Favorite Arcade Beat em' up

outerheaven

outerheaven

CAGiversary!
Feedback
2 (100%)
Just wanted to know what are some of you guy's or gal's favorite old school arcade beat em' up. For me it had to be a tie between the Konami's Simpsons and X-men Arcade games. When I was a kid I use to waste quaters like crazy whenever I use to see them. Now if only they would release it on xbox live or psn so I can revisit and finally beat them.
 
I don't like beat 'em ups generally but Sengoku and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara were excellent. I'd also put Kung-Fu on the list, if that counts.
 
Probably the first TMNT. Six-player X-Men was great too.

From later on, the D&D Tower of Doom & Shadow over (whatever) were a good time.
 
I love me some beat-'em-ups! Of course, Double Dragon and Final Fight are classics, but one of my favorites is The Combatribes. Bashing two dudes' skulls together in that game just felt good. Another one I enjoyed in the arcades was Renegade (didn't care too much for the NES port, though).
 
Shadows of Mystara of the D&D fame rocked - Another one that was awesome that I would be surprised if more than one in 10 people have even heard of is Cadiallacs and Dinosaurs.
 
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs was awesome! Hell pretty much all the Capcom beat 'em ups from then (AVP, Punisher, etc.) were awesome.
 
The Simpsons or TMNT III: Turtles In Time. They had both at Little Caesars when I was a kid, and I'd beg my mom to go there just so I could play those games. I actually got to go there a few weeks ago for a cousin's birthday, and they still had The Simpsons. The cabinet was incredibly dirty. I could still faintly see when I wrote my name on it in red crayon from when I was 6 :lol:
 
Simspons hands down for me. It leaving one of the local arcades (it later showed up at another one though) was one of the few moments where I actually cried about something.
 
Capcom and Konami knew how to make a kick ass beat em' up and just wished games like punisher, avp or Simpson would come back as atleast DLC. Funny thing is recently I just remembered another one that I use to love as a kid. I don't know if anyone here would agree but this was actually a really good beat em' up at the time and Its Moonwalker. I remember how awesome it was when you get bubbles and you turn in that robot kicking ass. It would be awesome to bring that one back too.
 
Have any of you guys played these games recently? They do not hold up well at all and most of them just aren't fun. Whenever people come over to play video games on my arcade cabinets they always want to play The Simpsons or TMNT and after 15 minutes everyone is bored (maybe because no money is involved?).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Might be its just me but I still play Turtles in time, Golden Axe or streets of rage every now and then. To me their still a blast to play but I'll admit I only play at the most an hour.
 
If I pop in Turtles in Time on SNES, I can't play just one level. I have to beat the game, or at least get as far as I can. I think that says something about how well it holds up.

Whenever I see the Streets of Rage logo, I always kind of think they put an extra e in Streets.
 
Streets of Rage 2 - Awesome music, great variety of characters, and good difficulty balance. I can still play it to this day.

If we're going to strictly beat 'em ups that showed up in arcades, I'd have to go with the first Dungeons and Dragons game. The second one might have been a little better but I prefer the gameplay of the first one, I'm better at it :p
 
Oooooo...tough question. The Arcade pricing model lent itself so well to the Beat-Em-Up genre. It's like that gameplay style was specifically tailored to eat quarters. A lot of solid arcade beat-em-ups got produced.

I'm going to have to throw in another vote for Aliens Vs. Predator. Capcom was one of the very best companies at beat-em-ups. AvsP was a solid, colorful beat-em-up based on two of my very favorite movie franchises. The character animation was extremely smooth and detailed, some really appealing sprite work. It was also one of the best games ever released based on either Aliens or Predator at the time that it came out. (the SNES version of AvsP was far inferior by comparison, though still in the same genre)

Outside of an arcade context, the beat-em-up genre doesn't hold up nearly as well. There isn't as much tension when you take away the quarter-munching, and co-op was one of the biggest strengths of those games. Playing a game like that solo with unlimited lives takes away a lot of the appeal. A modern re-interpretation of the genre would benefit from stronger multi-player co-op focus, as well as better incentivizing good play. If you are going to have a game with unlimited lives and continues, you need to give people a reason to avoid dying. And if you take away those lives and continues, you make the game too hard for casual players. (ie, wusses)
 
Wow I have never seen an AvP beat em up, that looks pretty awsome.

I really liked Punisher from Capcom, actually looks kinda like that AvP one.

I always enjoyed watching the older kids play X-Men and Ninja turtles at my local arcade (heh i was probably 9-11 yrs old, didnt have any money lol)

EDIT: Forgot to mention Die Hard Arcade (Sega)
 
Nothing beats Double Dragon , playing it at the local pizza place, at lunch time at High School ...We used to play it with the kids of 5th grade from another school...and betraying them at the bridge part,so they fall to the water...and also at the end stage hurrying up so the spears of the demons would kill them...Those where the times, I am so glad I lived that era, ahahahahaha!!!
 
[quote name='Diebythesword']AVP is badass

But my fav beat em up of all time is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for the SNES[/QUOTE]

Only thing missing is a 2-player option
 
[quote name='JStryke']Simspons hands down for me. It leaving one of the local arcades (it later showed up at another one though) was one of the few moments where I actually cried about something.[/QUOTE]


Simpsons is awesome... my favorite.
 
TMNT, used to stop by my local 7-11 everyday after school and pump quarter after quarter into that machine. Was really sad when they got rid of it.

Also AVP. That game was a blast if you played with 2 other people. I still play it every now and then when I'm bored at school.
 
Double Dragon was my personal fave. I also loved a game called Karate Champ but that was more of a PvP game than a beat em up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top