Start of tier S: absolute must plays, go above and beyond with their genre

The full package and then some, Treasure fucking delivered a million times over. A game so genre shattering it locks the true main hero behind NG+ mode. Every track is extremely dynamic and fits the level perfectly, 10 different endings are possible to achieve from a variety of player actions, the sprite scaling pushes the Saturn to its limits, the anime intro is unskippable, Han's designs really go a long way in making every character expressive... and obviously there's the mechanics good lord.

Every single character plays almost totally uniquely even in the arena mode where the player can experiment with dozens of boss or joke characters. Spells can be cast with a simple menu or quickly combo'd into with special inputs and the RPG elements really add so much to the combat beyond mere stats, such as magic spells growing in range as INT points are increased. Add to that the deepest combo and juggle system in the medium and you get Guardian Heroes. A contender for my top 10 games ever for sure.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/673443252074184774/1074063469319557292/GBD.gif

The flow and aesthetic are unrivaled. Every encounter feels totally approachable and I constantly found myself holding out for items that perfectly fit the situation if I just survived with my last bit of health. It's an intense ride to the end with some of Koshiro's most unforgettable music ever.

Based and tokupilled. It has all the tropes perfectly translated into the beat em up genre like the rival fight and some of the most unique powers in a game. Controlling the camera to affect combat flow is something I wish more games did.

Start of tier A: worth playing at least once for many serious gamers

Not only is it shockingly fair for an old school arcade game, but it has one of the most realized progressions and tones in the medium. To this day, I get massive chills from the horror movie homage bosses and especially the church setting and final fight. When The Saints Come Marching is a banger and Biggy Man's design is raw as hell.

A beat em up where you can do 999 hit combos with enough perseverance, and it defies the boundaries of genre to boot. A tragic story perfectly compliments this unique blend of beat em ups, JRPGs, metroidvanias, action-platformers, etc

Of all the licensed games I've played this is probably the one that feels like the best translation of the source material and it even lets the player choose between the cartoon and comic artstyles to boot. It's a game that's simple enough for anybody to pick up and play and that makes it a quick blast whenever I need a pick me up.

This walked so Guardian Heroes could run. The sheer amount of mechanics on display are astronomical especially for such an early beat em up. Juggles, wall jumps, izuna drops, team up attacks, various supers per character, throws, back attacks, dash attacks, charged attacks, unique weapons for every stage, and so forth make this game feel unbelievably fresh and challenging to master. A master class home port where the final boss theme is blatantly just Eye of the Tiger, to boot.

Pretty much the same deal as its predecessor, Ghost Chaser Densei. Better aesthetically but not as deep mechanically. I slightly lean on GCD but both are super worth playing.

You get to punch the fuck out of a gorilla and a team of sentai rejects. Peak fiction.

Who would have guessed giving Final Fight RPG elements and a chibi artstyle made it the best Final Fight game?

Might rank higher in the future. The combo system is very deep but also kinda hard to get to grips with?

The combat is pretty simple but the sheer impact factor of this is undeniable. Nothing beats cyclone kicking 3 hyper anime slicing dinosaur human mutant hybrids things to death at once while intense cps2 instruments set the tone of battle and your character screams at the top of their lungs. Needs to be played to be believed.

Technically better than Cadillacs and Dinosaurs gameplay wise but lacks the same wow factor. The variety of techniques for each character are really neat due to the new input system and it runs surprisingly well on its system's CPU.

Start of tier B: rec'd for enthusiasts of the genre to play at least once

A bit wacky in its balance but the sprite work is excellent and it gave us Cyberbots which is the GOAT as far as fighting games go. Rec'd for aesthetic alone.

This game fucking sucks tbh but it's simple and quick to credit feed through? It clearly feels like a passionate effort to make an X-Men game even if misguided in many ways and it's simple enough to play with a friend and laugh at dumbass shit like the welcome to die scene for a solid hour.

A bit repetitive but the most creative game on this list. You can beat the shit out of airplanes inside of airplanes and raid Florida Man's factory to wrestle alligators to death with your baseball bat.

This game is fun as hell with a friend if you care about Mortal Kombat lore at all or just seeing wild blood and gore. The penis mutilation fatality gave me nightmares.

Funny as fuck.

I only played this at launch so don't take this as definitive. Adam was quite nice to play as since all his combos went off swiftly but I felt kinda dreadful playing as Axel due to his combos constantly being interrupted and requiring much more routing for halfway decent scores. I could nitpick endlessly as an SOR2 boomer but the combo system is the deepest it has ever been and the art is great, I still enjoyed it.

I never found this game particularly hard but it seems to be a common complaint? Either way I do think the flow isn't quite as strong as 1's but it's a nice game to play in the dead of night and just feel helpless to. Needs a certain mindset to enjoy its strange design I suppose.

One of the more simple games in the genre. It kinda just does everything above average? Maki is hella cool.

I remember nothing except the final boss but boy was it SOME final boss.

The gameplay is kinda simple but man the animations and responsiveness are peak for the genre, really disguises it quite well.

I love how Nick Fury constantly tells Punisher not to kill people and then slashes women in half with samurai swords anyway.

Start of tier C: rec'd with caveats for bmu enthusiasts

Kinda boring in singleplayer but really fun in multiplayer if you both like clapping at Simpsons references ngl

I don't remember this game at all except the gamefaqs board for it is used for dating advice or some shit.

Average as fuck game with amazing music including a cool stolen chiptune Johnny B Goode.

I have a softspot for this game just cus of how silly the ending and voice acting are. I can just turn my brain off and advance the world by 20 minutes every time I play it.

Pretty cool for a Nintendo Playstation (yes) homebrew game actually. You get to kill Parappa and Sackboy which is neat.

Cool music and aesthetic! Too easy and short though and the P2 character is unnecessarily much stronger than P1. Bonus points for the toku theming and MMX inspiration.

Repetitive but it's fun with a fren if you're a fan of the show. Catchy as hell music and fluid super move animations.

It either plays things too safe compared to VJ1 or fucks up aspects that made VJ1 great with no inbetweens. It's worth 1 playthrough imo, silvia has some interesting tech like being able to grind infinite money from electro boxes quickly which is funny.

The best puzzle game on the Genesis that isn't Puyo.

It's extremely easy and short but you can pilot a giant robot at the end :D

Die Hard if it anime.

Always wished this was a full game as a kid.

Technically better than MMPR the game but lacks zords :(

As my friend said, this is the baseline for other beat em ups. If a bmu is at least this good, it gets a passing grade. It's easy to appreciate it for how influential it was and there's nothing egregiously wrong with it or anything. Fun lil history lesson of a game.

Start of tier D: Kinda interesting but not that fun, has redeeming qualities

Altered Beast with more combat depth but less personality imo? The average person would enjoy it more than AB though I imagine.

Solid enough to quarter feed, I kinda rarely go back to it since Turtles in Time exists lol

Some setpieces are cool.

Cool graphics, bit slow gameplay though.

Better than the comic tbh. Does a good job of being a comic game but is too hard and a bit glitchy. Has nice music and was the first Spidey game to have dece webswinigng.

Short and sweet enough. Mutliplayer makes me give it a pass.

One of the earliest bmus I played, have a soft spot for it.

Battletoads if it easy

I imagine most people would put it a tier or 2 higher but it dragged on a bit for my liking.

Don't remember much of it except that it's more GA1.

It's alright I guess but it's super lacking in punch after playing the arcade X-Men games by Capcom.

mfw this is the best Superman game by a mile.

I played the Japanese version and still felt kinda filtered? May give it a second shot one day. It's at least playable compared to the butchered NA version but the aesthetic just did little for me. It has the coolest use of weapons in the series though.

Start of tier F: It's shit

I called a Pawn Shop asking for this game as a kid and they hung up on me. I did not know it was a prank thing at the time.

I love bike segments.

The boat and 2nd last room turn this from mediocre to an eyesore of a game.

Only this high cus the intro is funny.

Cool henshin sequence I guess.

This game is honestly difficult in a BS way and I rarely say that. Also has the worst Rick design by far imo.

Turtles in Time but it's missing important shit like the throw system and has cheapout attacks like cars randomly running you over.

Somehow a major step back from Maximum Carnage.

Start of tier Z: Irredeemable

Only above NG and ZR cus shooting Kano with the machine gun while intense music plays and he just screams for 5 minutes on end is unintentionally hilarious.

lol. lmao even

So fucking glad the NES masterpiece overshadowed this unplayable game.