Oh hell yeah. With brutalicious Saturn classic Guardian Heroes popping up for download on Xbox Live, we got to thinking about the glory days of side-scrolling beat-‘em-ups. You know the stuff, the ‘80s and ‘90s was crazy about them. 2D and violent, they say Double Dragon started the button-mashing craze – but it wasn’t the game that finished it. Check these out.

THE BEST OF OLD SCHOOL BEAT-‘EM-UPS

Earns tremendous points for flat-out strangeness. Playable characters include a gangly mummy with a knife fetish, a hunched over ninja mongaloid, a baby driving a massive killer mechwarrior (serious), and Captain Commando himself. The Captain’s a bit like Duff Man but he kills everyone with lightning instead of enhancing their recreation time with booze.

Check out the rest of these epic games below in our THE BEST OF OLD SCHOOL BEAT-‘EM-UPS  gallery!

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