The Nintendo Entertainment System was filled with great beat 'em ups, but these five are still worth playing today.
gave the console video game industry the adrenaline injection it needed after the market crash in the early ’80s. One of the reasons the NES was such a success is that it was able to emulate many of the top arcade genres at the time with great games.
Sometimes, that meant ports of popular arcade games, but Nintendo and its partners had plenty of successful exclusives. With beat ’em ups being one of the stars of the arcade, it’s no surprise that they were also huge on the NES.What Bayou Billy lacks in his neck, he makes up for with his prodigious knife. Players step into the shoes of the titular William, who makes his home in the bayous of Louisiana, and must fight against Godfather Gordon, a local smuggler who has kidnapped Billy’s girlfriend Annabelle. The standard hand-to-hand combat is a blast, and Billy can also equip a variety of weapons to give yourself an edge.every few stages, letting you drive Billy’s jeep and hop into an on-rails, first-person shooter segment. The latter set of levels also lets you play with the NES Zapper, if you have it.Bad Dudes have to save the president of the United States from a group of ninja criminals. It’s a wild setup that ends with the Bad Dudes eating a cheeseburger with President Ronnie, which is a fitting ending if you can make it through This is a port of a fan-favorite arcade cabinet, and while it isn’t as good as the arcade version, it retains enough of that charm to still be worth jumping into. Each stage ends with a boss fight, all of which have their own special attacks to keep the action fresh. Sure, it’s better known for becoming a meme thanks to that wacky opening cutscene, butis an interesting one, and some players might not consider it for this list. The arcade version, which came out around the same time, is absolutely a classic beat ’em up. However, the NES version is somewhere between beat ’em up and hack and slash. Still, I’m counting it because it’s absolutely worth checking out these days. The responsive, fast-paced gameplay still feels great, making it one of the easiest games to go back to. Your trusty sword is definitely up to the task of taking down enemies, but there are plenty of neat secondary weapons that’ll help turn the tide againstlaunched on the NES. However, the latter is not a port of the former, despite what you might assume.was developed exclusively for the NES, so it doesn’t feel like an afterthought to the arcade version. Either way, if you haven’t had the joy of‘ series has a strange legacy. The first game is a tough action-adventure that lets you switch between the four turtles. That came out in 1989. Later that year, an arcade game came out, which turned it into a beat ’em up. When it was ported to the NES, it was renamedThis one only came out on the NES, but it uses the combat system from the arcade version. It was a meandering path, but we eventually got to a good spot. This beat ’em up set the stage for the all-timer that isYou can jump in with a friend for excellent couch co-op action. All four turtles are playable, and combat is mostly the same as in the second game. You can now use a toss attack, but everything else is very similar. While the boss roster isn’t as impressive asMasters of the Universe Is Getting a New Co-Op Game in 2026HBO Max Is About To Lose a Cult Classic Comic Book Movie
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