8 Best SNES Beat 'Em Ups

Final Fight 3 is the second sequel to Final Fight released for the Super NES, and like Final Fight 2 it never had an arcade version first. A new gang called Skull Cross is rioting in Metro City, so Guy and Haggar come back to clean house. They bring two new faces: Lucia, a detective in the Metro City Police's Special Crimes Unit, and Dean, a street fighter whose family was murdered by the Skull Cross Gang. Haggar is now sporting a ponytail.

This is the one where Capcom finally gave the series new tricks. You can now dash, and a Super Move gauge fills up as you fight, much like Street Fighter. There are alternate levels and secret rooms to find, and they even change the ending. It was released to little fanfare, but retro reviewers rank it among the best side-scrolling beat 'em ups out there.

The Ninja Warriors on the SNES is a follow-up to Taito's 1987 arcade game of the same title, made by the same team at Natsume that later developed Wild Guns. You pick one of three ninja androids, built by a rebel faction to help them overthrow the tyrant Banglar. The Kunoichi is the most balanced character, and the Kamaitachi, brand new here, attacks with extendable blades on its arms.

You can only move from left to right, which makes it harder to keep from getting surrounded, so you get a much longer health bar than usual. You can grab enemies and ram them into other enemies, and motorcycles and large safes can be picked up and tossed at the crowd. The fighting has been drastically improved over the arcade original, though, and reviewers at the time compared its quality to Neo Geo games.

Battletoads in Battlemaniacs was released in North America by Tradewest in June 1993. It is less a sequel than an elaborate remake of the NES Battletoads, and many of its levels are enhanced or remixed versions of levels from the original. Creatures from a virtual world kidnap Zitz and the daughter of the corporation's CEO, so the remaining Toads, Pimple and Rash, have to go in after them. The Turbo Tunnel is back too, taken to the next level with double and triple walls.

The best news for anyone who fought a friend through the NES game is 2-Player Mode B, which prevents the players from harming one another in the melee. Critics praised its varied gameplay and music and knocked its high difficulty, and it has roughly half the content of the first game. Retro reviewers call it an excellent introduction for newcomers and a worthy contender among the many SNES beat 'em ups.

Knights of the Round is Capcom's take on the legend of King Arthur. You play Arthur or one of his two closest companions, Lancelot and Perceval, and ride out to take back the Holy Grail from the evil Garibaldi. Every knight has a weapon of his own, so there are no secondary weapons to pick up off the floor. Instead you get the odd horse, and a horse can stampede forward and knock down anything in its path.

The SNES version was downgraded from three players to two, and there are fewer enemies on screen. In return it adds a separate block button, so it is quite a bit easier to play, which matters because countering is almost essential for some boss fights. Retro brawler guides call it a must-have for any Super Nintendo beat 'em up library.

Captain Commando goes all the way back to the NES, when he was a Capcom mascot, and in 1991 he got an arcade brawler of his own. The cast is the selling point: one of his partners is a ninja, and another is a baby riding a robot. The arcade game had support for four players and let you climb into the mechs that enemy pilots ride, once you knock the pilot off.

The SNES port did not come out until 1995, as the SNES was entering its twilight years. It plays well, but four players were reduced to two, and the rideable mechs were removed entirely. Even so, retro guides call the port a good game in its own right.

Final Fight was the highest-grossing arcade game of 1990 in Japan, and the SNES version was one of the first games for the system. The Mad Gear gang has kidnapped Jessica, the daughter of pro wrestler turned politician Mike Haggar, so Haggar stomps off to rescue her with her boyfriend Cody along for the ride. The Super NES version also sold 1.5 million cartridges worldwide.

The SNES version removed two-player co-op and the playable character Guy, and it could only display two or three enemies on screen at once. Capcom answered with Final Fight Guy, released in Japan in 1992, where Guy took the place of Cody. Even with the cuts, one reviewer called it a "classy beat 'em", and it became a good basic template for most 16-bit beat 'em ups that followed.

Batman Returns is one of the console-exclusive brawlers Konami put out for the movie. It is Christmas in Gotham City, and an evil circus troupe descends to bring the city into chaos while the Penguin and Catwoman make their moves. The game takes you through seven scenes from the film, each with a boss fight at the end. In one of them you drive the Batmobile on a Mode 7 road, shooting at bikers.

Batman is the only playable character, so this one is all yours. He can block with the shoulder buttons, and if you grab one enemy and walk into another, you can smash their heads together. The orchestral music even uses Danny Elfman's famous theme. Players who grew up with it still list it among their SNES favourites, and only one brawler on the console gets named more.

Turtles in Time started as a sequel to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, and it was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992, with the IV added to carry on the numbering from the earlier Turtles games released on the original NES. Super Krang flies in and steals the Statue of Liberty, Shredder hijacks the airwaves to laugh at the Turtles, and then he sends them through a time warp. To get home, they have to fight Shredder's army in both the past and the future.

The SNES version is not a straight copy. A new Technodrome stage was added, where you beat Shredder in a battle tank by throwing Foot soldiers at the screen. It also has a time-trial mode and a two-player versus fight mode. Players name it as the best SNES beat 'em up more than twice as often as anything else.