Good AND easy beat'em ups

[Erik_Twice]

I'm not good at beat'em ups or any other game that requires understanding movesets and patterns so I decided playing one easier than the usual would be a nice idea. There's a problem with this, however, and that's that all the "good" beat'em ups I know other than Streets of Rage are fairly difficult.

So which games do you think are easy enough for a newbie but still interesting?

[BoneSnapDeez]

Golden Axe III is great and pretty easy. The enemy AI is quite dumb, and they don't charge at you like they do in the first two games.

Nearly every enemy can be taken out by jumping and then slashing. You don't have to worry about combos or anything. You can find the game on the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection.

Code of Princess for the 3DS is another great beat 'em up. There are RPG elements, experience points, and you can repeat levels. Thus it's possible to level-grind your way out of a tricky situation.

[bryan_65]

Code of Princess for the 3DS is another great beat 'em up. There are RPG elements, experience points, and you can repeat levels. Thus it's possible to level-grind your way out of a tricky situation.

Man that is next on my list of 3DS games to get. I really want to try that one.


As far as other beat 'em up I suggest the TMNT games on NES, SNES, Genesis and have read good things on the GC and PS2 ones too. I like the 16 bit Spiderman ones also oh man I could go on and on. I just love my beat 'em ups.

[Gunstar Green]

Golden Axe III is great and pretty easy. The enemy AI is quite dumb, and they don't charge at you like they do in the first two games.

Funny you should say that I was in an argument with someone who was convinced I didn't like the game because it was "too hard." I couldn't convince them that I didn't like it because I think it's kind of boring and ugly.

Code of Princess is really neat! It's a fitting spiritual successor to Guardian Heroes in my opinion. The different characters are a lot of fun and the story was entertaining. Leveling up means that a player of any skill level can get through it. The fighting-game style controls and combos are great too.

That said Guardian Heroes itself is a good option. I think there's a few ways to obtain it digitally these days.

[cha cha]

Capcom's beat 'em ups are generally all easy and fun. Alien vs Predator (arcade version) being funnest for me. Cannon Spike (DC/arcade), Final Fight(s) (arcade-snes) are all pretty "easy" as far as complexity goes.

You can avoid stuff like Capcom's D&D beat 'em ups (arc/XBL/PSN) as those are involved and have "complex" elements when it comes to using skills and items. Vanillaware's Dragon's Crown (PS3/VITA) is the next gen version of those so I guess if difficulty is really what steers you away, avoid those types of games.

God Hand (PS2), which imo is an essential title for any beat 'em up/action fan, is both easy and difficult depending on how you want to approach it... but overall I guess I'd say its too difficult by "today's" standards...

[ninjainspandex]

Well arcade beat em ups are pretty easy if you don't mind credit feeding, some easy console beat em ups I can think of off the top of my head are Nekketsu Oyako Hot Blooded Children and Crows, for the Sega saturn and River City Ransom for the NES and TMNT Turtles in Time for the SNES

[Luke]

Define "easy".

Most b'mups start off easy and then spike in difficulty, and you can bet your tail the last boss will be a jerk. Final Fight, SOR, Golden Axe, etc.

I will say that TMNT Fall of the Footclan for gameboy is rather simple and easy to beat without any cheats.

[Flake]

Capcom's D&D games on XBLA, PSN, and WiiU are pretty fun and not terribly hard. You'll coin feed a little bit but there's a diverse set of paths to get through the games and it's two games in one download.

I'm also a fervent supporter of Guardian Heroes.

[Snatch1414]

Cannon Spike is easy? I only played it once and didn't really know what I was doing but it didn't seem like a beat 'em up to me.

I actually think Golden Axe is pretty easy including the final boss but I've been playing that game since day one.

Any of the straight from the arcade ports to XBLA or PSN are easy because there's no quarter factor. You just keep continuing. TMNT, Simpsons, etc.

[cha cha]

Cannon Spike is easy? I only played it once and didn't really know what I was doing but it didn't seem like a beat 'em up to me.

eh it's like a borderline shmup-beat em up hybrid thing. I didn't think it was terribly hard, no.