The History of Beat em Ups

[Wahesh]

Part 1 - The 1980s

Part 2. The early 1990s. 1990-1994

 

[spiritofaslan]

So many good "beatem ups" in the past.

Most have kind of disappeared in recent times.

 

[Wahesh]

So many good "beatem ups" in the past.

Most have kind of disappeared in recent times.

Agreed - games like Streets of Rage and Double Dragon were a HUGE part of my childhood growing up.

 

[Captain Ibis]

Side-scrolling was hands down the best thing to happen for gaming, I mean don't get me wrong, the early arcade games were great for their time, but the side-scrolling just provides so much more opportunity for developers, and discovery for players.

I have to say Golden Axe is a favourite (even if not on the list), I love the setting and characters, particularly the animal characters and the ability to use them. Oh and the thieve characters are awesome.

Jordan Mechner created some really cool games for a solo operator.. he was made for that era of gaming and I really enjoy the look and feel of his approach to rotoscope.

P.S that Asterix game looks sick! awesome visuals!! I always thought Asterix and the Asterix world was cool as.

 

[Wahesh]

Side-scrolling was hands down the best thing to happen for gaming, I mean don't get me wrong, the early arcade games were great for their time, but the side-scrolling just provides so much more opportunity for developers, and discovery for players.

I have to say Golden Axe is a favourite (even if not on the list), I love the setting and characters, particularly the animal characters and the ability to use them. Oh and the thieve characters are awesome.

Jordan Mechner created some really cool games for a solo operator.. he was made for that era of gaming and I really enjoy the look and feel of his approach to rotoscope.

P.S that Asterix game looks sick! awesome visuals!! I always thought Asterix and the Asterix world was cool as.

Yep same man. I loved side scrolling and also platform games (and I still love old platform games to this day). Golden Axe was one of my all time favorites - and there was also Alien Storm (similar concept, male character, female character, then the odd character which was a robot rather than the dwarf in Golden Axe), and of course Final Fight.

There was this little known game I also LOVE playing on Arcade called Growl (aka Runark in Japan).

 

[Captain Ibis]

Yep same man. I loved side scrolling and also platform games (and I still love old platform games to this day). Golden Axe was one of my all time favorites - and there was also Alien Storm (similar concept, male character, female character, then the odd character which was a robot rather than the dwarf in Golden Axe), and of course Final Fight.

There was this little known game I also LOVE playing on Arcade called Growl (aka Runark in Japan).

Platformers and novelty racing games (Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, Snowboard Kids etc) will always be my favourites.

I think only played Golden Axe and Streets of Rage from memory.. I was fascinated when I first learned of Final Fight given I am a big Street Fighter Fan but never came across Final Fight until recently.. it's cool seeing a side scroller with a SF resemblance.

 

[Wahesh]

Platformers and novelty racing games (Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, Snowboard Kids etc) will always be my favourites.

I think only played Golden Axe and Streets of Rage from memory.. I was fascinated when I first learned of Final Fight given I am a big Street Fighter Fan but never came across Final Fight until recently.. it's cool seeing a side scroller with a SF resemblance.

I loved Mario Kart 64. I didn't really play it much on the SNES but loved the N64 version. The rainbox boxes leaving an element of surprise as to what advantage you could have over your opponents was great.

I remember I first played Final Fight back in late 2001. I managed to get a computer that could run Mame32 on it so I had all these fantastic arcade games. What made it stand out was in the background you could see the World Trade Center twin towers in the background which is what everyone was talking about back then.

 

[Captain Ibis]

I loved Mario Kart 64. I didn't really play it much on the SNES but loved the N64 version. The rainbox boxes leaving an element of surprise as to what advantage you could have over your opponents was great.

I remember I first played Final Fight back in late 2001. I managed to get a computer that could run Mame32 on it so I had all these fantastic arcade games. What made it stand out was in the background you could see the World Trade Center twin towers in the background which is what everyone was talking about back then.

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I was actually playing the original Mario Kart for NES recently, I forgot how annoying the rubber banding is for the difficult setting! Still fun as, though. Mario Kart 64 was by far the best multiplayer racer though.

Ahh true! The Capcom graphics always had such a charm about them.. I really miss the hardware limitation era, it just brought out the best in the artist and the different ways they would use textures and such, nowadays the realism just doesn't do much for the imagination, I mean if I want to see realism I'll go outside lol.

 

[spiritofaslan]

Platformers and novelty racing games (Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, Snowboard Kids etc) will always be my favourites.

I think only played Golden Axe and Streets of Rage from memory.. I was fascinated when I first learned of Final Fight given I am a big Street Fighter Fan but never came across Final Fight until recently.. it's cool seeing a side scroller with a SF resemblance.

Same here... platformers can be simple, but really enjoyable.

Theres some recent-ish ones that are really good too.

RONIN - on Steam immediately comes to mind.

 

[Captain Ibis]

Same here... platformers can be simple, but really enjoyable.

Theres some recent-ish ones that are really good too.

RONIN - on Steam immediately comes to mind.

I don't own any systems myself but I've always wanted to play the WII versions of Donkey Kong and Mario.. they look pretty awesome.. and actually Bubsy: Paws on Fire looks cool as well, but a bit repetitive from what I've heard in at least one review.

 

[Wahesh]

I was actually playing the original Mario Kart for NES recently, I forgot how annoying the rubber banding is for the difficult setting! Still fun as, though. Mario Kart 64 was by far the best multiplayer racer though.

Ahh true! The Capcom graphics always had such a charm about them.. I really miss the hardware limitation era, it just brought out the best in the artist and the different ways they would use textures and such, nowadays the realism just doesn't do much for the imagination, I mean if I want to see realism I'll go outside lol.

100% mate. The limitations of systems brought out the best from the artists/programmers. I read somewhere more recently that the Master System which was only an 8 bit console was (as you'd expect) pretty limited, however games like Sonic the Hedgehog really pushed the system to the limit as they had a lost of colourful graphics, fast-paced action, and awesome sounds. I guess praise goes to the Master System (as well) for handling such a demanding game. Sega and Sonic pretty much went hand in hand back then (and to this still do as well).

 

[Wahesh]

Same here... platformers can be simple, but really enjoyable.

Theres some recent-ish ones that are really good too.

RONIN - on Steam immediately comes to mind.

There's another one - Bionic Commando: Rearmed

 

[Captain Ibis]

100% mate. The limitations of systems brought out the best from the artists/programmers. I read somewhere more recently that the Master System which was only an 8 bit console was (as you'd expect) pretty limited, however games like Sonic the Hedgehog really pushed the system to the limit as they had a lost of colourful graphics, fast-paced action, and awesome sounds. I guess praise goes to the Master System (as well) for handling such a demanding game. Sega and Sonic pretty much went hand in hand back then (and to this still do as well).

yeah there was a lot of innovation by programmers back then.. even further back on the Amstrad I remember listening an interview with the Oliver Twins who were popular game developers from the UK and they were talking about how they were making full games that were smaller in size than a modern day iPhone icon.. I think I still prefer the look of the older games, as I said in an earlier comment there's just a charm about them... I suppose for me I just like exploring worlds that look like gaming worlds, as apposed to newer games that are becoming more and more realistic.

 

[spiritofaslan]

There's another one - Bionic Commando: Rearmed

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That looks AMAZING!

 

[Wahesh]

That looks AMAZING!

It does, but it's a bit tricky because I'm used to being able to jump in platform games and that's something you can't do in this game - rather use the bionic/robotic arm to latch onto things and go up that way.

 

[Wahesh]

yeah there was a lot of innovation by programmers back then.. even further back on the Amstrad I remember listening an interview with the Oliver Twins who were popular game developers from the UK and they were talking about how they were making full games that were smaller in size than a modern day iPhone icon.. I think I still prefer the look of the older games, as I said in an earlier comment there's just a charm about them... I suppose for me I just like exploring worlds that look like gaming worlds, as apposed to newer games that are becoming more and more realistic.

The older games definitely did have that artistic charm about them. Something about the 8 bit games sounds are so iconic too - like the rings from Sonic the Hedgehog and the jump-kick sounds from Double Dragon. Even the sound of Opa Opa dying in Fantasy Zone.