Do you remember games like Double Dragon?, Streets of Rage or Final Fight? The stories of Jimmy and Billy Lee, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding, Guy and Cody brawling and battling gangs and gangster syndicates through the streets, bars, trains and elevators? Did you play those arcade games with the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, X-Men or the Simpsons while beating up 3 enemies at the same time with your combos?

…Than you remember an old game genre called “Beat’em Up”

This game genre once was born in the mid eighties with games like Kung Fu Master (1984) and till today we still see new games either playing like traditional Beat’em Ups or going new ways. The Beat’em Up genre changed often during the years, and in this art tribute we try to illustrate the games and their gameplay and also talk about the new and unique elements they added to this game genre. This includes games not everyone of us would even call a Beat’em Up anymore like Castlevania: Lords of Shadows and TRON Evolution.

 

The Beat’em Up Game Genre is over 25 years old and currently our tribute starts in 1988 and ends in 2010. We hope to give you a big insight about the development of this genre through our art and additional images like screenshots as well as a ton of informations about the games and its characters, have fun visiting this dedicated art tribute on Game-Art-HQ!

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Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja

1988 by Data East (Arcade)

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Double Dragon II: The Revenge

1988 by Technōs Japan(Arcade)

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Golden Axe

1989 by Sega (Arcade)

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Captain Commando

1991 by Capcom (Arcade)

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Streets of Rage

1991 by Sega (Genesis)

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TMNT: Turtles in Time

1991 by Konami (Arcade)

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TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist

1992 by Konami (Genesis)

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Legend

1993 by Arcade Zone (Super Nintendo)

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Battletoads

1994 by Rare (Arcade)

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Comix Zone

1995 by Sega (Genesis)

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Panzer Bandit

1997 by Banpresto (Playstation)

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Castle Crashers

2008 by The Behemoth (XBOX 360)

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Muramasa: The Demon Blade

2009 by Vanillaware (Wii)

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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

2010 by MercurySteam (XB360 & PS3)

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Tron: Evolution

2010 by Propaganda Games (Multi)

 

 

 

 About the Beat’em Up Tribute Project on Game-Art-HQ and Fighting-Games-Elite

This art project idea was an idea i had in summer 2012 and asked the FGE community on dA about it via a poll with a few other ideas as well. It got the most votes and feedback and so we decided to make this happen. Later in 2012, in November this project was started on both the FGE and GA-HQ dA groups with the goal to get art together for the games which would not just show a few characters like Haggar and Cody standing around.

Instead the target was more difficult and i knew that not many artists would take the challenge and try to illustrate the whole gameplay…in other words Haggar and Guy beating up some guys of the Mad Gear Gang in the Aberdeen stage as example. Now, in May 2013 around 20 different games were drawn including some games i never expected to see, but they are only enriching our tribute to the beat’em up genre anyway. This project is something still ongoing and i hope i can update this in 3 or 6 months with a good couple of more and yet not featured games which just HAVE to be mentioned here like the Dynasty Warriors and Sengoku Basara series, Final Fight etc.

I hope you like our art tribute to the beat’em up genre, please always respect the artists who are participating with their free time and their dedication

and visit their own websites if you like their art.

 

Other Art Projects by the Game-Art-HQ Community: