🥊💥 5 Of the Best Beat ‘Em Up Games for Your PC 🥊💥

Beat ‘em ups, or so it would seem, are timeless; sitting down, grabbing your console or getting your fighting fingers at the ready on your PCs keyboard, and beating the virtual living daylights out of someone, appears not to have gone out of fashion. Selecting a badass character, getting into their mindset and wiping out opponent after opponent, is fun and harmless, and can help you vent your pent-up aggression in a safe and socially acceptable manner! 

For decades now, this combat genre has kept itself alive by adopting different graphic styles, offering gamers deeper combat mechanics and developing a wide array of exciting and downright nasty characters with a penchant for virtual violence, and we’ve compiled a list of 5 of the best beat ‘em up games for your PC. 

From classic franchises such as Double Dragon and Streets of Rage to modern takes on classics such as Fight’N Rage, this list of beat ‘em up games will bring out the beast in you! 

1. Streets of Rage 4

While beat ‘em up fans have had to wait a long time for this sequel – since 1994 to be precise – Sega eventually gave their IPs rights to developers Dotemu, Guard Crush Games and Lizardcube, to blend their creative juices and come up with an official, fourth entry. The end result, much to the joy of combat gaming fans, was an outstanding, modern example of exactly how a beat ‘em up should be done, and fans of the original game, along with newer, younger gamers, set about enjoying this hotly anticipated new rendition of a timeless classic. 

With exciting new additions that give a respectful nod to the past, the game has been created in a fully animated 2D art style, with a cast of fighters that are nimble, and able to pull off some flashy combos with the help of their allies. 

2. The TakeOver

With a unique art style and a combat system that’s surprisingly deep, this beat ‘em up delivers so much more than a playful take of the 90s era of combat games, with its neon stages, retro soundtrack and simple, gaming premise. With an open-ended approach to combos, characters are also able to wield a sidearm that adds an extra layer of complexity to every encounter with a baddie, and enemies can be kept mid-air for a whopping eight seconds while you lay into them with a barrage of crushing blows and monumentally painful kicks. 

All of the classic beat ‘em up game modes are there for you to enjoy, and you can alternate between the four different characters during real-time gameplay by using the Relay Mode. 

3. River City Girls

Ever since 1989, this franchise has been incredibly popular, and it’s easy to see why. With fighting that can only be described as fun, open-world exploration, and action-RPG character progression mechanics, the most recent edition of this game was made available in 2019, and it hasn’t looked back since. Focusing on two ladies with attitude who are walking the path of vengeance after their boyfriends were kidnapped, Kyoko and Misako get their dukes up ready to save them and painfully obliterate anyone standing in their way!

A 16-bit beat ‘em up, River City Girls is a stroke of retro video game mastery from WayForward, and successfully pairs amazing art design with huge areas to explore, items to use in and out of battle, and a soundtrack that will have you tapping your toes in time with the punches!

4. Castle Crashers

Becoming an almost instant digital hit back in 2008, Castle Crashers arrived hacking, slashing and smashing its way onto the PC four years later in 2012, with all the usual crude hilarity and animated violence you could possibly want. With four main, courageous, multicoloured knights are terrifying killing machines, and as you gain ability-granting pets and learn new magic tricks, you can increase their skill set and make them even more adept at slashing their way to victory. 

For the full and unabridged version of Castle Crashers, you’ll need all of the above-mentioned skills and attributes, and the help of three other players.

5. Double Dragon: Neon

Billy and Jimmy Lee, an iconic 80s martial arts brotherhood from the Double Dragon franchise, have been given a virtual makeover by WayForward and Abstraction Games, and with a respectful nod to its origins, Double Dragon: Neon gives gamers a visual update that takes the duo to the world of 3D. 

With familiar baddies such as Linda and her terrifying whip, and the gargantuan Abobo, Billy and Jimmy try to rescue Marian from their clutches, and along with the regular punch, kick, jump and run buttons, gamers also have an evade button for dodging attacks.

Beating someone up never looked so appealing, and with these top 5 combat games, the gloves are truly off!