Favorite beat ‘em ups, and *why*

[danzibr]

Beat ‘em ups (like River City Ransom, Castle Crashers, Scott Pilgrim) are one of my favorite genres. I played River City Ransom as a kid, still return to it occasionally. Likewise with Castle Crashers, first played it like… 14 years ago?

Anyway, I got to comparing some beat ‘em ups, figured out they’re quite different, can’t exactly put my finger on why I prefer some over others.

Castle Crashers is fast paced. No interruptions with speech, but there’s still a story. Character investment/progression is nice. No fancy equips, just weapon and animal orb. 4-player co-op, very nice.

River City Ransom though… no world map. Takes a while to go shopping, grind money, build up a character. Controls are super simple, good ol’ A and B. But man, whaling on all the rival gangs is super satisfying.

I definitely like at least *some* character powering up, unlike quite a few of the old arcade-style games. Beyond that… hard to say.

[Psyren]

I assume you mean side-scrolling beat-em-ups specifically?

I've loved most of the retro remake brawlers so far. I think Double Dragon Neon started the trend, but Streets of Rage 4 and Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge kept it going to critical and audience acclaim. (I'd probably skip Battletoads though.)

On the more indie side of things, I'd recommend giving Mother Russia Bleeds a try.

[danzibr]

I assume you mean side-scrolling beat-em-ups specifically?

I've loved most of the retro remake brawlers so far. I think Double Dragon Neon started the trend, but Streets of Rage 4 and Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge kept it going to critical and audience acclaim. (I'd probably skip Battletoads though.)

On the more indie side of things, I'd recommend giving Mother Russia Bleeds a try.
Nice! Question though… what do you like about them?

Ooh yeah dunno how I missed some of these. Among my favorites, as a kid.

I did start Mother Russia Bleeds with a buddy of mine. Had fun for the bit we played it. Minor problem… I’d rather play it couch co-op, and I love nowhere near my buddy, and my kids aren’t old enough.

[Rynjin]

I don't play too many Bmups, but every now and then my friend group goes back to play Chronicles of Mystara, the Steam port of the two D&D arcade games from the 90s.

It's...really good. Just a lot of options to choose from, with the six character classes (Fighter, Magic User, Cleric, Thief, Elf, and Dwarf), all of which play in a unique and fun way. Magic is just really satisfying in the game, and just as powerful as you'd expect from a game based on D&D. It's still prepared, so characters have limited slots for magic to use, but there are some real gems in there. Of course there are classics like Magic Missile and Fireball, but there's some you might not have expected to see in a video game like Cloudkill and the shockingly powerful Sticks to Snakes.

Lot of little secrets to find, including in the characters themselves...the "Player 2" versions of each character have different equipment (in the case of Fighter, Thief, and Dwarf) or different spells prepared (in the case of Magic User, Cleric, and Elf), which increases your options per playthrough even more.

[MCerberus]

The Simpsons arcade games. Pure top-tier nostalgia for that cabinet, up there with San Fransisco Rush.

[Velaryon]

One of the PS2-era Tekken games (I forget whether it was 4 or 5) pasted on a halfhearted beat 'em up mode called Tekken Force Mode or something like that, and even though it was far from good I really wanted to like it. Having a beat 'em up where the characters have movesets as deep as a fighting game would be an amazing experience.

As for true beat 'em up games though. I love some old school classics and some more modern games. I adore the old Streets of Rage games (though I'm apparently the only person in the world who thinks SoR 3 was a significant upgrade over SoR 2. Streets of Rage 4 does a lot of things right, and I adore it in its own right, but I can also see some easy changes that would make it an even better game, and it's frustrating to see that they haven't really supported the game after a single DLC release.

Castle Crashers is, as mentioned already, a fantastic game. I love the art style, story, variety of characters and enemies, and even the music. The difficulty in Insane Mode scales to the point of absurdity and I wish that was better balanced. Also, a lot of the unlockable characters are basically clones of each other, so there's not as much variety as there appears to be. Nonetheless, I would probably put this in my top 5.

I like the various TMNT games such as Shredder's Revenge and even the re-release of Turtles in Time, but I feel that these games are a bit lacking in depth of gameplay relative to the other titles mentioned. I super appreciate the deep roster of characters that appear in Shredder's Revenge, though.

Have there been any retro sequels for games like Final Fight though? I think that one is ripe for the SoR 4 treatment, at the very least.

[danzibr]

I don't play too many Bmups, but every now and then my friend group goes back to play Chronicles of Mystara, the Steam port of the two D&D arcade games from the 90s.

It's...really good. Just a lot of options to choose from, with the six character classes (Fighter, Magic User, Cleric, Thief, Elf, and Dwarf), all of which play in a unique and fun way. Magic is just really satisfying in the game, and just as powerful as you'd expect from a game based on D&D. It's still prepared, so characters have limited slots for magic to use, but there are some real gems in there. Of course there are classics like Magic Missile and Fireball, but there's some you might not have expected to see in a video game like Cloudkill and the shockingly powerful Sticks to Snakes.

Lot of little secrets to find, including in the characters themselves...the "Player 2" versions of each character have different equipment (in the case of Fighter, Thief, and Dwarf) or different spells prepared (in the case of Magic User, Cleric, and Elf), which increases your options per playthrough even more.
Ooh now that's what I like to hear. Gonna have to watch some gameplay, see why the magic is so satisfying.

The Simpsons arcade games. Pure top-tier nostalgia for that cabinet, up there with San Fransisco Rush.
Ah so the old Simpsons game is good for nostalgia purposes?

One of the PS2-era Tekken games (I forget whether it was 4 or 5) pasted on a halfhearted beat 'em up mode called Tekken Force Mode or something like that, and even though it was far from good I really wanted to like it. Having a beat 'em up where the characters have movesets as deep as a fighting game would be an amazing experience.

As for true beat 'em up games though. I love some old school classics and some more modern games. I adore the old Streets of Rage games (though I'm apparently the only person in the world who thinks SoR 3 was a significant upgrade over SoR 2. Streets of Rage 4 does a lot of things right, and I adore it in its own right, but I can also see some easy changes that would make it an even better game, and it's frustrating to see that they haven't really supported the game after a single DLC release.

Castle Crashers is, as mentioned already, a fantastic game. I love the art style, story, variety of characters and enemies, and even the music. The difficulty in Insane Mode scales to the point of absurdity and I wish that was better balanced. Also, a lot of the unlockable characters are basically clones of each other, so there's not as much variety as there appears to be. Nonetheless, I would probably put this in my top 5.

I like the various TMNT games such as Shredder's Revenge and even the re-release of Turtles in Time, but I feel that these games are a bit lacking in depth of gameplay relative to the other titles mentioned. I super appreciate the deep roster of characters that appear in Shredder's Revenge, though.

Have there been any retro sequels for games like Final Fight though? I think that one is ripe for the SoR 4 treatment, at the very least.
Now that's a great point, with a beat 'em up with movesets as in-depth as a fighting game. I feel like River City Ransom Underground tried to do this, but I didn't really get into the game. I *did* like it, but I'd prefer it on console.

[animorte]

Putting another vote in for Castle Crashers. I would definitely go back to this.

Playing with friends was an absolute blast. The only underwhelming factor was putting all your points into archery, what a joke. I mean I still had fun, but it was extremely underwhelming. So was magic (if we're comparing damage), but at least that was flashy.


I remember our first run through, four people, I was the only person with notable magic (ice because CC = OP). I kept up well enough for the most part, had some points in defense. I pretty much ran the fights that required spacing. I especially remember the final boss in which it has a red/blue shield. While one is up, you can only deal physical damage. While the other is up, you can only deal magic damage. We didn't know that, as our timing was generally poor and thus, all the melee prodigies were useless. So, I pretty much soloed that entire fight as everybody else just played keep-away. We figured it out toward the end of the fight and everybody pitched in. Just a wonderful personal memory.

To be fair, everybody nearly got ran over against that tiny flying black knight mini-boss in the garbage room, especially me.

Oh, and my magic was far superior in the PvP sections, "battle for the kiss!" As long as I kited perfectly. Got hit once and it was suddenly air-juggle-combo-mania. :smallcool:


I know it's not a beat 'em up, but another game that gave a similar comic feel to it while sometimes getting tactical is Overcooked (1&2).

[MinimanMidget]

Another vote for Castle Crashers. And one that no-one's mentioned yet - Little Fighter 2. Simple combos, fluid gameplay, lots of characters with distinctive abilities, just a fun little game.

I got a decent way into River City Girls, but I bounced off one of the bosses hard enough that I haven't gone back to it. I was enjoying up until then, though.

I'll also give a shout-out to Subspace Emissary (the single-player campaign for Super Smash Bros Brawl); it doesn't exactly fit the category, but it's pretty great and wildly underrated. Far and away the best single player experience in the series, and it's a terrible shame that they haven't had a single player mode since that's not just a series of regular fights against bots.

[Zevox]

Honestly, I'm trying to remember the last time I actually played a pure beat-em-up game, and it's tough. I think it may have been as far back as when they re-released the X-Men Arcade game on XBLA? Which Wikipedia tells me was 2010. And that was out of simple nostalgia. Beyond that the closest equivalent would be when I tried Dungeon Fighter Online, which I quickly ditched due to issues with how it's set up as a free-to-play MMO style game. Or the story mode of Granblue Fantasy Versus, which despite that game being a fighting game is set up more like a beat-em-up, but even there I mostly liked the boss fights, and probably more than half of the reason for that was the music. I have also thought about picking up River City Girls, since I've heard good things about that, but its just never made it to the top of my priorities list.

I don't know, despite them having similarities to game genres I do like and play all the time (action & fighting), something about them just hasn't ever quite clicked with me.

[danzibr]

Putting another vote in for Castle Crashers. I would definitely go back to this.

Playing with friends was an absolute blast. The only underwhelming factor was putting all your points into archery, what a joke. I mean I still had fun, but it was extremely underwhelming. So was magic (if we're comparing damage), but at least that was flashy.


I remember our first run through, four people, I was the only person with notable magic (ice because CC = OP). I kept up well enough for the most part, had some points in defense. I pretty much ran the fights that required spacing. I especially remember the final boss in which it has a red/blue shield. While one is up, you can only deal physical damage. While the other is up, you can only deal magic damage. We didn't know that, as our timing was generally poor and thus, all the melee prodigies were useless. So, I pretty much soloed that entire fight as everybody else just played keep-away. We figured it out toward the end of the fight and everybody pitched in. Just a wonderful personal memory.

To be fair, everybody nearly got ran over against that tiny flying black knight mini-boss in the garbage room, especially me.

Oh, and my magic was far superior in the PvP sections, "battle for the kiss!" As long as I kited perfectly. Got hit once and it was suddenly air-juggle-combo-mania. :smallcool:


I know it's not a beat 'em up, but another game that gave a similar comic feel to it while sometimes getting tactical is Overcooked (1&2).
Yeah archery is such a mixed bag. With really agility it’s SUPER strong, crazy dps. But actually getting there is unpleasant, definitely get outshone by magic and melee most of the game.

Another vote for Castle Crashers. And one that no-one's mentioned yet - Little Fighter 2. Simple combos, fluid gameplay, lots of characters with distinctive abilities, just a fun little game.

I got a decent way into River City Girls, but I bounced off one of the bosses hard enough that I haven't gone back to it. I was enjoying up until then, though.

I'll also give a shout-out to Subspace Emissary (the single-player campaign for Super Smash Bros Brawl); it doesn't exactly fit the category, but it's pretty great and wildly underrated. Far and away the best single player experience in the series, and it's a terrible shame that they haven't had a single player mode since that's not just a series of regular fights against bots.
Ooh good call with Subspace Emissary. I was quite disappointed in Ultimate’s “story mode.”

Never heard of Little Fighter 2 though. Must Google.

Honestly, I'm trying to remember the last time I actually played a pure beat-em-up game, and it's tough. I think it may have been as far back as when they re-released the X-Men Arcade game on XBLA? Which Wikipedia tells me was 2010. And that was out of simple nostalgia. Beyond that the closest equivalent would be when I tried Dungeon Fighter Online, which I quickly ditched due to issues with how it's set up as a free-to-play MMO style game. Or the story mode of Granblue Fantasy Versus, which despite that game being a fighting game is set up more like a beat-em-up, but even there I mostly liked the boss fights, and probably more than half of the reason for that was the music. I have also thought about picking up River City Girls, since I've heard good things about that, but it’s just never made it to the top of my priorities list.

I don't know, despite them having similarities to game genres I do like and play all the time (action & fighting), something about them just hasn't ever quite clicked with me.
Interesting… different strokes, I suppose. I imagine my love of the genre is rooted in my River City Ransom experience as a kid.

[MinimanMidget]

Never heard of Little Fighter 2 though. Must Google.

You should! It's free, and a very quick download. Apparently they're working on a remake, too.

Important tip for when you've tried all the characters: you can make all the enemy characters playable too. You should look up how to do it if you reach this point. It acts as both an inbuilt challenge mode (playing as a mook is rough) and a way to enjoy playing as the wildly overpowered boss characters.

[WritersBlock]

Well if you want a beat em up with some fighting game elements and an upgrade system on top of it you can try Battle Circuit (Capcom arcade beat em up)
I usually play Yellow Iris or Alien Green when I do a run of that game.

It has some somewhat gimmicky bosses so be warned. But its is quite an interesting game despite that.

[MCerberus]

Ah so the old Simpsons game is good for nostalgia purposes?


Well that really depends on if you played the old Konami licensed games, and then more what you were playing. A lot of fans of the Xmen "welcome to die" game out there, but I spent the most quarters on the Simpsons game. Of course because they're licensed getting one of games is a nightmare, but I think they managed to work it out for the TMNT games, which you can buy.

[danzibr]

Ya know I had a thought... what makes a beat 'em up *bad*? For me, I really wanted to like Full Metal Furies, but the color gimmick was dreadful.

You should! It's free, and a very quick download. Apparently they're working on a remake, too.

Important tip for when you've tried all the characters: you can make all the enemy characters playable too. You should look up how to do it if you reach this point. It acts as both an inbuilt challenge mode (playing as a mook is rough) and a way to enjoy playing as the wildly overpowered boss characters.
Ooh nice! I love it when you can unlock the baddies.

Well if you want a beat em up with some fighting game elements and an upgrade system on top of it you can try Battle Circuit (Capcom arcade beat em up)
I usually play Yellow Iris or Alien Green when I do a run of that game.

It has some somewhat gimmicky bosses so be warned. But its is quite an interesting game despite that.
*googles* yup, they look nice! Mm upgrade system, must research.

Well that really depends on if you played the old Konami licensed games, and then more what you were playing. A lot of fans of the Xmen "welcome to die" game out there, but I spent the most quarters on the Simpsons game. Of course because they're licensed getting one of games is a nightmare, but I think they managed to work it out for the TMNT games, which you can buy.
Yeah... I always saw the Simpsons game in arcades, but never had the quarters :(

[Toastkart]

I'll always have a soft spot for Golden Axe and its sequels. Loved the sword and sorcery feel.

I also spent way too many hours with both Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2. Apparently there were pc ports of these games, but it seems like they're no longer available for sale due to licensing issues. Maybe I should set up my 360 for a while.

It also seems Marvel's Avengers is ending support. I wasn't terribly impressed by its initial offering, and even less so when it tried to be a game as service, but it may be worth picking up if it goes on sale between now and september.

[Rynjin]

Do the Ultimate Alliance games count as beat 'em ups? If so, yeah those games are great.

[Bohandas]

I'm partial to the old Simpsons arcade game from the 1990's and the X-Men videogame from the same time period. They were the ones that were bif when I was a kid

[danzibr]

I'll always have a soft spot for Golden Axe and its sequels. Loved the sword and sorcery feel.

I also spent way too many hours with both Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2. Apparently there were pc ports of these games, but it seems like they're no longer available for sale due to licensing issues. Maybe I should set up my 360 for a while.

It also seems Marvel's Avengers is ending support. I wasn't terribly impressed by its initial offering, and even less so when it tried to be a game as service, but it may be worth picking up if it goes on sale between now and september.
Heck yeah! I played a ton of Golden Axe 2 as a kid. Even beat it.

Now I go back to play them and discover... man, they're hard. Don't have the patience I had as a kid.

Do the Ultimate Alliance games count as beat 'em ups? If so, yeah those games are great.
Hm well they've been mentioned, so uhh, sure. I never played them, but checking them out on Youtube... hmm, looks just like Gauntlet Legends or whatever on GameCube, one of my favorite games. In my mind I was thinking side-scrollers, but that could count, yeah.

I'm partial to the old Simpsons arcade game from the 1990's and the X-Men videogame from the same time period. They were the ones that were bif when I was a kid
Indeed, indeed.

[MCerberus]

Question for the thread: does Rampage count?

[Rynjin]

Hm well they've been mentioned, so uhh, sure. I never played them, but checking them out on Youtube... hmm, looks just like Gauntlet Legends or whatever on GameCube, one of my favorite games. In my mind I was thinking side-scrollers, but that could count, yeah.

I think the Gamecube era one would be Seven Sorrows, which I had on the PS2. That's also quite a fun game, yeah. The "Red Wizard needs food...badly." voiceline is locked into my brain with perfect, pristine recall.

[KillianHawkeye]

Question for the thread: does Rampage count?

Rampage is pretty unique, but I'd say it's close enough. It's got the spirit!

[Velaryon]

Do the Ultimate Alliance games count as beat 'em ups? If so, yeah those games are great.

I liked Ultimate Alliance 1 a lot more than I did 2. Part of that is my distaste for the Civil War storyline (except in the Captain America movie, they handled it pretty well there), but the main thing was that it just felt too... homogenized to me. Graphics aside, it felt like characters played a lot more similarly to each other than they did in Ultimate Alliance 1, or the X-Men Legends games before that.


As for Rampage... yeah sure, it's at least a quasi-beat em up, I suppose. You're just beating up buildings and comparatively tiny enemies.

[Shpadoinkle]

Double Dragon Neon, Castle Crashers, and Shredder's Revenge have all been mentioned, along with River City Ransom and River City Ransom: Underground. I've played and like all ove those, EXCEPT for RCR:U. I don't mind some grinding, but the sheer amount you have to do in that game, not to mention all the BS with police and crap just made it a completely un-fun experience for me. And I didn't play it for an hour and give up on it, I played for 32 hours according to Steam, hoping it would get better, but it never really did.

That aside, I'd like to point out that the Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, and Warriors Orochi games are basically the same concept as older games like Double Dragon or River City Ransom. Maybe give those a look if you haven't before.

Also, I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed with the way Double Dragon Neon handled special moves. The idea of a 'power' meter for your special moves so you can't just spam your strongest stuff all the time was fine, but there's the fact that you can only have one 'set' at a time, you have to pause the game to change it, and you execute them all the exact same way, with a single button press, was kind of jarring coming from the older Double Dragon games, especially 2.

If I were designing it, I'd have two or three 'magic slots' that you can fill with whatever abilities you have available, maybe have them separated into 'body part' slots, like arms and legs. In the 'arms' slot you could put one of Fireball, One-Inch Punch, or whatever, and in the 'legs' slot you could equip one from Knee Drop, Spin Kick, etc. and in the 'head' or 'soul' slot or whatever you'd want to call it, you could equip Lightning or Dragon Swarm, etc.

I'd also give each slot their own button input - the 'leg' slot might be Kick+Magic or something like that, I don't know. I don't really like being able to just hit a single button and pull off a special move, even if you do have a magic meter.

[animorte]

Thanks for mentioning Dynasty Warriors. I remember playing several, but when I got to DW8 (I think) there was the rock-paper-scissors method of overcoming the opposition, which was really neat as you could always have a load out with 2 different ones.

What frustrated me was the very next one (9, I think) removed couch co-op and that was it for me. Always enjoyed playing with my wife or another friend.

[Rynjin]

I liked Ultimate Alliance 1 a lot more than I did 2. Part of that is my distaste for the Civil War storyline (except in the Captain America movie, they handled it pretty well there), but the main thing was that it just felt too... homogenized to me. Graphics aside, it felt like characters played a lot more similarly to each other than they did in Ultimate Alliance 1, or the X-Men Legends games before that.


As for Rampage... yeah sure, it's at least a quasi-beat em up, I suppose. You're just beating up buildings and comparatively tiny enemies.

True. Part of the appeal of Ultimate Alliance was the jank. It was not a top tier, biggest budget game and it showed. But damn it actually delivered on that superhero fantasy with every character having unique moves game balance and game ARCHITECTURE be damned.

Deadpool's ability to teleport with his belt gadget that never shows up anymore was absolutely busted and let you sequence break in a million different ways by teleporting through walls, doors, etc. and quite often resulted in cutscenes and scripted events shattering into a million pieces.

But it was FUN damn it.

[Toastkart]

How could any of us have forgotten "Wise from your gwave! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hihEhsdwiIk)"? I need to go hang my head in shame now. A little more focused than Golden Axe, but the character had less personality. On the other hand, who doesn't like turning into a monster with superpowers?



True. Part of the appeal of Ultimate Alliance was the jank. It was not a top tier, biggest budget game and it showed. But damn it actually delivered on that superhero fantasy with every character having unique moves game balance and game ARCHITECTURE be damned.

Deadpool's ability to teleport with his belt gadget that never shows up anymore was absolutely busted and let you sequence break in a million different ways by teleporting through walls, doors, etc. and quite often resulted in cutscenes and scripted events shattering into a million pieces.

But it was FUN damn it.

Come to think of it, I think Ultimate Alliance was the first time I encountered Deadpool. I found him rather annoying.

[WritersBlock]

I have been playing King of Dragons lately, a capcom beat em up that is pretty much a simplified version of the 2 D&D beat em ups capcom also made. I wish Dragons Crown would get a PC version (Sorceress and Amazon ftw) but since Atlus is involved they would probably just slap Denuvo on it and never remove it, so monkeys paw situation there.

[GloatingSwine]

I spent an ungodly amount of money on King of Dragons back in the day. Reckon I completed it with every character at least.

[Velaryon]

That aside, I'd like to point out that the Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, and Warriors Orochi games are basically the same concept as older games like Double Dragon or River City Ransom. Maybe give those a look if you haven't before.

Good call! The Warriors games really are basically just beat 'em ups in 3D, and with weapons being the default rather than unarmed combat.

For me personally, that genre peaked in the PS2 era. Dynasty Warriors 5 and Samurai Warriors 2 are my favorites in their respective series, for several reasons. I never really liked how Dynasty Warriors changed up the gameplay in DW6 although I will give them credit for doing something to freshen up the formula, which had gotten pretty stale by then. It also bothered me that they stopped including English voice dubs in the games, which completely ruined Samurai Warriors 4 for me. I found that having to read the dialogue on top of watching enemy officers and trying to look at the map was too much for me to handle all at once. It also made the games feel cheaper, like they weren't putting as much effort into localization as they had previously.

With regard to the Orochi series, I enjoyed it but felt it was less than the sum of its parts. The Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors characters felt sprinkled randomly and arbitrarily, and it didn't feel like any of them really made sense to be split into the factions they were. This really undermined the story of the games for me. On the other hand, the new characters were a lot of fun to play. Sun Wukong in particular was tons of fun to play.

[gomipile]

I like Castle Crashers also. Something about the combination of the hero mechanics and enemy AI really does it for me. I like its general feel and tactics a lot.

Consider me another vote for the 3D beat 'em up Dynasty Warriors games. Mostly for nostalgia because my college friend group played them a lot in the mid 00's.

This may be a bit of a wildcard, but I enjoy the beat 'em up combat of Terraria a lot. I enjoy the ability to switch playstyles and tactics by changing equipment. It's a bit frustrating that there really a benefit to hybrid styles vs. min/maxing, but the individual min/maxed specializations are pretty fun. I think I enjoyed the ranged and summoner classes the most, but it's been a few years since I played.

[Mechalich]

With regard to the Orochi series, I enjoyed it but felt it was less than the sum of its parts. The Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors characters felt sprinkled randomly and arbitrarily, and it didn't feel like any of them really made sense to be split into the factions they were. This really undermined the story of the games for me. On the other hand, the new characters were a lot of fun to play. Sun Wukong in particular was tons of fun to play.

I'm a big fan of Warriors Orochi 3, mostly because its secondary gameplay mode - Gauntlet Mode - is probably the purest expression of the beat 'em up spirit in the series and because its escalating-over-time difficulty means that even overbuilt astoundingly powerful characters that can tear through the regular game on the highest difficulty are still at risk of being overwhelmed. It's a worthy get on PC - which helps streamline the processing of hundreds of glowing goons on screen in some of the more crowded battles - when it periodically goes on sale. Warriors Orochi 4, unfortunately, was a step back, though the various gods are fun to play.

[NeoVid]

I think my all time favorites in the genre were Turtles 4 on the SNES, and Odin Sphere on the PS2. I don't think I need to say too much about Turtles In Time, as it's such a legend it just got a followup game that turned out to be a massive hit, but Odin Sphere was insanely underrated. As far as I can remember, Odin Sphere's devs created the only beat 'em up RPGs ever made up until Eiyuden Chronicles showed up out of nowhere last year. Odin Sphere was an experience I'll never forget for a lot of reasons... incredible character designs and animation, huge variety of gameplay between the six player characters, excellent storylines... man, I should replay that one of these days.

River City Ransom is also legendarily good, and I still remember being lucky enough to play an early translation at the Nintendo Powerfest. Didn't actually get the chance to play it in full until the Wii era, but it was still insanely fun after all this time. River City Ransom Underground is one of only two things I've ever backed a Kickstarter for. The Simpsons arcade game is another legend that's been rightly brought up, and one of the reasons to love it was how fair it was... it was entirely possible to get through it on one quarter with enough practice, and arcade games with completely fair challenge like that are insanely rare.

Speaking of that, one of the greatest things I ever got to personally witness was a guy soloing a D&D arcade game without dying, while also finding all the secrets and optional fights, like the hidden red dragon boss. He was playing Cleric, but he only cast two or three Cures on himself during the entire run.

Also, I want to bring up one I loved in the arcade that appears totally forgotten now: Dynasty Wars, which is probably the only beat 'em up that will ever have the characters on horseback.


One of the PS2-era Tekken games (I forget whether it was 4 or 5) pasted on a halfhearted beat 'em up mode called Tekken Force Mode or something like that, and even though it was far from good I really wanted to like it. Having a beat 'em up where the characters have movesets as deep as a fighting game would be an amazing experience.


Guilty Gear Isuka also had a mode like that. Being able to play a side-scroller with any of the GGX2 cast was hilariously busted and addictive.

[GloatingSwine]

I'm a big fan of Warriors Orochi 3, mostly because its secondary gameplay mode - Gauntlet Mode - is probably the purest expression of the beat 'em up spirit in the series and because its escalating-over-time difficulty means that even overbuilt astoundingly powerful characters that can tear through the regular game on the highest difficulty are still at risk of being overwhelmed. It's a worthy get on PC - which helps streamline the processing of hundreds of glowing goons on screen in some of the more crowded battles - when it periodically goes on sale. Warriors Orochi 4, unfortunately, was a step back, though the various gods are fun to play.

Orochi 3 might be the last in-house not licensed Warriors game where they actually tried.

Really though their Zelda and Fire Emblem licensed games have been peak Warriors for different reasons.

[Mechalich]

Orochi 3 might be the last in-house not licensed Warriors game where they actually tried.

Really though their Zelda and Fire Emblem licensed games have been peak Warriors for different reasons.

Well, I don't know if I would go that far. There was definitely an interregnum do to the massive disaster that was DW9 and the huge amount of resources devoted to producing it. SW5 was a reasonable return to form, and at least tried to offer somewhat new scenarios by focusing more carefully on a smaller portion of the Sengoku Jidai, but it definitely feels rushed out.

[Razade]

Age of Calamity is probably the best Musou game on the market and I'll die on that hill. The small cast makes each character play differently in ways no Dynasty Warrior game really hit (Though One Piece: Pirate Warrior gets close) and a lot of characters have several weapon types that change up their abilities. Also one of the best stories with actual progression because it doesn't just have to toe the Romance of the Three Kingdoms line. Fire Emblem: Three Hopes is solid but it ends on a stupid cliffhanger. It clearly needed some DLC but I doubt at this point it's going to get it. Gameplay's good though.

[MinimanMidget]

Really though their Zelda and Fire Emblem licensed games have been peak Warriors for different reasons.

Are they? I gave up on Hyrule Warriors once I reached the point where any hero I was controlling was invincible, while any hero I wasn't currently controlling automatically died. I've often wondered if that was representative of the series as a whole.

[Rynjin]

For Warriors games or the extended "musou" genre? Yeah, pretty much. It's a pure power fantasy and not much else.

[GloatingSwine]

Are they? I gave up on Hyrule Warriors once I reached the point where any hero I was controlling was invincible, while any hero I wasn't currently controlling automatically died. I've often wondered if that was representative of the series as a whole.

Yeah, the point is that you're supposed to run around like a maniac trying to be in three places at once and have to figure out how to prioritise targets and path out a route to win (and to win fast enough whilst getting enough kills and taking as little damage as possible to hit the S rank at the end of the map).

Don't be fooled by the fact that you wipe out a dozen guys every time you press a button, you need to figure out which are the right guys to be wiping out right now and they're probably the other side of the map.

[Razade]

Are they? I gave up on Hyrule Warriors once I reached the point where any hero I was controlling was invincible, while any hero I wasn't currently controlling automatically died. I've often wondered if that was representative of the series as a whole.

Different games have different balances on this but Swine is mostly right. Gameplay is more about knowing where to hit and how to order the missions the games give you. Some are really effective and clear on this order, some are really punishing. Age of Calamity has pretty good balance on this, to the point that if you level up your allies and invest even a bit into their weapons you can mostly leave them to their own devices and use the map mode to command them to do things. Hyrule Warrior is a little less balanced on this but I never found I was ever in danger of my allies dying a few hours into the game.