Favorite Beat em Ups!

[mjmjr25]

^Agree completely. Though Knights of the Round is on the CPS1 hardware, as are the other greats, The King of Dragons and Warriors of Fate.

The Streets of Rage / Double Dragon / Golden Axe games just don't hold up against that stuff. Not in the same ballpark.

[brunoafh]

I don't see where you're coming from. The CPS games are some of the best beat em ups for sure but Golden Axe 3 and Streets of Rage 2-3 are just as awesome. They have the diverse move sets, awesome music, and depth that most of the CPS games have. In fact I'd argue that Streets of Rage III has more to it than any of those games. Battletoads games are admittedly a guilty pleasure for sure though.

Battle Circuit, that fan-made Streets of Rage remake, and Guardian Heroes I'd say are the games in another ballpark. Most beat em ups are all the same really, half a dozen or so characters with some grabs and a handful of different moves. Which is fine. Those games took things to another level though. Characters have pretty huge movesets, tons of unlockables and replay value (as in each play can feel genuinely different because there are so many characters and alternate stages), level up systems, absolutely frantic battles, etc. They tried to be more than the standard fare rather than just taking the mold and not going any further. Can't say I've played many beat em ups that bothered to do that.

[mjmjr25]

Well, to each his own, just my opinion. Streets of Rage to me is boring due to boring character developement, again, imo. That's what makes or breaks a beat 'em up in many regards - unique characters, crazy moves, intricate button combination moves (not A jump, B kick, C jump and whoa, wait for it, C then B for jump-kick) in depth bosses that need to be skillfully beat, not punch 5 times, knock me down, I punch you 5 times, knock me down, punch 5 times and dead. Whoo...fun!

Knights of Valour Plus has I think 13, maybe it's 15, characters to choose from all with specialized move sets.

Honestly, watch any youtube video of:
Demolish Fist
Crystal of Kings
The Gladiator

And then tell me SoR or GA are in that league. They just aren't...imo.

The sound effects in the first 30 seconds of demolish fist, to me, surpassed anything graphically / musically in the entire SoR series.

[marurun]

The sound effects in the first 30 seconds of demolish fist, to me, surpassed anything graphically / musically in the entire SoR series.

Demolish Fist DID come out in 2003 on the AtomisWave, so graphically and musically is SHOULD be more impressive than the entire SOR series. And I agree that a certain complexity is necessary, but we do have to put that in historical context as well. Combine the game-play complexity, graphics, music, and historical relevance and SOR is kind of THE beat-em-up benchmark. There are better, sure, but there are far more than are worse, including many that came after.

I'm assuming by GA you meant GH, or Guardian Heroes. I have seen little which surpasses GH mechanically. Fighting-game style moves to pull off attacks and spells, leveling and point assignment, crazy variety of enemies and lots of different ways to abuse spells and abilities, not to mention how changes in your stats affect those spells and abilities. While GH isn't a pure beat-em-up, I haven't seen a beat-em-up yet that can rival it for variety in enemies or mechanical beat-down.

But I'm definitely not going to argue preferences, here. You'll notice I've been pretty particular with my statements. Nothing I type here in this forum can, or should, tell you what you do or don't like to play.

[mjmjr25]

GA was Golden Axe, referenced by my previous post...

Guardian Heroes is legit. It's probably best classified as a beat 'em up, but it certainly has a strong Guantlet Legends / Devil Kings / Mystic Heroes type of feel to it as well

I would still say Knights of Valour Plus, Knights of Valour Seven Spirits, Oriental Legend 2, and Crystal of Kings are more balanced, more skilled, and more enjoyable, for me.

[Breetai]

Do you have a cab or supergun? I didn't know...

It pops up on neo and shmups every few weeks, about $110 range.

If you're giving stuff away, I'll take your PGM Knights of Valour Plus from you and give it a nice home.

[disorderlyvision]

Haven't seen Splatterhouse mentioned. Me and my daughter were having a blast with Splatterhouse 3 last night.

[d123456]

Sengoku 3 (neo, ps2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17F_NMw_ ... re=related
The ps2 doesn´t have that many beat ´em ups.

[Sonicx360]

Final Fight (SNES/arcade)
The Simpsons (arcade)
Captain Commando
Sengoku Basara 3 (PS3; I consider hack & slash to be "3-dimensional" beat-em up)

[dreamcups]

1-Final Fight (arc)
2-Alien x Predator (arc)
3-Captain Comando (arc)
4-Cadillacs and dinosaurs (arc)
5-Double Dragon (arc)

I like basically everything capcom did back in the day at the arcades. unfortunately, the few games which received home port werent as good as the originals. i think capcom should have released a ps2 compilation with all their beatnups.