Sometimes the best way to make a difference is to wrap your knuckles, step out onto a mob-filled street, and punch the enemy squarely in the snot box. With beat ’em ups, the gameplay goal is simple: Destroy the enemy waves before they destroy you. Although that description applies to many video game genres—including action, strategy, and shmup—beat ’em ups have their own flavor.
Thanks to pioneering titles like The Warriors-inspired Renegade and the post-apocalyptic Double Dragon, beat ’em ups typically feature street-level heroes who must rescue a girlfriend, save a president, exact cold revenge, or engage in some other B-movie trope. The games usually feature simple side-scrolling movement, which is why beat ’em ups are known as “belt scrollers” in Japan and some Western gaming circles. “Brawlers” is another term for the genre.
Though beat ’em ups aren’t as buzzworthy as, say, battle royale games, they have a dedicated, hard-core following that loves the urban chaos. Fortunately, the PC is a platform with a growing library of high-quality belt scrollers. These are the best we’ve reviewed.
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Developer Capcom was a key player in the beat ’em up genre’s popularity, thanks to several memorable arcade releases that gave players the opportunity to team up with a friend to pound enemy forces into pulp.
Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle collects seven of those games, including Final Fight and Knights of the Round, in a package that also includes online play for each game. If you fancy thumb-numbing, button-mashing action in either solo or multiplayer sessions, Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle is a recommended package. That said, it understandably lacks Capcom’s licensed gems, such as Cadillacs and Dinosaurs or The Punisher.
Despite it retro aesthetic, Fight’N Rage is a thoroughly modern spin on the classic beat ’em up. Not only does the game incorporate clever fighting game elements, such as parries and super moves, it includes branching missions and sub-paths that offer fresh scenery and action should you decide to run off the beaten path.
That said, Fight’N Rage’s difficulty is a doozy, and its lack of built-in, online multiplayer is disappointing. Still, the post-apocalyptic beat ’em up is one that belong in your Steam library.
You can’t mention beat ’em ups without the Kunio-kun series, a Japanese franchise featuring hot-blooded school kids rumbling in the streets. With River City Girls, developer WayForward took the Kunio reins and created the best series entry in some time.
WayForward’s love for the series drips from every roundhouse punch and baseball bat swing, as two high school students—Kyoko and Misako—crack skulls as they try to rescue their kidnapped boyfriends. River City Girls has terrific beat ’em up action, swinging synthpop music, and the ability to purchase new moves, accessories, and power ups, but a few glaring negatives keep the brawler from being a genre great.
Kyoko and Misako once again put down their books and lift their fists for more teenage brawls through River City’s wild streets. In this sequel, developer WayForward and publisher Arc System Works enhance the high school-themed beat ’em up formula in nearly every aspect by introducing new moves, a larger map, and more playable characters. The absolutely amazing soundtrack, once again fronted by the incredible Megan McDuffee, gives the music an infectious quality that will keep you humming for days.
The second Kunio-kun game in this roundup isn’t the traditional beat ’em up on which the River City franchise built its fame. Instead, River City Melee Mach!! takes the series’ combat fundamentals—punches, kicks, throws, and weapons—and adds power ups, special moves, stage gimmicks, and team-based, last-man-standing contests.
Featuring charming, retro-style graphics, fast-paced action, and nearly 200 characters, Arc System Works’ River City Melee Mach!! gives the series high school rivalries a fresh shot of life. Like River City Girls, it suffers a few issues that keep it from being a beat ’em up A-lister.
Way back in 2010, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game debuted on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to much acclaim. Conceived as a tie-in game for the then-recently released live-action film, the Ubisoft Chengdu-developed title served as a fun take on the Brian Lee O’Malley comic book and a homage to genre classics.
For reasons that are still unclear, Ubisoft pulled the game from the PlayStation and Xbox digital storefronts in 2014. Seven years later, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game returns from its digital graveyard none the worse for wear with the same outstanding animation, rockin’ Anamanaguchi score, and big action. The Complete Edition includes modes that were previously available as DLC, such as Dodgeball and Zombie Hordes.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition (for PC) Review
The Sloclap-developed Sifu wears its inspirations on its sleeves, taking elements from Old Boy, John Wick, and Jackie Chan flicks to create a cinematic beat ’em up that’s just as fun to watch as it is to play. The deep combat system lets you parry, unleash super moves, and utilize weapons and environments as you seek revenge on villains who did your family wrong. The unique death system causes your character to grow older, exchanging youth and vitality for age and raw strength.
It’s been nearly three decades since SEGA released Streets of Rage 3, the previous entry in the beloved beat ’em up series, so the reveal of Streets of Rage 4 was shocking. The fact that it turned out to be quite good was even more surprising.
This brawler by developers LizardCube, Guard Crush Games, and Dotemu is Streets of Rage through and through. Featuring a diverse cast of new and returning martial artists looking to clean up a fictional city’s mean streets from a criminal syndicate, Streets of Rage 4 offers the hard-hitting combat, dreary urban environments, and sheer fun that’s defined the series since 1991. Streets of Rage 4’s wall splats, supers, and combo system give it fighting game elements that create extra gameplay depth.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brands is one tailor-made for beat-’em-up action, with its colorful cast of characters that feature humanoid reptiles, villainous martial artists, aliens, robots, and a rat that dispenses wisdom as often as he dispenses karate chops. With Shredder’s Revenge, TMNT receives one of its best video game adaptations to date.
Developed by Tribute Games, a team that features crew members who worked on the excellent Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, Shredder’s Revenge heavily draws from the 1980s show, and has the colorful, toon-like visuals to match. In addition, it pulls elements from past Turtles games and toys to create 16 stages of wild street fighting. Six-player co-op play in online and offline modes ensures that you’ll fight like a family, just like playable characters April, Casey, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Splinter.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (for PC) Review
On the surface, Treachery In Beatdown City appears to be a strict homage to classic beat ‘em up games from the 1980s and 1990s. However, the brawler’s menu-driven, tactical combo system, and biting urban satire reveals a game that’s radically different than what’s come before it.
Developed by Nuchallenger, Treachery In Beatdown City is a fun game that requires you to use your brain to battle the way through the gentrification elements that plagues a fictional city’s streets, but its pace may prove too slow for traditional beat ’em up fans. Tactics fans, on the other hand, may really dig it.
Sega’s Yakuza is the rare polygonal series that adheres to the beat ’em up ethos. In Yakuza 0—the prequel story that shows how series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu rose through the ranks to become the big boss of a Japanese crime syndicate— you brawl through small, semi-open world regions with knuckles, guns, swords, and other weapons.
At the heart of the gangsterism is empathy and honor, be it between bro and bro, an orphan and his surrogate father, or well-dressed hoodlums and the desperate strangers they meet. It’s also a tale involving a pelvis-thrusting man, referred to as both Walking Erection and Mr. Libido, wearing nothing but shoes and tighty-whities. Yakuza 0’s ability to dance between the dramatic and the absurd, all of it punctuated with thrilling combat, makes this brawler one of the best on the PC.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life serves as a delightful, action-packed conclusion to Kazuma Kiryu’s gangster-filled story. The beat ’em up game features streamlined controls, fun boss bottles, and the oddball happenings you’d expect to find in the ridiculous, fictional Tokyo district of Kamurocho. It’s a bit on the easy side, though.
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