Games Like Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder

Sega's fantasy beat-em-up classic. Three warriors seek revenge against Death Adder in a hack-and-slash adventure that launched the Genesis, featured three distinct characters with magic systems, and became an arcade legend.

The Genesis launch pack-in that greeted millions of new console owners. Altered Beast's transformation mechanic was innovative and memorable, even if the overall game was short and repetitive by modern standards.

Sega's most original late-Genesis game — a beat-em-up set inside a comic book, where the protagonist fights panel-to-panel, enemies are drawn to life by the villain, and the player can tear panels to make paper airplanes as weapons.

The greatest beat-em-up ever made. Streets of Rage 2 combined technical brawling combat with a roster of distinct fighters, excellent level design, and Yuzo Koshiro's legendary techno soundtrack to produce a masterwork of the genre.

The final Genesis Streets of Rage built on Streets of Rage 2's foundation with a darker story, faster gameplay, special moves tied to health management, and a more complex combat system. While divisive on release due to its difficulty compared to SoR2, Streets of Rage 3 has grown in reputation as a mechanically deep action game.

The original Streets of Rage — Axel, Blaze, and Adam fight through a crime-ridden city in the Genesis beat-em-up that introduced Yuzo Koshiro's legendary score and established Sega's most beloved brawler franchise.

Konami's SNES beat-em-up adaptation of Tim Burton's Batman Returns, featuring cooperative two-player combat against a Halloween carnival of villains. Batman Returns SNES offered significantly different gameplay from other platform versions — a slower, heavier brawler with grapple mechanics that matched the film's dark aesthetic.

A landmark crossover event for early 90s beat-em-up fans, Battletoads & Double Dragon unites Rare's bruising amphibian warriors with Technos' iconic martial arts duo against the shared threat of the Dark Queen and the Shadow Warriors. The game wisely tempers Battletoads' notorious difficulty with Double Dragon's more accessible combat pacing, resulting in a co-op brawler that rewards skilled play without punishing newcomers at every turn.

Rare's beat-em-up masterpiece is one of the most technically impressive NES games ever made — and one of the most brutally difficult. The Turbo Tunnel alone has broken thousands of controllers.

The beat-em-up that started it all. Double Dragon's blend of martial arts combat, weapon pickups, and mission-based brawling defined the belt-scrolling genre for years to come.

The definitive TMNT game and one of the greatest beat-em-ups ever made. Turtles in Time sends Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael through time periods from prehistoric prehistory to the distant future, delivering relentless two-player co-op action that still holds up perfectly today.

The Genesis Aladdin — animated by the actual Disney animators who worked on the film, featuring fluid hand-drawn sprites, a throwing mechanic, and the Disney quality that made it the definitive console version over the SNES edition.