Poll: Favorite Comic Book Beat 'em Up

I limited this poll to the 5 titles which are exclusively Marvel or DC comic book beat 'em ups. Arguments can be made for a few other comic book games being included, but I feel that these are the only comic book games that are actual beat 'em ups in the SoR sense. Each of these games has both positive and negative elements, but it seems that, by and large, they all receive much more criticism than they really deserve.

So, what is your favorite comic book-based beat 'em up on the Genesis, and why?

I did play "Captain America and the Avengers" and "Maximum Carnage". Captain America was challenging and fun until I discover cheap shield trick which it makes it way too easy and boring. Maximum Carnage is cool, I like it a lot and it's my very first genesis game that I own. Maximum Carnage is one of hardest beat em up games I have even played, plus music is great!

I really want to get my hands on The Punisher, which I hadn't play it yet. Again, I'm too cheap duh.

I can't stand the (SNES port) Superman and Spiderman games, they are just way too basic beat-em ups for me. The Punisher is a very good conversion compared to Captain America and the Avengers, it is closer to the Arcade game's graphics at least, not sure about sound.

I just think that The Avengers is a better game all around though. Both Punisher and Cap have good amounts of enemies on screen and move sets, but Avengers also has the shooter levels (which I find a great addition/reprieve). My vote goes to Captain America and the Avengers, and that is worth exactly what it costs.

The Punisher

I think Punisher is a pretty cool guy. eh kills crime and doesnt afraid of anything.

1. The Punisher Hit detection is good, tons of moves and weapons, graphics are okay should have been better though, sprites are nice size. Sound sucks but the arcade sucked to IMO (Just so many satisfying ways to kill enemies and that is why it's #1 for me) Damn of love that Pistol!

2. Captain America I like the look and sound of the game, as well as the shooter stages (I don't like that there isn't a basic combo like there was in the arcade it is random punches and kicks and usually throws. Also Cap not having his shield charge animation erks the hell out of me literally his running attack has no animation. Drop some voice samples and tighten up the animations and combo's)

The last 3 are meh. 2 of them lose huge points for not being multi-player and the one that is Separation Anxiety has hideous art design, ugly levels, boring levels, lacks variety in moves, repeats enemies and bosses to often, music sucks (need I go on? beat em ups are extinct because of shit efforts like these games) I will say all 3 of these games have good hit detection so that is a plus. All of them came out in 94' or later they were the definition of weak efforts.

Most people overrate Maximum Carnage because the comic book cut scenes look cool. If this game were 2 player I would rank it a clear 3rd because they did a good job with Spiderman and Venom's sprite and animation's something they failed at in the sequel.

The Punisher is the best one by far. It plays much better than all the other games, probably thanks to the Capcom heritage.

I also like the visuals of both Maximum Carnage and The Death and Return of Superman (especially the former), but the Spider-Man game has a tendency to be unfair and the Superman game ends up being repetitive. Plus, in both cases the music conversion from the SNES was bad. In fact, in the case of TDAROS they didn't convert the SNES music at all, replacing it with original but inferior music tracks.

I had to stare at this one for a long time. But I had to pick Maximum Carnage. I played Superman as a rental to far back and Captain America only on my uncles Genny even further back, I only actually owned Maximum Carnage and I really liked it. But my favorite comic book character of all time may just be The Punisher and I'm really excited to eventually play this one for the first time after hearing a lot of good things about it.

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Originally Posted by Wesker

The Punisher is the best one by far. It plays much better than all the other games, probably thanks to the Capcom heritage.

I also like the visuals of both Maximum Carnage and The Death and Return of Superman (especially the former), but the Spider-Man game has a tendency to be unfair and the Superman game ends up being repetitive. Plus, in both cases the music conversion from the SNES was bad. In fact, in the case of TDAROS they didn't convert the SNES music at all, replacing it with original but inferior music tracks.

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TDAROS I haven't played very deep into this game but I like the Genesis first level song way more then the Snes.

Punisher was such a bad conversion. Captain America wasn't all of that in the arcade but it was decent and the Genesis conversion is better than Punisher. And given Capcom's shoddy in-house ports to the Genesis I have my doubts that they would've done a better job than SS.

Punisher is my favorite title in this list. Every time I boot it up I feel compelled to play it through. Maximum Carnage is great but the difficulty loses it a few points. Captain America is very mediocre. I only love it for the engrish one liners. "Why should it go well!"

I own all the games listed and Maximum Carnage gets my vote, Punisher a close 2nd. I have the most fun playing MC. It's really challenging, has great music and I like it's comic book style the best. Plus you get to play as both Spider-man and Venom which is awesome. The only negative is that it's only 1 player. Whhhyyyyyy???!?!?!

Fun Fact: A game being single player doesn't automatically make it suck.

A single player beat-em up pretty much stands inferior to all of those other beat-em ups that play the way the genre was created to though.

Maximum Carnage really wouldn't have worked as a 2p game because of the storyline. They would've had to either massively butcher the story to make it 2p, or make it 2p halfway through the game when Venom joins up (which would've just been weird and confusing to anyone expecting it to be a 2p game when turn it on). Either way it would've pissed people off. I'm glad that they chose to stay true to the comic story and didn't mess with the event timeline. The last thing we need is yet another comic book adaptation that's nothing like the original. (Marvel movies I'm looking at you).

On another note, is Death and Return of Superman the game that's so glitched that it can't be completed? Or am I thinking of a different game?

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Originally Posted by sheath

A single player beat-em up pretty much stands inferior to all of those other beat-em ups that play the way the genre was created to though.

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I'll take a well put together single-player game any day, to a watered down multi-player affair.
Adding multi-player for the sake of mutli-player, regardless of how it dilutes the product as a whole is why modern gaming is in the sad as fuck state its in today.

As far as Maximum Carnage goes, I understand the complaints about it not being a 2 player game, but for the sake of the story line, this works. Plus you can switch from Spider-man to Venom for different sections of the game which adds another element to the game. And when you change characters, the game's story line changes according to which one you picked. I also like the fact that you can call on different super heroes for different types of assistance when you need it. These features set it apart from most beat 'em ups. Sure 2 player is great for beat 'em ups, but does every one have to be? This game is pretty dang engrossing on its own as a one player game.

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Originally Posted by profholt82

As far as Maximum Carnage goes, I understand the complaints about it not being a 2 player game, but for the sake of the story line, this works. Plus you can switch from Spider-man to Venom for different sections of the game which adds another element to the game. And when you change characters, the game's story line changes according to which one you picked. I also like the fact that you can call on different super heroes for different types of assistance when you need it. These features set it apart from most beat 'em ups. Sure 2 player is great for beat 'em ups, but does every one have to be? This game is pretty dang engrossing on its own as a one player game.

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I was a huge comic book fan as a kid I would have rather been able to play this game 2-player with my brother then have it follow the storyline so closely (when I rented this game I don't even think I looked to see if it was only 1-player I just assumed from it's name, man was I pissed when it was only 1P). The simple fact that needs to be made here is this game would be better/funner with a 2 player option (as would every single player beat em up, not saying a single player can't be good or fun it will just never reach the heights of a 2-player game). Hell let there be a 1P only exclusive story line if people want to play that way.

2P lack in a brawler is glaring and in a cooperative game particularly negligent since gameplay faults are much less exposed and exploitable than they are in a 2P versus game. That's why so many sports titles fail: they're fine in 1P but add a second person and he'll find and exploit every imbalance to beat you (or depending on who the jerk is, you him). So any decent brawler is hampered by being 1P only. However Maximum Carnage's competition here is barely decent--the entire poll is a headscratcher for which game is least deficient--and lacking so far as I know any real 2P features, eg such as SoR's cooperative attacks. Barring serious attention to 2P details like object placement, enemy insertion points, hazards, and extra moves, brawlers in 2P mode tend to be little more than a big mindless jumble. Thus there's an argument for a mediocre game that has some personality 1P only contra four mediocre games that have a bit less personality without or with a friend.
That being said MC does not deserve top ranking here. None of them do. There's enough room at the bottom of the barrel for all five.

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Originally Posted by djshok

On another note, is Death and Return of Superman the game that's so glitched that it can't be completed? Or am I thinking of a different game?

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It is, but the issue only happens in the European version.

That's why it was produced in short quantities by Acclaim and it's now so rare. Talk about doing an expense to actually solve the problem.

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Originally Posted by cowboyscowboys

Hell let there be a 1P only exclusive story line if people want to play that way.

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This. I'd take a 2P in Maximum Carnage with an incoherent story any day.

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Originally Posted by StarMist

That being said MC does not deserve top ranking here. None of them do. There's enough room at the bottom of the barrel for all five.

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I get tired of people ripping on The Punisher. I'd rather play it than SOR. I understand that SOR is the 'better' game, but it has less appeal to me than TP or MC.

I think it's kind of ridiculous not to have 2P just for the sake of the story line. On any game, not just MC. I would think the majority of people would rather have 2 players than a better story. Especially on a game that difficult. I'm not big on stories in games. If I want a good story, I'll watch a movie.

Wasn't too fond of the two Spidey brawlers, Captain America is trash, D&ROS is sub-par decent. Punisher is the best; good game, ok port.

As much as I love Captain America I had to go for The Punisher as its just an awesome game all round.

Can we have a write-in for TMNT Hyperstone Heist? I got this in the mail today and it's high in the fun factor department. Maybe not as good as The Punisher but on par with Maximum Carnage.

I still don't get all of the love for The Punisher, the port of that game is just so bad! I found myself just really bored with the game, at least for me it seemed way too easy, never took my finger off the A-Button. Looks and sounds like junk too.

I'll throw in another vote for TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist

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Originally Posted by Baloo

I still don't get all of the love for The Punisher, the port of that game is just so bad! I found myself just really bored with the game, at least for me it seemed way too easy, never took my finger off the A-Button. Looks and sounds like junk too.

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I don't get why people hate on it. We all know it's a watered down port. It's still a lot of fun. What beat-em-ups are there where you aren't constantly mashing the attack button?

Oh yeah I have forgot that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was first created as a comic book before it was turn into cartoon which video games such as TMNT Hyperstone Heist was based on.

I'm willing to vote for TMNT HH on genesis, it beat crap out most of beat em up genesis games here.

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Originally Posted by Baloo

I still don't get all of the love for The Punisher, the port of that game is just so bad! I found myself just really bored with the game, at least for me it seemed way too easy, never took my finger off the A-Button. Looks and sounds like junk too.

I'll throw in another vote for TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist

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I doubt if you played this on hard you would still call this game easy. The jump between normal to hard is pretty big, from hard to very hard not so much. You have to beat it on very hard to see the complete ending which pee's me off because on this level the game gets monotonous. You stay in the same area to long with swarms of enemies that keep coming.

I will always disagree that the port is bad. The graphics are a disappointing after that everything is fine for me compared to the arcade. The moves are there, solid hit detection, most of all the fun. I already said the music sucked but the arcade music sucked as well.

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Originally Posted by Kyle

Can we have a write-in for TMNT Hyperstone Heist? I got this in the mail today and it's high in the fun factor department. Maybe not as good as The Punisher but on par with Maximum Carnage.

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All TMNT games are based on the cartoon rather than the comic which is a spoof of comics in general (from what I've seen it's deliberately outlandish and antiheroic even down to the drawing style), so it would not fit the billing.

@ The Punisher = if cowboyscowboys insists on its merits there must be some, I trust his appraisal in this field. However brawlers are a bit niche and as such only the best tend to appeal to general gamers. And the poor music really hurts in this genre. Port quality doesn't much concern me except where it's a case of hardware folly such as Samurai Shodown on the Genesis or Final Fight on the early SNES; however, come to think of it, The Punisher ought to have been saved for the 32X.

Maximum Carnage wins for me because of its high but fair difficulty, variety of moves, locations, and plot. I don't really mind the lack of two-player, as the game wasn't designed for it. Does everything have to be two-player? Separation Anxiety forced itself to be a two-player game and it's shit. Superman is also shit, like all Superman games. Captain America and the Avengers has a great soundtrack, but otherwise it's awfully repetitive and bland. The Punisher is a decent #2 but it doesn't really stand out.

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Originally Posted by StarMist

@ The Punisher = if cowboyscowboys insists on its merits there must be some, I trust his appraisal in this field. However brawlers are a bit niche and as such only the best tend to appeal to general gamers. And the poor music really hurts in this genre. Port quality doesn't much concern me except where it's a case of hardware folly such as Samurai Shodown on the Genesis or Final Fight on the early SNES; however, come to think of it, The Punisher ought to have been saved for the 32X.

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And it would have had the same fate as Capcom's Alien vs. Predator, unfortunately. :(

The ideal thing would have been for Capcom to release these two games (and also Cadillacs and Dinosaurs) on the Sega Saturn, in the same vein they did with Tenchi Wo Kurau II, Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara.

Anyone ever notice that Captain America has pretty bad hit detection? Compared to the other brawlers listed here that one tends to be pretty cheap with enemies hitting you from a much wider radius than you can hit them. It's like you have to be lined to the pixel with them in order to score a hit, but they can whack you from just about anywhere as long as they're close enough... That being said the shmup levels are really cool.

There have been some grumblings about TMNT HH not being included in the poll. I considered it, but I feel that it was based more on the cartoon show than the original comic. That is why I wrote DC or Marvel on the poll title, to avoid griping about it. I enjoy HH very much, but I wanted to keep this poll to pure comic book beat 'em ups. HH just doesn't fit into that criteria in my opinion.

I would vote turtles hyperstone heist, IMO way better than the other titles mentioned.

Maximum carnage is a decent game, altough as some have mentioned lacks a 2 player mode.

About Punisher I see no reason for that much hate but also for some praise it gets, IMO its a poor game overall, not that much of a surprise I guess since it was ported by Sculptured Software and not capcom themselves, I own magazines from back in the day with really bad to average reviews so when I bought I had low expectations but still felt disapointed, it was a mid 1994 game, but it didn´t look like one at all, it just isn´t only a matter of taste, it has subpar graphics, animation and sound.
But it would still get my vote alongside maximum carnage if tmht hh is not in the poll.

I don't see how you all claim to be beat-em-up fans and then hate on half our library. XD In my opinion, there is not a bad game on this list. I picked MC out of nostalgia, but I'd happily play any of them.

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Originally Posted by Gunstar Zero

In my opinion, there is not a bad game on this list.

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When youre used to the high standard that arcade beat em ups set, you can easily spot a sub par console beat em up from a mile away. If arcade beat em ups didnt exsist then these games would rate a lot higher.

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Originally Posted by DarkDragon

When youre used to the high standard that arcade beat em ups set, you can easily spot a sub par console beat em up from a mile away. If arcade beat em ups didnt exsist then these games would rate a lot higher.

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As much as I like teh romz I'm happier on real hardware. PCBs are expensive.

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Originally Posted by Gunstar Zero

I don't see how you all claim to be beat-em-up fans and then hate on half our library. XD In my opinion, there is not a bad game on this list. I picked MC out of nostalgia, but I'd happily play any of them.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say that there isn't a bad game on the list, but I agree with your overall sentiment to some extent. It seems as though Genesis beat 'em ups are held to ridiculously high standards by a lot of people. Considering that the first 2 SoR games set the standard, this isn't really hard to understand. And it's not just the games on this list that get hammered by people, it's most of the Genesis beat 'em ups. Even though Hyperstone Heist is getting a lot of love in this thread, I've seen it get panned in other threads many times before.

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Originally Posted by DarkDragon

When youre used to the high standard that arcade beat em ups set, you can easily spot a sub par console beat em up from a mile away. If arcade beat em ups didnt exsist then these games would rate a lot higher.

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Of course a port of an arcade title onto a 16-bit machine isn't going to be as good. So you're saying that they should never have bothered making home ports of any arcade beat 'em ups because the ports were "sub-par" compared to the arcade originals. I can't say that I agree with that rationale, but you're probably in the majority opinion.

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Originally Posted by Kyle

As much as I like teh romz I'm happier on real hardware. PCBs are expensive.

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Its not about the roms. I was in the arcades playing those games, dude. Firsthand experience. I remember playing them and being disapointed by weak and inferior console beat em ups. I dont buy those games unless they are in compilations.