We List The Top 10 Beat’em ups of all Time!

Despite not having detailed memories of when I was a baby, I can assure you that I have been gaming since birth. Ok, from birth might be pushing it just a tad even though some of my “first” memories consisted of an Italian plumber jumping around and collecting coins. Dodging asteroids, balancing pastel colored blocks, and running away from ghosts were some of my favorite past times. I’ve played on everything from Tiger Handhelds and Atari to Nintendo DS and Xbox 360. I love video games. With all the different types of video games I’ve played over the years, one of them will always be near and dear to this gamer. That game type my friends, is a good old fashion Beat’em up (also known as a Brawler). I love other genres like Fighters, First-Person Shooters, and Platformers. But Beat’em ups have always been the go to game. It’s hard not to like them. They’re easy to get into, are great stress relievers, don’t require a lot of thought, and involve beating the crap out of enemies with friends. Awesome! Reviewing X-men Arcade reminded me of all the fun I used to have playing these games. So much so, that I wanted to put together a list of games that I feel are the best of the best within this genre. This list was hard to make as there are some many things that make up a good Beat’em up. Being that I can’t include every title I like, I had to find personal reasons why these games outshined the rest. After careful consideration, I’ve come up with the top ten Beat’em ups of all time. Read on to see if your favorite made the cut!

10. Kung Fu Master

This is one of the first Beat’em ups ever made. Heck, it could be the first. Published in North America by Data East (a company that has published a bunch of good Beat’em ups), this game had the main character fight through five side-scrolling levels in search of a kidnapped girlfriend. It was great for it’s time. Players had to punch and kick their way through levels. While Kicking allows you to hit enemies at a greater rang, punching was stronger. Gamers would be attacked from both sides and would have to duck under thrown knives, sweep kick snakes, battle henchmen, and make it to the next level all within a given time limit. Although it looks simple now, it was a great game in its day. Rescuing a kidnapped girlfriend, battling waves of enemies while moving left or right, and fighting end bosses are all staples of this genre that was started by this title. If it wasn’t for this game, we probably wouldn’t have been able to enjoy later titles like Double Dragon and Final fight. Kung Fu Master is the father of this genre and we should pay homage!

9. Golden Axe 2
Golden Axe is one of Sega’s best video game series. In and out of the Arcades, this game was a fan favorite. It was always cool to wield a sword and fight skeletons and monsters with friends. Like Kung Fu Master, this game also began some of the staples that make up the genre today. The dash move, eating meat you’ve found on the ground to gain stamina, and special moves are all staples due to Golden Axe. The second title in the series was the best. The Third game, while good, seemed to lose some of the spirit that was carried over from the first two titles. We aren’t going to mention the latest Golden Axe game. As it stands, it doesn’t deserve the title.

8. Streets of Rage 3
This series should be a no brainer to anyone who has ever picked up a Sega controller. Streets of Rage just does everything right. You have your colorful enemies, great boss battles, unlockable characters, and even some destructible environments (you can destroy things like phone booths). This game was awesome because it gave you a lot of choices when came to putting the hurt on bad guys. You could walk up to someone, grab them, and then throw them into their friends. You could walk up and grab someone, move behind them and suplex them into a crate. Classic! There were even combos you could do by using regular attacks and different special moves in conjunction with one another. If you wanted to fight dirty, which we all did, then you could pick up a pipe or a baseball bat and go to work as well. If I had to pick one out of the series, it would be Streets of Rage 3. It the best (and the hardest) out of the three, making it a must have for fans of the genre!

7. Final Fight 3

Final Fight is an awesome series. One of the first Beat’em ups I’ve ever played in the Arcade, Final Fight easily engulfed any resemblance of an allowance I had back in the day. The characters were large and colorful, not squishy like a lot of other games of that time. While the bad guys were menacing the good guys looked like they could handle themselves. And they could too! Playing as Guy, Cody, and Haggar was such a trill for me that I just had to play this game. It was the first time I felt like I was a Bad-A…um, a tough dude who didn’t take no mess. When Final Fight 2 came out for the home system, it was business as usual. What was cool about that game was that, if you didn’t have a friend to play with you could set up a computer controlled partner. Final Fight 3 was the best as it introduced not only new characters but also added a super gauge. The gauge would fill up as you attacked enemies and once it was full you could unleash a powerful super combo similar to the ones seen in the later Street Fighter games. Unlike regular special moves, this move didn’t take away from your health. One of the coolest ones was Haggar’s as he would repeatedly slam someone, crushing the grabbed enemy and any nearby enemies he landed on. This is a must have for fan’s of the genre!

6. River City Ransom

River City Ransom was like a comedic version of Double Dragon. I remember laughing hysterically as enemies would spew funny one liners while getting hit in the face. “Barf” will always share a special place in gaming history. As will the sound of a trash can bouncing off of an enemy’s head. What was cool about this game was…everything. You could level up your character by reading books, which in turn taught you new moves. Due to the fact that RCR introduced an inventory, you could go into stores and buy food that would later be used to replenish health. Speaking of stores, who remembers the bath scene? Hilarious! This game was so fun that you didn’t even need to progress through the story to have a good time. You could re-enter the same area over and over, fighting the same enemies for hours and have a blast doing it. Again, a must have for fans!

5. Super Double Dragon

The Double Dragon Series is one of the best Beat’em up series of all time…period! Grabbing someone by the head and kneeing them over and over was a highlight of my childhood. As disturbing as that sounds, all the Double Dragon games were great to play. There were one offs like the Double Dragon Fighting games, but those don’t count in this discussion. Billy and Jimmy Lee should go down in Guinness as the best crime fighting brother team. They did it all. Fought on top of a moving train Bad Dudes style, smacked skanky women with chains, beat up men who punched through walls, and battled evil doppelgangers. They even battled each other over Billy’s girlfriend (the one who was kidnapped) as a twist ending. The Super Double Dragon title is my favorite of the series. While Double Dragon Advance was the best in theory, you needed two GBA’s and two copies of the rare title to play Co-op. Super Double Dragon on the SNES was where it was at though. One of the coolest things was the ability to grab an enemies hand when they threw a punch. From that position one could pummel them with punches, kicks, a combination of both, or just throw the guy into his friends.

4. Castle Crashers
We’ve finally got to the newbies. Truth be told, Castle Crashers may be new compared to the other games mentioned so far, but it is also one of the best (which is obvious based on it being number four). This game is still one of the best on Xbox Live Arcade. You and three friends battle the forces of evil all over a mystical land to retrieve a stolen magical gem. There isn’t much story to soak in before the head bashing begins. Then again, we didn’t come here for the story. We can to brawl. The Independent developer, The Behemoth created a wonderful game for Microsoft. Gamers are given multiple characters to unlock, multiple weapons to find, great graphics, online features, upgradeable powers, Vs. game modes, and enough humor to fill a Mad magazine. There is so much to love here. If you’ve haven’t played this game yet, shame on you. If you don’t like Beat ‘em ups and you have not played this game yet, shame on you!

3. Urban Reign

This has to be the most slept on game on the PS2. It is also one of the best. To be fair, it is a little different from your normal Beat’em up. You don’t walk to one side of the screen fighting enemies. Instead you play out levels in different arenas/location while completing the story. After beating the level, you are given a brief cutscene and then its on to the next one, Jay Z style. While that is true, it still outshines most games in this genre when it comes to gameplay. I have never seen anything like what the characters in this game can do when given the right circumstances. Gamers had a huge amount of options when it came to dispatching foes. Everything has physics and can be interacted with within the environment. Gamers can run up walls, jump off, kick someone in the face, push off of their body as they fall backwards, and land another face kick (to a different opponent) all before touching the ground. In one instance, I juggled a bat carrying enemy into the air with a few punches. The bat he had flew up in the air, while he fell backwards. Before he hit the ground, I did a spin kick and hit the floating bat, which launched it like a torpedo towards another opponent. Both enemies were dazzed on the ground within a few seconds. Awesome! That’s not all. With a team mate (AI controlled or not) gamers can do special team maneuvers on foes and friends alike (due to the inclusion of a Vs mode). One of my favorite, while basic in nature, is when both characters knock over an enemy and just proceeded to stomp him out. This gave great smack talk opportunities when playing against friends. With up to four players and all the on screen shenanigans, it easy to see why Urban Reign was so fun to play. Namco even threw in Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law as unlockable characters. Yes!

2. Scott Pilgrim Vs the World 
Taking a nod from other games (from just about every genre), Scott Pilgrim is more than just a Beat’em up. It’s a history lesson for the new generation of gamers. There are so many references to older games (River City Ransom being one of them). Everything that I’ve mention about the other titles in this list can be found in this game. Special moves, check. Combos and air juggling, check. Four player Co-op, check. Cool graphics and great humor, check. Unlockable and upgradeable characters, check. The only thing this game doesn’t have going for it is the lack of online play. Even without online play, it is still one of the best of the best by far!

1. The Warriors

The Warriors is the best Beat ‘em up of all time. Really, it does it off of the shear visceral gameplay. Rockstar Games did an awesome job creating a game that mirrored the film so well. The entire opening sequence is the exact same as the movie’s. Of course that would mean that Rockstar would have to replicate the film’s violence as well. The brutal fighting that resulted is one of the highlights of this game. No more where you just punching a guy till he fell over and faded away. This was all out war between the Warriors and the other gangs. When battles erupted, players would control a warrior and direct the others with simple commands. Even if you didn’t command them, they knew what to do. They would fight fiercely for the sake of their “colors”, respect and their turf. Rockstar went a step further with their combat by creating what I call “situational” fighting. What that means is that your options in a fight were determined by your surroundings and or situation. Being close to a wall while grabbing an opponent might cause your character to slam his head into the wall. If you were to grab someone in the middle of the street, your character would try to tackle them to the ground. Throwing someone through a window, drop kicking them through a fence and cracking bottles over someone’s head were all parts of the game. If you were playing with a buddy and you were knocked out, he/she could revive you if they had some “jet” (the game’s health pickup). I might seem crazy for liking this sort of thing. The easiest way I could compare it would be to ask if you’ve ever wanted to be in a bar fight. I’m talking about an old western bar fight. If your answer was no, then this might not be the game for you. Fighting wasn’t the only thing you did in The Warriors though. There were all sorts of law breaking going on. Gamers would find themselves stealing car radios, running from rivals (like in the movie) and evading police. While those side missions were fun to play, the real meat was the combat. This is a game I could play over and over without any DLC to extend reply value. Even if you’ve never been into Beat’em ups, if you liked the film you have to play this game. Heck, the Furies alone are worth the price of admission.

Honorable Mentions:

Viewtiful Joe series
Battle Toad series
Zombie Revenge
Warriors of Fate
Captain America and the Advengers
TMNT series
Fighting Force (just part 1)
Dynamite Cop
Die Hard Arcade
Two Crude Dudes
Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja (Date East Classic)
Target Renegade
Batman Forever the Arcade Game
X-men Arcade
The Simpsons: The Arcade Game (Konami Classic)
Captain Commando
Comic Zone (We need a sequel Sega!)
Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker (Arcade version only)
Spiderman and Venom: Maximum Carnage
Tough Turf
Battle Toads and Double Dragon
Rival Turf (Rushing Beat series)
Brawl Brothers (Rushing Beat series)
The Peace Keepers (Rushing Beat series)
Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu
Jet Li: Rise to Honor
Lego Batman
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
Spikeout: Battle Street