Beat'em Up Game Wish Lists?

[Mozenrath]

Brawlers have been experiencing a major resurgence in the past couple of years, with some excellent entries like TMNT: Shredder's Revenge helping to put the genre back to the forefront, along with stuff like Double Dragon, River City Girls, Streets of Rage, The Takedown, etc, also having levels of success critically or commercially or both. There are also games like Dragon's Crown that were keeping the genre alive before this revival, but there's no denying that the pool is deeper these days.

So, it got me thinking, what are some beat'em ups you'd love to see come into existence? You can come up with farcical examples like you want, like Golden Girls (I'd main Dorothy), but I'm admittedly more curious about more plausible scenarios.

For me, I'd like to see some superhero ones. Spider-Man obviously had some games like Maximum Carnage that have their nostalgia around them, but they always had some crippling flaws or just a lack of polish holding them back. I'd love to see a modern approach to it, especially given there is obviously a strong roster you could go with, either for the '80s-'90s nostalgia like Venom, Daredevil, and Black Cat, or more modern teammates for other players like Silk, Spider-Gwen, Miles, or the like. Hell, Johnny Storm, Firestar, or Iceman have their own cases to throw in there. There is no shortage of allies or villains to fill the ranks of such a game.

Similarly, X-Men had a classic arcade beat'em up, but it's only scratching the surface of the ranks you could tap for this.

Batman is another obvious choice, both for allies and villains, and for a prominent hero who has had some pretty mixed efforts in the genre and could do so much better. If they put in the effort, it'd be good. Same goes for Teen Titans, for a different corner of the DC universe if you want more varied skillsets in play.

Part of me thinks something like Street Sharks, with the right game, would have the best chance it'd ever have at getting people to give a shit about the franchise for any sort of reboot/revival, though that's also possibly just a total money pit. It really depends on how efficiently the budget was handled.

So, what are some that spring to mind to you?

[chrom]

Speaking of Superheroes, I'd like a Heroes for Hire style beat'em up with Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Action Movie: The Video Game
Sort of a riff on Comix Zone – various action movie stars have gotten sucked into the worlds of their movies and must work together to escape them.

[Mozenrath]

Nov 23, 2023 22:58:19 GMT -5 Mighty Attack Tribble said:

Action Movie: The Video Game
Sort of a riff on Comix Zone – various action movie stars have gotten sucked into the worlds of their movies and must work together to escape them.

Would it be straightforward, or shuffle it, like oh shit, Universal Soldier has to fight Simon Phoenix, etc?

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Nov 23, 2023 23:01:25 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Would it be straightforward, or shuffle it, like oh shit, Universal Soldier has to fight Simon Phoenix, etc?

Each level would be based on a movie, but you could choose any action hero to play through it and they'd each have a playstyle roughly corresponding with their most famous roles.

[burdette25159]

Loud House: Battle to save the History of Nickelodeon - Lincoln and Lynn Jr along with Clyde and Zack go back through Nick History in a beat em up RPG to save it from being erased from history. Recruiting various nicktoon/live action nick stars from its entire history along the way.

Bonkers: Battle of Los Angeles, Bonkers, Lucky, Marilyn and Miranda are the only ones who stand in the way of a Pete/Beagle Boys/other Disney villians alliance who hold the City of Angels hostage

[Big BosskMan]

1 wish. Updated WWF WrestleFest arcade game.

[Gunhaver]

A modern version of Maximum Carnage. That game deserved a better design.

[ERON]

A Masters of the Universe or Thundercats game in the style of the Capcom D&D series would be sick.

I'd also love an '80s WWF beat 'em up game - not a wrestling game, but a Final Fight type game where you're fighting your way through the city as Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior, with guys like the Brooklyn Brawler, Dino Bravo, and Akeem as the regular enemies, and bosses like Andre, Demolition, and Randy Savage.

[wildojinx]

A Transformers Beat Em Up would be sweet. GI Joe could work well too, but there arent enough characters who are adept at physical combat.

[Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite]

I always wanted them to make an "adult" Mario Brothers game where they go back to the real world and go around beating up criminals in their old Brooklyn neighborhood

[Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite]

Nov 24, 2023 17:19:49 GMT -5 Gunhaver said:

A modern version of Maximum Carnage. That game deserved a better design.

Green Jelly still needs to make the soundtrack

[Mozenrath]

Nov 24, 2023 22:58:29 GMT -5 ERON said:

A Masters of the Universe or Thundercats game in the style of the Capcom D&D series would be sick.

I'd also love an '80s WWF beat 'em up game - not a wrestling game, but a Final Fight type game where you're fighting your way through the city as Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior, with guys like the Brooklyn Brawler, Dino Bravo, and Akeem as the regular enemies, and bosses like Andre, Demolition, and Randy Savage.

There's Betrayal for the Game Boy Color that is kind of a primitive version of this, but yeah, it's pretty untapped. You'd figure generic jobbers or random people like bikers, building to named wrestlers as bosses (maybe that you unlock as playable) would be a solid model for such a game.

[Mozenrath]

Nov 24, 2023 23:10:36 GMT -5 wildojinx said:

A Transformers Beat Em Up would be sweet. GI Joe could work well too, but there arent enough characters who are adept at physical combat.

I think you could still get enough going, even if it probably helps if you have Storm Shadow as playable given his sometimes antihero status.

Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Lady Jaye with the javelins, Roadblock, probably Duke as a given, Sgt. Slaughter perhaps, etc. There's also Jinx and Kamakura, but I get if they are too obscure for this.

[dav]

Nov 23, 2023 23:31:16 GMT -5 Mighty Attack Tribble said:

Nov 23, 2023 23:01:25 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Would it be straightforward, or shuffle it, like oh shit, Universal Soldier has to fight Simon Phoenix, etc?

Each level would be based on a movie, but you could choose any action hero to play through it and they'd each have a playstyle roughly corresponding with their most famous roles.

A bit like Broforce?

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Nov 25, 2023 5:16:34 GMT -5 dav said:

A bit like Broforce?

*Googles*

Holy shit. Pretty much exactly like that!

[Mandarin Dessert Version 0]

A Batman Beat 'Em Up but based on the 1960s TV show complete with "BOFF", "KA-POW", "EEEEE-YOUCH" etc. appearing on screen.

[BlackoutCreature]

Nov 25, 2023 9:33:02 GMT -5 Mandarin Dessert Version 0 said:

A Batman Beat 'Em Up but based on the 1960s TV show complete with "BOFF", "KA-POW", "EEEEE-YOUCH" etc. appearing on screen.

I will accept this only if Chief O'Hara is a playable character.

I've been reading a lot of old Tick comics lately and I think it would have a lot of potential as a beat 'em up. Especially if they can make it multi-versal between the three shows and the comics.

[James Fabiano]

Nov 25, 2023 0:24:42 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Nov 24, 2023 22:58:29 GMT -5 ERON said:

A Masters of the Universe or Thundercats game in the style of the Capcom D&D series would be sick.

I'd also love an '80s WWF beat 'em up game - not a wrestling game, but a Final Fight type game where you're fighting your way through the city as Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior, with guys like the Brooklyn Brawler, Dino Bravo, and Akeem as the regular enemies, and bosses like Andre, Demolition, and Randy Savage.

There's Betrayal for the Game Boy Color that is kind of a primitive version of this, but yeah, it's pretty untapped. You'd figure generic jobbers or random people like bikers, building to named wrestlers as bosses (maybe that you unlock as playable) would be a solid model for such a game.

There is a hack of Double Dragon that includes the WWF Superstars arcade character...there's several game play videos online...

How about SWAT Kats?

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Masters of the Universe is made for a 90s style capcom Beat'em'up, or a Konami style brawler. Embrace the muscles, magic and lasers!