I played the top 5....and loved them!

Yess! All these games were awesome, exept the fact that the NES version of Double Dragon was virtually unbeatable! Anyways, great choice on the #1! I spent countless hours just repeatedly beating that game with each character

Stan, I agree that Double Dragon on the NES was really really hard. All four character of SoR2 were amazing, there wasn't a single one that was better than the rest. *sigh* The good ol' days of gaming. heh

SoR2 was my favorite game of all time and I play on the Wii a bunch...I loved it so much I would go into the options screen and start demoing punch sounds just because. I thought I was alone...thank you, internet. Now I know that it wasn't just me.

Turtles in Time bro! That should have been #1. HAHA...I totally forgot about River City Ransom. Sooooo good.

Bury my shell at Wounded Knee

LOLz

You're nutz!
Bad Dudes should have been NUMBER 1!

Whoah, UMChaos is alive! Glad to see you're still around. And umm, no...if anything should be #1 it should be Double Dragon. Fasho.

Nice list! Ive played all of these games (except for Bad Dudes) actually, I've never heard of that game... haha... Never knew that River City Ransom was the title of the game number 5, since i played the jap version of it...

Well, I think DoubleDragon should be 1st on the list... One hell of a great game...

This is actually my first post!!! great great site man... ive been visiting this site for years but this thread gave me the need to signup... hahaha...

um...
i believe you forgot the king of all side scrollers, The Simpsons

does karateka qualify as a side-scrolling-beat-em-up? that was bad-ass

how could you POSSIBLY forget contra, now that is the #1 side scroller of all time, any arguments? 30 lives code anyone?

uhm... jim... the list is beat-em-up...

i don't think Karateka counts...contra is a side scroller...not a beat em up...

Wow, no Battletoads...

that and Dragon vs. Battletoads are strangely absent..

I know its not the best game in history...but Kung Fu was truly the first beat-em-up.It should get some respect don't ya think? It had the best sound FX.

Actually, I wanted to be the dwarf. The dwarf is obviously the best fighter, that's why they gave just four magic slots.
And what about other great games? I personally recommend Crude Busters and, above all, The Punisher.

You forgot Super Double Dragon:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/super-double-dragon/screenshots

This game was rushed for the deadline. The AI was lacking and the game didn't have a decent ending.

The gameplay, however, was fan-fucking-tastic.

Thanks to the very addicting soundtrack, you'd start it up again and again.

There's 2 versions of this game. One more finished than the other. The one that's the least finished has the best music overall, IMO.

I downloaded Streets of Rage 2 for the Wii just to get that good ol' fashioned ass kickin' feeling...and was anyone else just a little turned on by the chicks with whips on that game when they were a teen? C'mon, seriously...

I was.....

duke nukem 2 was a pretty awesome sidescroller
speaking of duke, duke nukem forever might finally come out. geez. i was waiting forever. lol
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