What Happened To Side-Scrolling Beat 'em Up Video Games? They're GONE!

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RoXolid Productions

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30,000

Published on November 16, 2024 12:00:00 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18MoNJ6LT1M

Game:

Double Dragon (1987)

Duration: 0:00

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Back in the day, side-scrolling beat'em up video games were everywhere. Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, Final Fight, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more all exploded onto the scene and all were massive successes. It seems like after the Super NES and Sega Genesis 16-bit era, however, this genre of games just disappeared. Like they're gone! So what happened to them? Why don't we get them like we used to and what are some great games in the genre to check out?

Arcades
Side-scrolling beat'em up games really got their start in the arcades and for good reasons. Unlike the barcades of today the arcades of yesterday loved it when a game was a quarter-muncher, meaning that it had a high level of difficulty but also a high enjoyment factor. To be profitable you needed to keep people feeding quarters into the machines to continue the games, but not so challenging people would get frustrated and give up and walk away. Successful beat'em ups like Double Dragon and FInal Fight had a fantastic balance between reward and challenge so that people could be successful, but not TOO successful.

3D Games
It is no surprise that these 2D masterpieces somewhat fell off in popularity when 3D platforms became the norm. The Nintendo 64, Saturn, and PlayStation all were pushing the envelope of what was possible with 3D gaming, why would they ever want to look backward to a 2D genre? And to be honest a 3D beat'em up may not have worked very well. Look at Castlevania on the N64, that game is sort of a beat'em up but it didn't translate to 3D very well. We were too close to the 8 and 16-bit eras that nostalgia wasn't going to kick in quite yet, but now 2D games have a definite place.

Were they too violent?
One thing with a beat'em up is that you have to beat people and/or creatures up. While this wasn't a big deal in the 80s, now with certain sensitivities this could be seen as an overly violent genre. I don't think so myself, they were silly and cartoony, but who knows.

But they're back
Thankfully some games are returning to the genre. We've had 2 good TMNT titles, Streets of Rage 4 was decent, and more homebrews coming.

#VideoGames #DoubleDragon #beatemup #Nintendo #NES #Arcade

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