Beat 'em Up

From Wikipedia

Beat 'em up (also known as brawler) is a video game genre featuring melee combat between the protagonist and large numbers of antagonists. These games typically take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge based plots, though some games may employ historical or fantasy themes. Traditional beat 'em ups take place in scrolling, two-dimensional (2D) levels, though some later games feature more open three-dimensional (3D) environments with yet larger numbers of enemies. These games are noted for their simple gameplay, a source of both critical acclaim and derision. Multiple player characters and two-player cooperative gameplay are also hallmarks of the genre.

The first influential beat 'em up was 1984's Kung-Fu Master, with 1986's Renegade introducing the urban settings and underworld revenge themes employed extensively by later games. The genre then saw a period of high popularity between the release of Double Dragon in 1987, which defined the two-player cooperative mode central to classic beat 'em ups, and 1991's Street Fighter II, which drew gamers back towards one-on-one fighting games. Games such as Streets of Rage 2, Final Fight and Golden Axe are other classics to emerge from this period. The genre has been less popular since the emergence of 3D-based mass-market games, but still some beat 'em ups adapted the simple formula to utilize large-scale 3D environments.

From Wikipedia

Hack and slash or hack and slay, abbreviated H&S or HnS, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat. "Hack and slash" was originally used to describe an aspect of pen-and-paper role-playing games (RPGs), carrying over from there to MUDs, MMORPGs, and video games in general. In console video games, the usage specifically implies a focus on combat with hand-to-hand weapons. In other contexts it is more general, and an archer or unarmed martial artist may participate as fully in a hack and slash game, or be as hack-and-slash oriented as an individual, as a melee fighter.

Microbadge:

- VGG: Beat 'em Up genre fan