Final Fight is probably the first beat-em-up game I remember playing in the arcade. It was just so cool. Waves of punks coming after Haggar and Cody and they just beat the crap out of them with wrestling moves and karate. It didn't make much sense, but it was so cool. The continue screen with the dynamite was so dramatic that it still sticks in my mind as one of the greatest continue screens of all time.
Next up is probably Street Fighter II. It combined everything that was awesome about karate movies and action movies, then made it into an international fighting tournament. Each fight was different, and the fighters had such personality and cool moves that I always enjoyed seeing how each fight would play out, even if it was just me holding forward and heavy punch, it all just looked so badass and became a cultural phenomenon.
After that, I'd have to say X-Men the Arcade Game was top-tier. It was like playing a version of the 90s cartoon. Nobody cared that the characters were actually from the 1989 pilot episode. It was enough to trash sentinels and then stomp on them, and use your mutant power to clear the screen. The mutant powers always felt so impactful and powerful, especially if you were low on health, and cleared the screen to save the day.
Number 6 is a tough call, but I think I'm gonna have to give it to Peacekeepers on SNES. It's cool for the same reasons X-Men Arcade was cool, except ramped up to 10. So, there's a superhero team, and they're taking on monsters and mutants with karate moves and huge wrestling slams. Even bigger if they're in “Angry Mode” and they just launch the bad guys. Plus, each character has their own attacks, special attacks, and super special attacks, so it's all really satisfying to keep beating on baddies, which is important because that's all you do in beat-em-ups.
This one probably a little more obscure: Saturday Night Slam Masters for SNES. It was a wrestling game that combined wrestling with beat-em-up mechanics, instead of the total clickfests that most wrestling games were at the time. The grapple system was still a clickfest, but they were on their way out. Cool special moves, tournament fighter-style and a memorable cast meant that I could keep playing. It probably started my love of wrestling games.
Number 4! Oh well, that's gotta go to Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. I can still play this game and enjoy it. Plus, it introduced some of my favorite characters like Cammy and Fei Long! It blew my mind that they just put the boss characters in there. It's like they said forget it. Just put everything that made Street Fighter cool into one game. And the world is better for it.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was the same next-level kind of insanity. Only now they let two characters tag-team together and unleash all kinds of crazy special moves, assist attacks, and hyper combos with a few easy button presses. This game was always pure eye candy. Did it make sense that little Mega Man could body slam Captain America? No, but it was so cool nobody cared. It was worth it to see them all on the screen together.
Oh, gosh. What's at Number 2? Super Street Fighter 4! I love that on the touch-screen version they let the player unleash super moves and super combos with a simple poke! Sure, it was the same animations over and over, but it meant there was a level playing field and wasn't a combo and clickfest. Plus, it still has most of my favorite characters like Cammy and added Juri Han! I can always still pick up and play this one.
Number 1 is BlazBlue: Continuum Shift! A great cast of colorful characters, big colorful attacks, and a complex, crazy anime-style narrative make this game my favorite. They put a lot into this game, including story modes, tournament modes, and branching visual novel-style presentation. This many ways to play plus such cool moves for each character means I never get bored of it!
Bonus: Lastly, the perfect way to end the 90s fighting game craze! In 1999, there was Tekken Tag Tournament. The inputs were easier, the characters were cool (You could play as a dinosaur!), it was easier to do combos, they let them tag between each other, each with their own crazy moves. Plus, they even added an unlockable bowling mode, which automatically makes it my favorite. How many other fighting games have a bowling mode?
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