Here’s a list of some of the greatest Capcom beat ’em up games ever made. These were undoubtedly the finest the coin-op industry had to offer at the time. There was nothing quite like the thrill of teaming up with some people to crush some baddies. Read on and enjoy.
Final Fight (1989)
Capcom Play System
The granddaddy of the Capcom beat ’em ups, Final Fight took the formula set forth by Double Dragon in 1987 and improved upon it dramatically. Unlike the Konami games of the time, Final Fight employed a high degree of precision in executing the extensive breadth of moves that each character could perform vs. mindless button mashing to do random moves. Final Fight takes place in New York pitting the three protagonists Guy, Cody, and Haggar against a large street gang known as Mad Gear. The game employs a cutscene in its attract mode showing that New York City Mayor Mike Haggar’s daughter Jessica has been kidnapped by the gang. Jessica’s boyfriend Cody and his friend Guy team up with Haggar to fight the high volume of crime in the city and rescue her. Thematically the game is very gritty looking, representing the New York cityscapes very well with Capcom’s CPS (Capcom Play System) hardware coupled with a jazzy soundtrack. If you haven’t played this it’s time to go back to your roots and see how it was done (properly) in 1989.
Captain Commando (1991)
Capcom Play System
If you were alive and playing NES games back in the 1980s, you were probably familiar with a random character on the back of the game boxes named Captain Commando. Depending on when the game was released will determine which depiction you saw, but this was the precursor to the now-familiar character that finally received a proper debut in the game Captain Commando. The game was capable of having up to 4 players simultaneously, but 2 and 3 player variants were probably more common. Playable characters are Captain Commando (leader of Commando Team), Mack the Knife (a Mummy Commando from outer space), Ginzu the Ninja (a highly trained ninja with the same style as Guy from Final Fight), and Baby Head (a highly intelligent infant housed inside a robot body). A futuristic adventure taking place in Final Fight’s Metro City in 2026, Captain Commando and his team assemble to protect Earth and all the Galaxy from gangs of super-powered criminals. Captain Commando would go on to represent Capcom in the Marvel vs. Capcom games. The dedicated arcade cabinets had a unique 2-in-1 split button for each player known in the community as Large Double Split buttons. [pictured]
The Punisher (1993)
Capcom Play System Dash
If you’re a fan of the Capcom Vs. series with the Marvel vs. Capcom crossovers, you have much to owe to this game as it was the first licensed property of Marvel Comics to appear in a Capcom game. The game starts out in a New York City casino with Frank “The Punisher” Castle teaming with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury in pursuit of Bruno Costa, a Mafia enforcer that ordered the killing of Castle’s family. With the mission taking The Punisher and Nick Fury to various locales across the United States, it features an eclectic band of characters from the comic series including Bonebreaker, Bushwhacker, and Kingpin himself. Released on an upgraded CPS board known as CP System Dash, the game was capable of having over 10 enemies on-screen without causing any slowdown. It later received a port to the Sega Genesis developed by Sculptured Software that received negative reviews.
Alien vs. Predator (1994)
Capcom Play System II
Crossing the two action movie franchises of Aliens and Predator together alone was an incredible concept. Officially minted as a comic book series in 1989, Capcom took the conglomeration and mated it to their highly successful beat ’em up game format. A 3 player simultaneous game, or 2 player, Alien vs. Predator allows you to select from four different characters: Predator Warrior, Predator Hunter, Major Dutch Schaefer, or Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa. The game takes place in the fictional city San Drad, California that has been overrun with Aliens. The human characters Major Dutch Schaefer and Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa are abandoned by their superiors and left to die cornered by Alien drones. The Predator Warrior and Hunter destroy the Aliens and rescue them. Humans and Predators united, they fight through hoards of Aliens and discover that the Alien presence is a result of a bio-war project headed up by General Bush working for Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Boarding General Bush’s ship, the heroes kill the Alien Queen and set the ship to crash in San Drad, eliminating the remaining Aliens on the surface. The Alien vs. Predator game was intended to be a tie-in for an Alien vs. Predator movie slated to be released upon completion of the game. Based on an earlier draft, the movie was ultimately cancelled, and a new movie using the property would not be released until 2004.
Battle Circuit (1997)
Capcom Play System II
Diverging from the film-based and gritty real life street violence themes of Alien vs. Predator and Final Fight, Battle Circuit employs a manga-style science fiction approach to its art and story. Like Captain Commando, Battle Circuit supports up to 4 simultaneous players, with 2 or 3 player configurations available. The plot of the game follows a group of futuristic bounty hunters from the year 20XX that travel the city of Neo Koba seeking out wanted criminals. The criminals are identified by special serial numbers, like the first villain Doctor Saturn with the number 9696X. Rounding out the cast of protagonists (and their codenames) are Brian Bruno (Cyber Blue), Andrey Mishucin (Captain Silver), Diana Martines (Yellow Iris), Pinky (Pink Ostrich), and Unknown (Alien Green). Each player has their own unique attributes and can gain power-ups using Battle Downloads (players start with 2 Battle Downloads per life, and can obtain more throughout the game) that will, for example, amplify Cyber Blue’s attack damage or Yellow Iris’ attack speed. The bounty hunters traverse many locales fighting members of the Delete Gang, and when apprehended will acquire their discs and claim their bounties. Battle Circuit is notable for being the final game of the genre released on the CP System II in arcades.