List of beat 'em ups

Last updated

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Beat 'em ups are video games which pit a fighter or group of fighters against many underpowered enemies and bosses. Gameplay usually spans many levels, with most levels ending in an enemy boss. If multiple players are involved, players generally fight cooperatively.

Contents

It is often useful to characterise gameplay as either 2D (largely characterised by the player walking only to the left or right) or 3D (characterised by full movement in the implied horizontal plane, sometimes also with a button for jump). Graphics can likewise be categorised as 2D (with sprites, sometimes with an isometric or parallax effect) or 3D (polygons), or hybrid (e.g. sprite characters in front of polygon backgrounds, or vice versa).

Beat 'em ups

Graphics2D gameplay3D gameplay
2D (sprites)

(Also known as single-plane or side-scrolling)

(Also known as belt scroll)

3D (polygons)(Also known as 2.5D)

Games with beat 'em up sections

Hack 'n slash

2D

3D

See also

Related Research Articles

Ninja Gaiden is a media franchise based on action video games by Tecmo featuring the ninja Ryu Hayabusa as its protagonist. The series was originally known as Ninja Ryukenden in Japan. The word "gaiden" in the North American Ninja Gaiden title means "side story" in Japanese. The original arcade version, first two Nintendo Entertainment System games and Game Boy game were released as Shadow Warriors in PAL regions. As of 2008, the series has shipped over 7.7 million copies.

Hack and slash, also known as hack and slay or slash 'em up, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat with melee-based weapons. They may also feature projectile-based weapons as well as secondary weapons. It is a sub-genre of beat 'em up games, which focuses on melee combat, usually with swords. Third-person hack and slash games are also sometimes known as character action games and spectacle fighters.

<i>Onimusha</i> Video game series

Onimusha is a series of video games developed and published by Capcom. It makes use of the historic figures that shaped Japan's history, retelling their stories with supernatural elements. Most of the games are of the action-adventure genre, a combination of third-person hack-and-slash combat and puzzle elements. The player protagonist wields the power of the Oni, enabling them to fight the Genma, the main enemy in the series. As of June 2024, the series has sold a total of 8.7 million copies worldwide, making it Capcom's tenth best-selling franchise, behind Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, Dragon's Dogma, Ace Attorney, and Marvel vs. Capcom.

The following article is a broad timeline of arcade video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Team Ninja</span> Japanese video game developer

Team Ninja is a Japanese video game developer, and a division of Koei Tecmo, founded in 1995 as Tecmo Creative #3, and was a division of Tecmo. It was founded by Tomonobu Itagaki, and the team is best known for franchises such as Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive and Nioh.

A beat 'em up is a video game genre featuring hand-to-hand combat against a large number of opponents. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, while a number of modern games feature more open three-dimensional (3D) environments with yet larger numbers of enemies. The gameplay tends to follow arcade genre conventions, such as being simple to learn but difficult to master, and the combat system tends to be more highly developed than other side-scrolling action games. Two-player cooperative gameplay and multiple player characters are also hallmarks of the genre. Most of these games take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical, science fiction or fantasy themes.

Ayane is a fictional character in the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises by Team Ninja and Tecmo. She debuted as a hidden unlockable character in the PlayStation version of the fighting game Dead or Alive in 1998, and has appeared in all of its sequels where she served as the protagonist of Dead or Alive 3, and has appeared in all of the series' spin-offs.

<i>Onimusha Blade Warriors</i> 2003 video game

Onimusha Blade Warriors is a 2003 fighting game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. A spin-off of the Onimusha series, Blade Warriors is a 2D fighter game featuring many of the characters of the Onimusha franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bang Zoom!</span> American audio recording studio

Unforseen Productions, Inc., doing business as Bang Zoom! Entertainment is an American audio post-production studio with its headquarters in Burbank, California, in Greater Los Angeles. Founded in 1993, it has worked on anime, video games, television series, feature films, and original animation projects.

<i>Ninja Gaiden</i> (1992 video game) 1992 video game

Ninja Gaiden is a side-scrolling, hack & slash, platform-action video game developed by SIMS and released by Sega for the Master System in 1992, with license from Tecmo.

Soundelux Design Music Group is an American sound studio located in Hollywood, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koei Tecmo</span> Japanese entertainment holding company

Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game, amusement and anime holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship video game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo Games that was founded in 1978 as Koei. Known as Tecmo Koei until the names were reversed in 2014, the company had occasionally used the "Koei" and "Tecmo" brand names on new video games until 2016 for marketing purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M2 (game developer)</span> Video game developer

M2 Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher, best known for handling emulation of re-released games, such as some Sega Ages titles, Virtual Console titles for Nintendo systems, the 3D Classics series for the Nintendo 3DS and their ShotTriggers range of classic STG games. M2 has also created entirely new titles such as WiiWare games for Konami under the ReBirth moniker and more recently a new GG Aleste game. In addition, M2 currently holds the rights of Aleste series and all NEC Avenue and NEC Interchannel games on TurboGrafx-16 and variants, previously owned by Lightweight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marvelous (company)</span> Japanese anime producer and video game company

Marvelous Inc. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher, and anime producer. The company was founded in 1997 but formed in its current state in October 2011 by the merger of the original Marvelous Entertainment with AQ Interactive, and Liveware.

<i>BigHit Series</i> Video game series

BigHit Series are video games for the Korean Sony PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles that have been officially re-released at a lower price by Sony and third parties that meet specific criteria. While the term "BigHit series" only applies to selections in South Korea, equivalent programs exist in North America, PAL territories and Japan and Asia.

AltJapan Co., Ltd. is a Tokyo based company specializing in the translation and localization of Japanese entertainment. It is particularly active in manga and video game localization. It specializes in Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese translation, but also handles European language localization as well. It has worked on titles for companies including Capcom, Koei-Tecmo, Namco-Bandai, Konami, Taito, Square-Enix, and Platinum Games. Credits include Dragon Quest VIII, the Ninja Gaiden series, the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series, Lollipop Chainsaw,Lost Planet 3, and the 2014 remake of Strider.

PlayStation Experience, also known as PSX, is an annual event for the video game industry presented by Sony Interactive Entertainment used to reveal and advertise PlayStation games and game-related merchandise. The event is open to the public and showcases various panels and many unreleased games, with playable demos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omega Force</span> Japanese video game developer

Omega Force is a Japanese video game developer and a division of Koei Tecmo, founded in 1996 by Akihiro Suzuki and Kenichi Ogasawara, and is best known for the Dynasty Warriors video games.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "First Samurai". Computer and Video Games . No. 121 (December 1991). 15 November 1991. pp. 28–30.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Complete Games Guide". Mean Machines . No. 20 (28 April 1992). May 1992. pp. 6, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26.
  3. ↑ Reed, Kristan (4 January 2007). "Taito Legends Power-Up". Eurogamer . Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  4. ↑ Gass, Zach (11 May 2020). "10 Awesome Hack and Slash Games That Aren't God of War". Screen Rant . Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  5. ↑ Greg Kasavin (2006-11-30). "Golden Axe Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2009-02-04. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  6. ↑ Patrick Shaw (2008-05-16). "Golden Axe: Beast Rider". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  7. ↑ Weiss, Brett (9 July 2018). Classic Home Video Games, 1989-1990: A Complete Guide to Sega Genesis, Neo Geo and TurboGrafx-16 Games. McFarland & Company. p. 206. ISBN   978-0-7864-9231-2.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.