Turtles in Time is, bar none, the best beat ‘em up on the SNES, and potentially the best game the genre has ever produced. That said, there are some games that overcame the trappings of their genre to live on as something worthwhile. Even by the late ’90s, video games had, for the most part, evolved past the “beat everyone up and move right,” design philosophy. A product of a time when arcade games were difficult and sought to continuously milk gamers of their pocket change, beat ‘em ups often feel repetitive and flat by today’s standards.

The sad truth is, of the classic gaming genres, beat ‘em ups simply haven’t aged well as others. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Timeįor a genre as emblematic of the late ’80s and early ’90s, it may come as a surprise that this list features just a single beat ‘em up. Of course, Mortal Kombat III introduced new characters and expanded the series’ fiction, but from a gameplay standpoint, Mortal Kombat II was the progenitor for what the series has become today: a pillar of the fighting game genre. In hindsight, they were certainly more juvenile than “mature,” but along with games like Doom, the Mortal Kombat series pushed the appropriate-content envelope and made video games appealing to older audiences. In the context of the series, Mortal Kombat II was an important game because it brought quicker gameplay and new combos that would go on to define the way subsequent games series played. The hyper-violent gore was novel, but it also was one of the first game to feel like an “adult” experience. Admittedly, the early Mortal Kombat games have been long-since surpassed in terms of gameplay, but at the time they were something special. The original Mortal Kombat made waves because of its gruesome and theretofore unseen levels of violence, but the second installment made waves because it was a damn good fighting game. Fitbit Versa 3ĭeveloper: Midway Games, Sculptured Software

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