Cary’s Favorite 2-D Side-Scrolling Beat ‘Em Ups
In honor of Castle Crashers being released on Xbox Live Arcade recently, I figured I’d list my favorite 2-D side-scrolling beat ‘em ups.
These types of games are pretty derivative and were a bit overdone especially back in the 16-bit days. But even though they lack originality, I like these kinds of games anyway. I guess they’re like gaming comfort food. You pretty much know what to expect from these games. All four characters will either be exactly the same except for color and maybe a move or two. Or the players will be different, but still stereotypical (nimble ninja chick, hulking strong brute, and all around guy). And you always know that if you punch a trash can, you’ll get a floor turkey you can pick up for health. But I think my favorite thing about side scrolling beat ‘em ups is that even though they’re violent games, they’re also co-operative and focus on teamwork. And most aren’t too terribly tough, so players of all skill levels can enjoy them together. So anyway, here are some of my favorite ones:
Double Dragon
Actually, Double Dragon really isn’t one of my favorites (Sparkle’s gonna kill me!), but I put it on the list anyway out of respect for being kind of the first in the genre. But even though it’s not as memorable for me, Double Dragon certainly had its moments. Who could forget the hulking yet lovable Abobo?
My favorite memory of Double Dragon is the awful live action movie they made of it back in the day. I found it for 2 bucks at the bargain DVD bin at War-Mart. Like most video game based movies, it’s really bad. But if you view the movie through Mystery Science Theater 3000 eyes, Double Dragon is actually kind of fun to watch in a cheesy B-movie sort of way. But maybe only once! My favorite parts of the movie are when they simulated going fast in a car by pushing back into their seats and saying “whooaaoooaoa!” Or when the Lee brothers joined the medallion and got their special martial arts powers. They whirled around like Power Ranger tornadoes, and suddenly they were wearing shiny red and blue karate gi outfits. But they looked more like pastel bathrobes with sequins on them! That cracked me up so much!
Final Fight
This is actually the first side scrolling beat ‘em up I remember enjoying immensely. I thought it looked and played better than Double Dragon. My best friend and I used to play this game all the time in the arcade together, and even today I still don’t get tired of it! It amazes me how Capcom was able to create such memorable characters from such a uninspired type of game. But the heroes: Mike Haggar (my favorite), Cody, and Guy are recognizable by name. And who could forget some of the enemies like Poison and “ANDORE?” I also like the NES version, called Mighty Final Fight, because all the characters were squished and ‘chibi-ized.’ It was really cute. I never played the SNES only sequels. How are they?
River City Ransom
Speaking of the NES, one fan favorite for many is River City Ransom. But like Double Dragon, I personally don’t have very many fond memories of it. But I put it on this list out of respect because I like the idea of a beat ‘em up with RPG elements in it. I played the GBA update, which wasn’t so good. The graphics were better, but they didn’t update the clunky menu and saving interfaces at all. But there is one thing I like about River City Ransom: the same characters are also in one of my all time favorite sports video games: Super Dodge Ball!
Streets of Rage 2
I never had a Sega Genesis as a kid (I was a SNES man, myself). So I only discovered the Streets of Rage games in the past few years. All three are obvious rip-offs of Final Fight, especially the second one. But they play surprisingly well for not being arcade games. Especially SoR 2. And they all feature great music by famous game compose Yuzo Koshiro. But the music in the second one still sounds the best, so for all these reasons, it’s my favorite one. But I have all three downloaded on the Wii Virtual Console. You know, one Sega beat ‘em up series I never got into was Golden Axe. Though some of the characters are cool, like the dwarf and Tyris Flare. I liked how you could play as the dwarf in Sega Superstars Tennis. I wonder if the new Golden Axe: Beast Riders game will be any good?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I first heard about TMNT from school kids who read the underground comic book, and I thought it was dumb. I then watched the first episodes of the TV cartoon on Sunday nights (yes, that’s when they first showed them), and thought it was dumb as well. And the first NES game? You guessed it: dumb. It really took the four-player TMNT arcade game to get me into the Turtles. I put so many quarters into this game it’s not even funny! Because I didn’t like squeezing between two fat smelly arcade players, I always picked Raphael because his joystick was all the way on the right side. And that’s how Raph ended up being my favorite turtle! I also thought the NES version of the arcade game was much better than the first NES title. And the NES sequel, The Manhattan Project, was technically brilliant (just play it, it looks good for NES).
You can play TMNT: The Arcade Game on Xbox Live, but I don’t think it’s aged very well. I’m not as big of a Digital Eclipse hater as some others I know are, but I think they kind of botched up the 360 version and made it too hard! But it’s still not bad for 400 MS points. I had the Super Nintendo version of the arcade sequel called Turtles in Time, and I think that one’s aged a little better. When my little brother Jeff was very young, we used to love to play Turtles in Time together. But I had to be careful not to take the pizza in the game or Jeff would start crying! (don’t blame him, he was very young) It made the game a whole lot more challenging for me, though! Jeff and I still joke about “Waaahh, Cary took my pizza!” to this day!
The Simpsons Arcade Game
After the success of TMNT, Konami made a ton of arcade cartoony beat ‘em ups, such as Bucky O’ Hare, Sunset Riders, COW Boys of Moo Mesa, etc. But the one license that stood out the most for me was The Simpsons Arcade Game. Of course, since this one came out soon after The Simpsons’ first season, some things about it were kind of weird. It was like the Japanese take on The Simpsons. Since I was so used to playing Raph on the rightmost joystick in the arcade, I also always played as Lisa because that’s where her joystick was. I wish they would put The Simpsons Arcade Game on Xbox Live like they did with TMNT.
Aliens vs. Predator
Even though I don’t think Konami’s beat ‘em ups back then have aged as well, I think Capcom’s have aged a little better. Case in point: Aliens vs. Predator, which featured varied stages, special moves, and very different playable fighters. Another fun one was Capcom’s Dungeons and Dragons game, but I don’t remember that one as well because I didn’t see it in as many arcades for some reason.
Captain America and the Avengers
Back in the 16-bit days on the consoles and in the arcade when these types of games were big and overdone, there were a lot of these titles based on superhero and comic book properties. Since I’m not into comic books, none of them were that memorable to me. Though some were neat, like the wide screen six-player X-men game. But my favorite super hero arcade beat ‘em up was one that came out a year or two prior: Captain America and the Avengers. It didn’t look quite as good, but I liked how you could pick up really heavy stuff to throw, like vending machines. And many of the quotes were hilarious. “I CAN’T MOOOOVE!”
Sonic Blast Man
I never really played much of the SNES Sonic Blast Man or its sequel. But I do like the idea of a comic super hero who is so strong and clueless that he ends up doing more damage than helping. Sonic Blast Man was actually first an arcade game where you tried to punch a bag as hard as you could. Which, in turn, would make our hero punch something hard on screen, like a thug or asteroid heading for Earth. I wish the Sonic Blast Man games would come to Virtual Console!
The Ninja Kids
A lot of beat ‘em ups have gone forgotten because there were just way too many of them. Case in point: Bad Dudes, whose only memorable moments include fighting Karnov and getting a burger with the rescued President. Another forgotten one is The Ninja Kids. It’s like Taito was trying to cash in on the TMNT craze, though I never saw The Ninja Kids in arcades. I only read about it on Web sites featuring wacky unknown games (those kinds of sites are less commonplace nowadays). I finally got to play it on Taito Legends 2. You play as one of four different colored ninjas, though they look more like Muppets. And even though it was very cartoony, the game was also surprisingly violent, as you could punch holes in enemies and cut them into two clean pieces. The Ninja Kids was definitely quirky in a Japanesey sort of way, and even had some great ‘Engrish” quotes like “Here is a graveyard of you!” I finally saw a Ninja Kids arcade cabinet at an arcade auction a few months ago, but I don’t know if it was working.
Sengoku
When I first played this game on the SNK NEO GEO arcade machines back in the day, I didn’t think much of it. Might’ve been the limited quarters I had to use, or the fact I wasn’t as familiar with Japanese folklore back then. But after playing it recently on SNK Arcade Classics vol. 1, I have a newfound love for Sengoku. It starts off as your typical beat em up through slums and back alleys, but then an ancient Japanese temple appears to threaten things. And then periodically you’re whisked away to another dimension where you fight Japanese mythical monsters and ghosts. It’s like a video game version of Big Trouble in Little China (OK, bad comparison). And sometimes these spirits will join you on your battles. Use strategy to switch between characters, but don’t overuse your heavenly helpers or you’ll lose them for good! I liked Sengoku so much I’m tempted to try GameTap so I can play Sengoku 2 and 3!
Viewtiful Joe
Since it’s not exactly co-op, I thought about not putting it on my list. But I did. The games do have a lot of style and clever gameplay. Heck, the game even got its own cartoon (though it wasn’t very good). Too bad Capcom shut down Clover after making my Game of the Year for 2006: Okami
DemolishFist
This is actually a fairly new beat ‘em up I played at an arcade auction a year or two ago. This game is really wacky and I like it. You can heft CARS over your head and throw them. Enemies include giant babies. A bonus stage has you punching moving forklifts. And a boss is a Hummer! Lots of fun. DemolishFist uses Sammy’s AtomisWave arcade hardware. Another game that uses that hardware is Dolphin Blue. It’s like Metal Slug, but with dolphins! And the girl player has pink hair and a pink dolphin! I wish they would port DemolishFist and Dolphin Blue to a home console!
Castle Crashers
And finally, Castle Crashers was recently released on Xbox Live, from the makers of Alien Hominid. It certainly has the same style and humor. When Braid was released on Xbox Live, a lot of people complained about the 1200 point price, me included. Don’t get me wrong, Braid’s a fun game, but I don’t know if it’s really worth that much. But I can say for certain that Castle Crashers is worth that same amount, no questions or doubts. Most beat ‘em ups cam be finished in an hour or so, but Castle Crashers is much longer. Plus, it has RPG elements in that you level up your knights (my favorite’s the green knight). And with all sorts of secrets and weapons to collect, it really ups the replay value. Castle Crashers is a little more violent than most of these other games on my list, with blood, beheadings, and poop humor (but you can turn the gore off in the option screen). But the game is still pretty cartoony otherwise. I WOULD say that Castle Crashers is one of the best beat ‘em ups I’ve ever played!
Notice I said “WOULD” on that last statement. That’s because after a marathon four player local Castle Crashers game with Jeff’s friends this weekend, I figured out why the game is called Castle CRASHERS. It’s because the game CRASHES all the time! It’s so buggy! Every time we would try to buy an animal orb from a shop, the game would freeze. When we’d dig up the chicken helper, it would always freeze. The final blow was when we were playing and noticed ALL our gold, animal orbs, and items were gone, and one player was reset back to level one! But he still kept all his secret characters somehow and the map progress data was still saved. You’d think if the game was in development for three years, they’d take the time to do some quality control and game testing. But they didn’t learn their lesson, because when I reviewed the GameCube Alien Hominid game, I had to slam it because it also froze up on me a lot. So I’m afraid I’m going to have to slam Castle Crashers as well. Such a shame, since it’s otherwise a fantastic game. Behemoth’s game testers just suck!
And that’s all for now. What are your favorite 2-D side scrolling beat ‘em up games?
September 7th, 2008 at 7:14 am
I played a lot of STRIDER on the Genesis way back when.
That was a pretty stylish game. I remember it was $70 too. Why? No idea.
September 7th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Yup, Strider is definitely a Capcom classic. Have you played the PSOne Strider 2? It came with the original arcade game.
Strider’s also in Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and 2, and Namco X Capcom.
70 bucks? Hm, must’ve been because it was one of the first, if not THE first, 8 MB cartridge. So they could get it as close to the arcade version as possible. The only time I paid 70 bucks for a cartridge game was a couple of Square’s SNES RPGs, like FF6 and Chrono Trigger. –Cary
September 8th, 2008 at 5:44 am
I played Strider on the PSP Capcom collection, and it was one that stood out. Never been much for the genre, though … but I always learn loads from these articles … much of which translates into Goozex requests 😉
September 8th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Oh, you KNOW I’m weighing in on this one!
I think “gaming comfort food” is a brilliant description. Arcade-style games are my go-to games for when I want to get a few minutes’ gaming in, and while I do enjoy zoning out with a “pure” shoot ’em up, it’s the beat ’em up genre that I turn to when I want to relax. No complicated patterns or controls to memorize, just jab the “hit” button 4 times to unleash a devastating combo.
And my favorite beat ’em ups are what are often called “2.5D”. That means the graphics are 2D but in that odd forced perspective that allows you to move forwards/backwards/in/out. This is what I think of when I’m talking about “real” beat ’em ups, so while I love it anyway, I’m going to remove Viewtiful Joe from your list, and I’m going to call games like DemolishFist “2.95D” 😀
With that out of the way, I’m going to respond to each game in turn:
Double Dragon – I enjoyed it at the time in the arcade, mainly because it was something different (Renegade – with the same Kunio-kun characters you like from River City Ransom and Super Dodgeball! – might have come first, but it was never in any arcades I went to – I only played it later on the ZX Spectrum). It doesn’t really hold up though, but the intro scene still cracks me up even though it shouldn’t – the girl gets punched in the stomach and thrown over the bad guy’s shoulder!
Final Fight – this is the real father of the 2.5D beat ’em up, setting the model for practically every subsequent game. Large sprites, simple mechanics – one button jumps, one button hits, both at the same time do a super move. Big guy, fast guy, all-rounder. Like you say Cary, it easily stands up today, just as playable as it was almost 20 years ago. However, the original arcade game doesn’t have the dash maneuver, which is why I tend to play the SNES sequels more. Plus they have female characters, and I always choose the girl 🙂
Speaking of which, the SNES games have the female enemies removed. Poison isn’t an issue because (s)he is replaced by a generic thug dude (even the Sega CD version is edited, as Poison wears a lot less clothing in the original)
River City Ransom – I never had a NES until recently, and while I know this is a beloved game, I can’t get into it. I don’t think the majority of NES titles hold up over time, to be honest – there are just too many technical limitations.
Streets of Rage – yeah, it’s heavily influenced by Final Fight (like every other subsequent game in the genre!) but overall I actually prefer this series. I think it’s because it tries to be “cool” and as a result is hilariously dated. It just screams early 90s, especially the Skate character. My favorite is easily the third game, despite having worse music than the first two, because of the dash mechanics. And yes, I always play as Blaze.
Golden Axe – unlike you, I loved this game, I just never really considered it a beat ’em up for a long time. I suppose you could argue it’s a “hack ‘n’ slash” instead, but that’s a pretty blurry line. The ridable creatures, potions, and the thieving elves all made this a unique title that I would always play in the arcade (and the pretty much arcade-perfect Amiga version). The Genesis sequel was decent too (II, I never played III), though more of the same (and Tyris has even more cleavage) but the real arcade sequel, Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is.. odd. It’s good, but it gets rid of almost all the heroes and gives you new ones, including Dora, a centaur armed with what look like those stick things from American Gladiators.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – I never played this as a kid. Shocked? Well, I played Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. At the height of “won’t someone think of the children?!” hysteria in the UK, the word “ninja” was forbidden. I didn’t know I had played the arcade Ninja Gaiden until I found out that was the real name of Shadow Warriors (incidentally, it was an early beat ’em up too). Anyway, back to TMNT. I do think people love it more for nostalgia reasons rather than it being a great game, because when I’ve played it lately it’s felt pretty cheap. I don’t think Digital Eclipse made it harder Cary, I just think it’s a lot harder than we remember – even setting the arcade dipswitch to “easy” only helps some, the game was a total credit eater. Still, I have fond memories of it because my friends and I would play it in college when they got a cabinet in the refectory area, feeding it ten pence pieces until well after class started. I agree that Turtles in Time holds up better; it’s more forgiving and has a run mechanic (as well as that fun “throw the enemy toward the screen” thing like the arcade version of Battle Toads)
The Simpsons Arcade Game – Like the Turtles, it’s that same cheap Konami credit eating game that I only like because Sam and I once played it through on the Xbox. It starts weird with the evil Smithers and just gets weirder. I enjoy it only for the irony – with Matt Groening making several comments about violent videogames in the show, it’s amusing that this is just a mindless violence game.
Alien vs Predator – After a few “original” games, Capcom switched to licenses for their beat ’em ups, and while this still has a very Japanese feel for what is a very Western property, they pull it off well. The guns add another dimension to the beat ’em up feel, though they overheat quickly so you are still mostly kicking and punching and using melee weapons. I never played this in the arcades but have played quite a lot of it since via MAME. I like its hectic pace and large amount of enemies, it’s good for blowing off steam.
Captain America and The Avengers – again, this isn’t something I played in the arcade. I’ve tried it a couple of times under MAME but just can’t get into it, despite liking the source material, I think it’s the comparitively tiny sprites that put me off. The background art is very nice though.
Sonic Blast Man – I’d never heard of this, so thanks for the heads up!
The Ninja Kids – this is one of those games you just discover on your own, and wonder how it ever got released in the US. Much more violent than most other beat ’em ups in terms of slicing people up, and an enemy design that could very easily be called racist, it’s actually pretty decent and does a good job of providing a different feel depending on which character you choose to play.
Sengoku – this is definitely one of my most-played series of late. However, I don’t much like the original game, as it reminds me too much of Altered Beast with the change mechanic. The second game lets you change between characters much more fluidly, but it’s the third game that I love the most. If you’re a fan of the changing characters and areas in the first two games then perhaps Sengoku 3 could be less enjoyable, as it eschews the changing for the more traditional character selection at the start of the game (and at continues). (If you like the transforming thing, check out Konami’s Metamorphic Force. I’m not a fan because it feels like a turtles game to me). I love Sengoku 3 because they basically took the best parts of beat ’em ups over the years (Sengoku 3 is one of the last 2D beat ’em ups released in the arcade, being from 2001) and made a game of it. You have your urban settings, your dash attacks, your special move/smart bomb/magic-style ninja attacks, and projectiles. True, the added complexity means more buttons, but it never feels overly complicated.
Castle Crashers – well, I haven’t put as much time into it as I’d like (I was away last week) but I bought it as soon as it was available and greatly enjoyed what I’ve found so far. While it still feels more like a hack ‘n’ slash to me, it still has more than enough of a traditional feel to be called a classic-style beat ’em up. I’ve followed Dan Paladin’s art ever since his early 3D synj works and I think his sense of humor and snappy animation really make The Behemoth’s games what they are. Because of this I’m willing to overlook their bugs, as frustrating as they can be.
So what about my favorites that you didn’t list?
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs – despite being a licensed title it’s still a relative unknown in favorites lists, possibly because of its 1993 vintage (even though a handful of great beat ’em ups came after, the trend was greatly towards versus games once Street Fighter II hit). I have no idea how well it reflects the original comic book, all I know is that simple “meaty” Final Fight brawling style punctuated by satisfying shotgun blasts (complete with the kind of blood spurts that would earn this a silly M rating these days) makes for a great Capcom game. Plus, in the words of one fan site, “the fact is, this game has dinosaurs, which are awesome and make anything completely awesome simply by being there.”
The Punisher – Capcom followed up Cadillacs and Dinosaurs with another comic book game. I don’t play it nearly as often, but it’s still solid and enjoyable. It’s not as dark as other Punisher material, like the gruesome 2005 Xbox game!
Spider-Man: The Videogame – I feel a little guilty listing this as it’s not strictly a 2.5D brawler (it switches to a 2D platformy perspective for some segments) but I really enjoy playing it. As an early (1991) game it’s fairly bare – very repetitive enemies and movement is slow – but the graphics and sound more than make up for that. I just don’t really understand the reasoning behind including the Sub-Mariner and Hawkeye as playable characters in a Spider-Man game.
Crime Fighters – Coming from Konami, this and its sequel (known as Vendetta in the West) are notable for two things. One, they’re pretty violent as beat ’em ups go; you can kick people when they’re down, and there’s the rather obvious “nut shot” animation. Secondly, you can’t jump – the two buttons are punch and kick. But that’s okay, because while I’m not a real fan of these games, they spawned the next entry..
Violent Storm – switch off your brain because Crime Fighters is now an incredibly dumb Final Fight knock-off (amusingly so, considering the original game preceded the Final Fight release by a few months) that is pretty damn awesome if you’re looking for a fast-paced simplistic beat ’em up. Favorite feature? The ability to pick up piglets that turn into footballs when you throw them at people. Come on.
Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon – you know I’ll play anything with “pretty” in the title, but this happens to be a licensed anime game from the series that used to be the face of anime in the US until just a few years ago. Anyway, it’s a bunch of pretty girls fighting a bunch of other girls. The presentation is great, though it feels a bit cheap in terms of difficulty.
Captain Commando – another great Capcom beat ’em up that doesn’t get much praise for reasons unknown. It actually reminds me of Turtles, probably because the enemies look vaguely similar, but it plays so much better. The characters are insane too – while you can be the generic Captain Commando or ninja, you can also be a mummy or a baby riding a giant robot. The SNES port isn’t nearly as good as the arcade original, so I’m glad it got more exposure through the Capcom Classics releases on the PS2, Xbox, and PSP.
Battle Circuit – and one of Capcom’s last beat ’em ups is also their wackiest. I’m not wholly enamored with the goofy aliens/sci-fi background, but it’s hard to fault the gameplay and feel. Like many later games such as Viewtiful Joe, you collect coins to choose your own power-ups and special moves. It’s fast-paced and slick, and deserves to be played more.
And from the so bad they’re good pile..
Growl – One of Taito’s lesser-known arcade titles (though it’s featured on the PS2/Xbox Taito Legends 2 release, and got a scaled-down Genesis port), Growl is one of those gaudy, classless games that isn’t particularly good but still has a mysterious draw. It’s like a cross between Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and Indiana Jones, as you go up against.. poachers? On the one hand, there are massive screen-filling explosions, tons of enemies at once, and a level of brutality against female opponents that makes the whole Final Fight thing look silly. On the other, it’s repetitive even for a beat ’em up. So why do I keep playing it?
Mugsmashers – This is.. just.. wow. Look at this screenshot and tell me it’s not awesome. I don’t think you’re ever going to play this outside of an emulator, but it’s quite glorious. You can’t really call it a bad game, because as horrible as it looks, it plays just fine. Oh, you can hit your partner in this one, leading to lots of hilarious fighting between players.
There are several beat ’em ups I’d like to track down and play, the first being Three Dirty Dwarves on the Saturn, but ultimately I’m making my own beat ’em up because I want to play something with that early 90s feel, the “gang of bad guys doing something bad and we have to go get them, damn it” type of game. That’s why with few exceptions, the fantasy beat ’em ups (like Capcom’s Dungeons & Dragons games) just don’t do it for me. I’m really, really happy about Castle Crashers, but I won’t be happy until I finish my own game 🙂
September 9th, 2008 at 3:21 am
Dang I thnk your comment is longer than my blog, Simon! 🙂
Ah! I forgot about Captain Commando! Baby Head rocks! You know what else I forgot about? Arcade Battletoads!
I always play as Blaze, too! –Cary
September 9th, 2008 at 5:56 am
It’s funny … the only AvP I knew about was the ’99 FPS.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:59 am
haha, no, it’s slightly shorter – I checked 😉
September 9th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Yeah, but Simon, you could *easily* have done your own ‘alternate history view of 2.5D Side-scrolling fighters’ with that post!
September 9th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Admittedly, I’ve only really played one Beat ’em Up (I was born in 1994, can you really blame me?) which is Viewtiful Joe. I really like Viewtiful Joe. It’s great fun!
September 16th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Viewtiful Joe!!! I love that game! I still have it for GC and play it on my Wii. It had tons of style, humor, and action all rolled into a lovely, cel-shaded package. /races home to play it again!
I have to say that Castle Crashers is an amazing game, the music especially is great. But most of all, the art design really stands out. It reminds me a little bit of Paul Robertson’s stuff (Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006), but WAY less gory, lol. CC really takes me back to the beat-em ups of old. 😀
E.A.W.