A reader names his five favourite beat ‘em-ups from the 80s and 90s and hopes that the genre will continue to see a modern resurgence.
When it comes to scrolling beat ‘em-up games there are many that have managed to win the admiration of gamers across the world. The release of Streets Of Rage in 1991 created the standard for these types of games, showing exactly how they should be done, but until recently there have been very few new ones.
In the late 80s early 90s there was an era when these games proved that with the right people and design team you could get a great brawler even on limited hardware.
Here are five classic 2D and 3D beat ‘em-ups that you certainly should try out and at least play once, to see exactly what they have to offer and how they still remain playable today.
Final Fight
If you have played Streets Of Rage, then you are going to love playing this. After the genre began with Renegade and Double Dragon in the mid-80s, Final Fight revamped the concept in 1989 – two years before the first Streets Of Rage. Final Fight still remains playable today and while there hasn’t been a new entry in a while many of the characters have appeared in sister series Street Fighter. The original was never ported to the Mega Drive (although there was a Mega CD version) but it did become a key early title for the SNES, and an important demonstration of its arcade quality graphics.
Streets Of Rage
Another one of the greatest 2D fighting games ever made, the first and second games were masterpieces made by Sega. Although they were very similar to Final Fight in terms of graphics and gameplay they became just as famous for their techno soundtracks as their action. The three Mega Drive games seemed as if they’d be the only entries until recently, with the release of indie sequel Streets Of Rage 4. Thanks to the success of that and the Sonic the Hedgehog movie there’s now going to be , which should hopefully mean more game sequels as well.
Golden Axe
The most famous fantasy beat ‘em-up, the combination of using magic and fighting with a sword or axe was a great co-op experience. The three characters all had their own unique abilities, including special magic attacks, plus all of them could ride mounts including the iconic ‘Chicken Leg’. Although there was an attempt to revive the franchise in 2008 it wasn’t very good, but hopefully the same team behind Streets Of Rage 4 can create a new game and then maybe we’ll even see a Golden Axe movie!
Two Crude
A long forgotten coin-op classic from Data East, this follow-up to Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja featured some excellent 2D graphics for the time, with some great animation and an unusual amount of digitised speech and wisecracks from the main characters. The gameplay was also more involved than usual, with the ability to pick up and throw objects and enemies, as well as some light platforming and a great soundtrack. It only ever had one home conversion though, on the Mega Drive (as Two Crude Dudes), and so quickly faded from memory – although there is a port of the arcade original on Steam.
Fighting Force
There aren’t many 3D beat ‘em-ups but 1997’s Fighting Force is one of the most famous. It managed to provide great gameplay with an amazing soundtrack on the original PlayStation, although unfortunately there was only one sequel – with a third being cancelled due to poor sales of Fighting Force 2. By the 2000s traditional beat ‘em-ups were considered too shallow and simplistic for a full price game, but the advent of indie games has seen a resurge of interest in the genre. Although since Fighting Force is now owned by Square Enix it doesn’t seem very likely it will come back.
Hopefully, in the future we will see more titles like these, that will only strengthen the popularity of beat ‘em-ups further. The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, by the same team behind Streets Of Rage 4, certainly looks promising and is hopefully just a sign of more to come.
By reader gaz be rotten (gamertag)
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