Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle

I talked about beat-em-ups in my in a previous post. Even though a game called Kung Fu Master is possibly the world's first beat em up video game. It is thought that a little known game called Renegade is what influenced the modern beat him up game as we know it. Renegade is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up developed by Technos Japan and distributed by Taito for the arcades in 1986. Technos’s 1987 follow up, Double Dragon, lit the arcade world on fire. Sega redefine the genre with altered beast in 1988. Then Capcom in 1989 gave us final fight. After that, Capcom  delivered the barbarian beaters The King of Dragons And Knights of the Round in 1991. My favorite beat-em-ups game of the 90s was called Die Hard Arcade,  which was a  over-the-top game with gore-free violence which was played for comedic effect. In recent years, the genre has seen a resurgence in with games like River City girls and The Take Over along with the return of both Shaq fu and Streets of Rage.  The beat 'em up genre has also seen a resurgence within indie game development, resulting in unique titles such as The Behemoth's Castle Crashers and SebaGamesDev, Blitworks Fight'N Rage.

Most of us will never get a chance to play games like final fight on an arcade cabinet. Before things like the smartphone, people killed time by feeding quarters to an arcade machine as you dried your clothes at the laundromat. In the 90s Capcom dominated the arcade machines in local gas stations and convenience stores. Fortunately, now everyone can now play these classic games in the comfort of their own homes (unless you happen to own mobile versions) in the form of Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle.

Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle

Pro: 

Arcade perfect ports

Unlimited continues

Does not feel like a cash grab

Con: 

Dungeons and  Dragons: Tower of Doom, Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow over Mystara, and Alien vs. Predator is missing from this collection. 

As a reminder here's my test system:

OS: GamerOS-17

CPU:  Ryzen™ 7 2700 

GPU: Powercolor Red Dragon RX 5700

RAM: 16GB (2 x 8GB) (PC4 19200)

MOTHERBOARD: ASRock AB350M Pro4  (BIOS 5.90 2019/7/5)

STORAGE:  Intel 545s Series 2.5" 256GB +WB Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 

Linux 5.6.3

Mesa 20.0.4

Nvidia 440.82

Proton 4.11-13

Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle is a compilation that collects the arcade versions of seven beat 'em ups from Capcom:

Final Fight 

Captain Commando 

The King of Dragons 

Knights of the Round

Warriors of Fate 

Armored Warriors 

Battle Circuit 

(No Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. What a shame)

For many Final Fight is the headliner of the collection, because arguably it's the most known and the simplest game in the collection. Final fight 

is still fun 30 thirty years after its original release. All seven games can be individually completed within approximately an hour. They all have their challenges. However with unlimited continues, as well as the ability to start with more lives, and choose the rate at which the difficulty increases from a variety of levels, no game will ever be too difficult to finish. If you get a phone call or something you can save your progress in each game. There are not a whole lot of beat em up around these days because they do get awfully repetitive after a while. However, for me, games where you can beat up people are both addictive and enjoyable. Capcom has done an excellent job introducing the seven games to a whole new generation of gamers. 

Note: You can get many great Beat 'Em Up games on other hardware platforms