Brutal Beat 'em Ups

[Ziggy]

Together Retro - March 2024 - Brutal Beat 'em Ups



This month for Together Retro we will be focusing on Beat 'em Ups. There's not a whole lot to say to describe what a beat 'em up is. It's just some pure button mashing arcade style fun! The name kinda perfectly describes and encompasses the game play. I suppose the only real important thing to note is the distinction between a beat 'em up and a fighter. A fighter is (usually) one on one with a winner of the best two out of three rounds. In a beat 'em up, you fight many combatants as you make your way through a level. Wikipedia has an interesting tidbit about UK gaming magazines of the 80s and 90s, apparently they commonly referred to these two genres as "scrolling beat 'em ups" and "one on one beat 'em ups."

Although the genre is still plenty popular today, I feel like the golden age of beat 'em ups coincided with the age of the arcade. That said, there are plenty of games that the arcade version is notably superior to the console conversion, which was typical at the time. But a lot of us grew up playing only the console ports, so it can be pretty neat to check out the arcade versions. Sometimes you can find arcade ports in compilations, but some games can really only be experienced in MAME these days (assuming you don't have access to the authentic machine).

I feel like the quintessential beat 'em ups are TMNT The Arcade Game and Turtles In Time, Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, and of course Double Dragon. There are of course many, many more. And there's plenty of beat 'em ups that never left the arcades, which get some coverage on YouTube channels like SNES Drunk. Speaking of SNES Drunk, he perfectly expresses what makes a beat 'em up satisfying to play. When you land punches, they need to have that satisfying thwamp sound!

I just happened to notice that the Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle is 50% off on Steam right now (so, $9.99 USD). It includes arcade versions of Final Fight, Captain Commando, The King of Dragons, Knights of the Round and Warriors of Fate, Armored Warriors and Battle Circuit (those last two never had ports).

What are some other modern beat 'em up compilations?






I consider TMNT IV Turtles in Time to be the best beat 'em up on the SNES. Not only is it a fantastic port of the arcade game (if you compare it to the port of TMNT The Arcade Game to the NES) it's just one of the most satisfying beat 'em ups out there! There's a weird 2.5D remake "Re-Shelled" that was on Xbox Live and PSN, but it was de-listed a short while after release. And there's The Cowabunga Collection which includes both arcade and SNES versions of the game. I suppose there's also the Arcade 1up machine which includes The Arcade Game as well as Turtles in Time.



I'll post about some more of my favorites later.

[Ziggy]

The Ninja Warriors is a fantastic beat 'em up for the SNES. It has really smooth and addictive gameplay. The three playable characters all feel distinctively different to play as. Unfortunately, the loose SNES cart now goes for over $100 on the used market. But amazingly, the people that originally developed this game have produced an enhanced remake on the PS4, Switch and PC. I've only played a little bit of the remaster so far, but it feels spot on to the SNES original. Here's a side by side comparison of the original and remaster.



The Simpsons arcade beat 'em up kind of baffles me. Developed by Konami, it's another four player licensed beat 'em up made during the heyday of a prolific game developer. But while Turtles in Time had a quality port on the SNES, The Simpsons had rather crappy ports to the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS. I always wondered why this game wasn't ported to the SNES. Was it a license issue? That doesn't seem right since there were plenty of other Simpson games on consoles. Does it not actually play as good as it looks? Because it looks fantastic. It was available for a short while (less than two years) digitally on Xbox 360 and PS3. And Arcade 1up has produced a four player machine, although it is expensive. I've always wondered why this one fell into licensing hell.

[marurun]

I always found it fascinating that the beat em up genre originated in the arcades but saw its most mechanically polished incarnation on a home console in the form of Streets of Rage 2.

[Raging Justice]

I always found it fascinating that the beat em up genre originated in the arcades but saw its most mechanically polished incarnation on a home console in the form of Streets of Rage 2.

It's a great game. I'd personally put Turtles in Time on the SNES, Ninja Warriors on the SNES, and a few other games over Streets of Rage 2 though. SOR 2 becomes a bit of a mess from stage 6 onward in my opinion. The stage 6 boss is cheap as hell and the elevator section in stage 7 is the game giving you the middle finger. I like a game that maintains a balanced difficulty throughout its entire play time personally. I love SOR 2...until stage 6. The game stops being fun after that.

EDIT: There actually was an arcade release of SOR 2, which is interesting.

Anyway, I'll list some great beat 'em ups (in my opinion), some of which maybe are a bit less known than the usual suspects:

A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV - The fact that a FF beat 'em up exists is crazy. They were giving it away for free too. I know it may have what some people call "mobile game graphics" and some choppy animation, but it's a lot of fun.
Lollipop Chainsaw - It's got flaws for sure, but is still a ton of fun. There is supposed to be a remaster this year.
The Dishwasher Vampire Smiles
River City: Tokyo Rumble
Odinsphere Leifthrasir - The remake
River City Saga: Three Kingdoms
Thor: God of Thunder - NIntendo DS version
Three Dirty Dwarves
The Takeover - There's a level with robots that ticks me off though
Raging Justice - Of course I have to mention this, very underrated.
Castle Crashers - I could do without the multiplayer, mini-game crap though, as well as the cheap as fuck Insane difficulty mode.
Streets of Red: Devil's Dare Deluxe

I really hope Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is good. Off course a lot of people like Shredder's Revenge and now have another turtles beat 'em up to look forward to

https://mynintendonews.com/2024/02/28/t ... to-switch/

The Ninja Warriors is a fantastic beat 'em up for the SNES. It has really smooth and addictive gameplay. The three playable characters all feel distinctively different to play as. Unfortunately, the loose SNES cart now goes for over $100 on the used market. But amazingly, the people that originally developed this game have produced an enhanced remake on the PS4, Switch and PC. I've only played a little bit of the remaster so far, but it feels spot on to the SNES original. Here's a side by side comparison of the original and remaster.



The Simpsons arcade beat 'em up kind of baffles me. Developed by Konami, it's another four player licensed beat 'em up made during the heyday of a prolific game developer. But while Turtles in Time had a quality port on the SNES, The Simpsons had rather crappy ports to the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS. I always wondered why this game wasn't ported to the SNES. Was it a license issue? That doesn't seem right since there were plenty of other Simpson games on consoles. Does it not actually play as good as it looks? Because it looks fantastic. It was available for a short while (less than two years) digitally on Xbox 360 and PS3. And Arcade 1up has produced a four player machine, although it is expensive. I've always wondered why this one fell into licensing hell.

Awesome note on Ninja Warriors on the Switch, some versions include reversible cover art featuring the original art from both the SNES and Super Famicom releases of the game. If you buy the Chinese version and flip the cover it looks EXACTLY like the Super Famicom release, even the spine. It's so goddamn cool and nostalgic.

I've always preferred Simpsons Arcade to some other big Konami arcade beat 'em ups like TMNT and X-Men. Also, I found a really cool repo site that has a very nicely done physical release for The Simpsons arcade. I think it's for the Dreamcast. If anyone is interested, the guy sells them for 20 bucks. As far as I know it's the only way to own a physical copy of the game. It's just a rom running on an emulator though.

https://nightsintodream.myshopify.com/p ... production




My last thought in this long post, I feel like any discussion of beat 'em ups has to mention OpenBOR. So many people have made games using this engine and some of them are really good.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I’ll post more later, but I really love playing these types of games with my children.

We shamelessly credit-feed many of them, but we’ve gotten pretty good at others. My son, who’s 12, and I legitimately completed every 2-Player game in both the Double Dragon and Streets of Rage series. It was a great time, and it was a cool bonding experience.

My son, my daughter, and I also competed both Capcom D&D games, TMNT, and Night Slashers. (Night Slashers RULES, BTW.) We’re thinking about picking up Fight ‘N Rage or Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for our next 3-Player beat ‘em up.

In short, this is a solid, accessible genre that’s a great way to introduce people to classic video games!

[Note]

I'm a big fan of beat 'em ups as well, and I'm glad this is the topic for our March discussion! Totally agree with prfsnl on the genre being accessible and a good way to introduce people to classic gaming.

Like many others, my favorite game in the genre is Streets of Rage 2. I'm sure you could tell by my avatar. Lol. Everything just comes together perfectly in the game, from the accessible difficulty, the graphics, the music, and a good amount of moves. I introduced the game to my partner a number of years ago, and she really liked it and took to it as well, and it made her a fan of the genre.

It's really too bad the NA audience got a screwed up version of SOR3 as our follow up. The difficulty is a bit much, the music is a downgrade IMO, and I don't care for the color swaps on the main characters. The JP version at least has a more manageable difficulty and doesn't have the odd color swaps on the selectable characters. I've come to appreciate it more over time, and it's a nice change of pace after replaying SOR2 so much, but I think the NA audience deserved better.

For any fans of the SOR series, I heavily suggest you also try Streets of Rage Remake, which is a fan made project. It consists of remade levels from all three games, as well as new levels, branching paths, and even a sequence where you're riding on a motorcycle! I played through it a few years back and was thoroughly impressed. It also has a stellar soundtrack consisting of well done remixes.

In regards to other Sega beat 'em ups, I have to bring up Golden Axe. I love this game too, and I think the first one is my favorite in the series. I think the game is a bit more difficult than the first two SOR entries, but if you master the back attack move, it'll help you breeze through the game. Also, the magic system is a fun mechanic as well as riding on dragons and other creatures.

For a lesser played title on the Genesis that I think deserves some love, I'll mention Alien Storm! This is a really fun game featuring a more modern setting, and you control a character with a weapon. There are also some gallery shooter sequences in the middle of levels, and areas where you're running forward and have to dodge and attack enemies. I actually haven't beat this one yet, so it's something I need to revisit!

I'll have to talk about games on the SNES and other consoles in a later post!

[Raging Justice]

Night Slashers is actually coming back:

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/ ... -on-switch

Multiplayer is the best way to experience Scott Pilgrim. I really don't enjoy it as a single player experience, but it's a reasonably fun game with 1 or 2 other players and I think it's one of those beat 'em ups that was just designed to be played that way.

I've wanted a copy of Bare Knuckle 3 for the longest time, but it always seems to be pricey. SOR 3 represents something that happened with a couple of 16-bit era games with the added difficulty being added to the Western release. Yet back in the 8-bit era Nintendo though Super Mario Bros. 2 would be too hard for people outside of Japan and thus decided to scrap it and just reskin and rename a different, easier game as SMB 2. Weird.

The original Golden Axe is awesome.

As far as modern examples of the genre, I love the Guacamelee games. They have some of the best beat 'em up action, yet generally get lumped in with the platform genre it seems because of their Metroid world design. The truth is, they masterfully blend platforming and beat 'em up gameplay and are some of the best games I've ever played.

[Note]

Regarding SNES beat 'em ups, my two favorites when the console was in its prime and still hold up are Turtles in Time and Super Double Dragon. The Mode 7 effects in TMNT are awesome. It's always fun to throw characters towards the screen, really unique inclusion in this one! And the difficulty is accessible. It's a title my sister and I used to play together, and she still brings it up from time to time.

Super Double Dragon is actually my favorite game in the series. It has some interesting mechanics such as the block and catch mechanic, where you can anticipate an enemy's attack and take advantage of it. Also, you can hold down a button to charge up a special move, which comes in handy too. The music is catchy as well and I love the song on the stage where you are riding atop the truck. That song is just fantastic. The tune that plays at the end of the game is amazing too. Miss playing this game in two player mode with my friends!

More recently in the last few years, while exploring other titles in the library, I finally checked out The Ninja Warriors, and I gotta say, I love this game! The graphics and music are amazing. The difficulty is challenging but not overwhelming. The side-scrolling mechanic is unique for a beat 'em up too but they made it work. It's unfortunate the game's only one player, but even so it's great.

I've also got a bit into the US released Rushing Beat games. I have a copy of The Peace Keepers and enjoy the game, but I haven't finished it yet. I think I'm missing something mechanic wise, as I feel like I haven't managed to get too far in it. Any fans of this one here? Any tips would be appreciated! I'd also like to track down Brawl Brothers, as I played a little bit of it on the Nintendo Switch online service and enjoyed what I played of it.

[Raging Justice]

I messed up a bit talking about the levels in Streets of Rage 2. It's the stage 5 boss I hate (That stupid boxer), and the level 6 elevator section that I also hate. It's still a classic game though.

The subject of music in these games is interesting. It's amazing how some of the best music comes from this genre. Streets of Rage set a standard and some other games have followed suit. Sometimes I may not even like a beat 'em up that much but will still be amazed by its soundtrack. Several indie beat 'em ups that have come out in recent years have absolutely stellar soundtracks.

[Ziggy]

Streets of Rage 2 "In the Bar" jazz cover by The Consouls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hflZhBdLis