I have skipped on so many beat 'em ups that I decided to revisit the now almost extinct video game genre, where the occasional modern entry like Castle Crashers keeps it on life support.
One version I always wanted to play after playing the SNES version for forever is Final Fight Arcade, the original 1989 release. Of course I emulated this via MAME, as I have (yet) to have my own arcade cabinet located at home.
The differences between both versions are in hindsight small, as a small industrial based level is missing, and the sprite amount is higher at the arcade original. Other than that, the gameplay is intact, but the audio is obviously older.
I've also played and beaten Undercover Cops, which is a Super Famicom port of another arcade game, with similar gameplay to FF or SoR, with up to 3 characters with different movesets available.
The artstyle by Irem is striking as it indeed reminds us of other games like Metal Slug or In the Hunt. The sprites are detailed, the audio and setting are a mix of futuristic 90's, and the characters have special moves with can tear up the whole screen.
Knights of the Round is another beat 'em up on the SNES with a medieval settings this time based on the famous King Arthur story, again with up to 3 characters playable at the same time. I found this game to be quite challenging for the time being, so I will have to play it more in order to give it a proper review.
Finally, I replayed Final Fight 3 on the SNES, which is arguably the best of the trilogy, as it has 4 playable characters, the best graphics, the most attack moves, and a CPU can fill in as the second player.
Playing all of these on a sunday afternoon has been quite nostalgic, charming and exciting!
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