My Top Ten Fighting/Beat 'Em Up Arcade Games!

[Glurrk]

I enjoyed the fighting games of the arcades, but was never a fan of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter- one-on-one games were dull for me, and they usually incorporated some weird technique that turned me off. (Being able to throw fireballs, for instance- lame!) Having said that, I'd like to list my top ten favorite arcade fighting games...

10. Kung Fu Master - Probably the first fighting game I ever played; I enjoyed the various opponents and similar structure to the movie "Game of Death", which featured Bruce Lee fighting his way up a multiple-story pagoda. I never beat this game, but came close. (I always ran out of quarters...)

9. Bad Dudes - You and a buddy knock a pile of ninjas off cliffs, moving trains and the like while searching for the President, who's been kidnapped. You are appropriately dressed in 90's attire, and yell, "I'm bad!" at the end of every level. A guilty pleasure!

8. Pit Fighter - I normally avoid the one-on-one fighting games, but this one was relatively realistic (no throwing fireballs or goofy special maneuvers) and kinda easy to beat, so It was a favorite of mine for awhile. This game also featured digitized images of actual fighters instead of rasterized graphics created from scratch.

7. Renegade - this game was ungodly tough; I never beat it- but it was fun nonetheless, being able to employ unorthodox maneuvers against your multiple opponents, such as kicking them off their motorcycles, punching them when they're down, and kneeing them in the groin. (Well, they always outnumber you, so you had to fight dirty!)

6. Final Fight - You and a buddy could choose between three characters to walk through the bad side of town, cleaning it up in search of a kidnapped girl (the father was one of the choices of characters) The bonus round was a scream- you trashed a badguy's car- making him weep at the end of the round!

5. P.O.W. - You and a buddy (seeing a theme here, yet?) escape from a p.o.w. camp, killing anyone who stands in your way. 99% of this game is unarmed combat, but every once in a while you could acquire a machinegun and mow down enemy soldiers- it saved a lot of time.

4. Vigilante - similar to Kung Fu Master, this horizontal scroller had you rescuing your girlfriend from the clutches of skinheads. What was nice about this one was that once you got into the groove, you really stood a chance of beating this one. Another nice touch is the ability to close in and knock enemies onto the ground and beat them senseless. (Call me sadistic.)

3. Double Dragon II - sequel to the original, you and you buddy kill everyone in sight in revenge for your murdered girlfriend. (Hey, THAT'S different!) New fighting moves, new weapons and opponents kept this sequel from being a re-hash of the original. (I actually enjoyed the right attack/left attack format.) The only pet peeve is that the game is ungodly tough; it usually took me about $10 in quarters to finish the game. My wrist was sore afterwards...

2. Tuff Turf - This one's pretty obscure, but I rank it fairly high because it's so outlandish in execution- you and a buddy are businessmen in suits who find a girl's been kidnapped by an army of cavemen who have taken over a skyscraper. You roll up your sleeves, loosen your ties, and go kick Cro-Magnon ass all over the place. After you reach the end, it turns out the girl was behind the whole thing. Some guy I was playing with got pretty mad about that, so he and I made her our soccer-ball until we threw her off the roof. Happy landings, witch.

1. Double Dragon - Oh, yeah! The original! This one's got so much appeal, of course it made #1! I'll skip the plot, and just glow over all the cool fighting moves, like hair-pull/knee smash, elbow punch and jumping kick. It didn't hurt that you could take away your enemy's weapon and use it against him/her. (It didn't hurt you, that is- your enemy? A different story...) A fair amount of my allowance went into this game- never bothered to see the movie, though.

Honorable Mention - um, I can't remember the name of this game. However, you and three other buddies had to go rescue a bevy of beauties from a crime boss- the game's standout element was the ability to stomp a baddie once he went down- making sure he stayed there... (again, call me sadistic. If anyone recalls this game's name, let me know- it's bugging the hell out of me.)