Retro reflections: Looking back at classic, forgotten, beat-em-ups

Retro by Matt S.

Once upon a time, when arcades were still a big deal, the beat-em-up was a major, major genre. It was popular for the same reason that shooters and the like are popular today; the beat-em-up was visceral in its violence, and it was designed around the multiplayer experience. You could play these games by yourself, but the real fun was in working with a couple of other people to quest through the action together.

They were also infamous for being difficult, difficult games. Arcades wanted to swallow up cash more quickly than microtransactions in mobile games do today, so the challenge level of each game was astronomical, even if the games themselves ran to around an hour in length. Actually getting to the point where you could complete any beat-em-up with a single coin was a process that would cost you a lot of money.

It’s not a favourite genre of my own, to be honest, but since picking up my arcade game table earlier in the year, I’ve found myself playing these games fairly frequently. Firstly, because they don’t cost me money any more, though I have the arcade original versions, rather than the watered-down console editions. Secondly, because they’re good for some fast, furious action, and I generally like to use my table to flit through a number of different games each play session.

Everyone knows the major classics in the genre - Golden Axe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Double Dragon, The Simpsons. For this week’s retro reflections, however, I thought I’d look back at some of less well known examples of the genre that I’ve found myself enjoying a great deal recently:

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