Whenever a game is stuck in the arcade and doesn't have any home console ports I get sad. When the game is arguably the best in the series there really isn't any excuse.
With names like Gilius Thunderhead, Ax Battler, and Tyris Flare how can we lose?
Brawlers, beat-em ups, side-scrollers (to an extent), and just plain arcade. Whatever you label the genre one thing is for sure: there are a ton of them out there!
Since I started playing video games on the NES there have been side-scrolling beat-em ups. My beginnings were with the Double Dragon series on the NES, which then evolved into the Genesis classics Golden Axe I and II. The love affair took off from there, with every generation producing unique and worthwhile entries in the genre. Though there has been a decline with the recent consoles, a spare brawler rises out of the ashes of nostalgia and captures my heart all over again. The following games aren’t in any sort of order. They’re all just games that are entirely worth your time.