The world of beat ’em up indie games is a vast one, offering many ways for you to kick folks in the head. We have a couple of favorite head-busting titles to share, though.
Sometimes in a game, you just walk to walk up to someone and punch them in the face. Or throw them over your shoulder. Maybe boot them in the chest. With so many games offering so many ways to do that, though, you’d be forgiven if you couldn’t pick a favorite way to beat the hell out of people. We’ve put together ten of the best ones out there so that you can know you’re really going to enjoy swinging your fists around. Or sashes.
The friends of Ringo Ishikawa
I love knocking heads around in a good indie beat ’em up game, but it’s nice to have a diversion here and there to let your knuckles get a rest. This title offers many different activities whenever you’re not beating the heck out of some rival gang, letting you play pool or have some deep conversations with your friends about what the future holds for you. A lovely, thoughtful beat ’em up that shows a more emotional look at the feelings that fuel the fisticuffs.
“Despite the appearance of a lighthearted beat ’em up, The friends of Ringo Ishikawa places a great deal of importance in feeling Ringo’s doubt and aimlessness in this final year, having you feel your way through it alongside the troubled youth. It’s a touching story in this regard, even when you’re burying your knuckles in some high schooler’s face.”
Read our review of The friends of Ringo Ishikawa.
Aces Wild: Manic Brawling Action!
I punch the other guy and they fall down in many indie beat ’em up games. In Aces Wild, your fists might send someone sailing to another street. Sure, you look like just some regular person in a t-shirt, but you can clobber someone so hard they start pinging off of the environemht like a pinball, causing further mayhem. Adding in a system that increases your damage as you dole out attacks, but that increases enemy power and aggression, makes every fight get progressively wilder and faster as you go. Frantic fistfights combined with some explosive hits make this one very, very hard to put down.
Fight’N Rage
Fight’N Rage is a great beat ’em up, and part of its incredible draw comes from the weight it puts behind every impact. When you fight off the game’s colorful humanoid-animal foes, you FEEL each punch. You get a sense of the power behind each strike you land (and each one that lands on you). It makes the moment-to-moment gameplay feel extremely satisfying, and when that’s combined with clever enemies, neat combat situations, and and fantastic soundtrack, you end up with a game that’s easily one of the greatest beat ’em up indie games.
“The sounds of the punches just add this final, lovely touch to it all. There’s a weighty crunch to each hit, with some fantastic visual delay that makes you feel those blows landing, making you feel very powerful.”
Watch our First Look at Fight’N Rage.
Castle Crashers
Animated characters and a goofy sense of humor infuse the solid action of Castle Crashers. The boss battles and enemy encounters offer a ton of great situations and silly moments that make it really hard to guess what’s going to happen next. The experience system also lets you guide your character’s growth as you play, letting you cater things to your play style. AND THE MUSIC. The music behind the battles adds so much personality, fun, and excitement to the game. I can still hear these tracks echoing in my years later now that I’m thinking about them. A compelling reminder of how important sound design and music can be to loading a good indie beat ’em up game with energy.
The Legend of Tianding
Walking up to a group of foes and just stomping them flat is satisfying, but you also tend to get beat back just as badly. Sometimes, being a more acrobatic character can make combat satisfying. The Legend of Tianding excels at this, offering all sorts of tools that will have you hurtling all around your foes and crushing them with devastating, agile moves. You can’t help but feel incredible when you really start stringing these moves together well. And my goodness, the bosses in this game are fantastic.
“You have a few tools available to you that make for a more acrobatic beat ’em up. While you can beat down your many (MANY) opponents using Tianding’s Kung Fu skills, staying on the move is more effective. Especially if you’re a single opponent facing down multiple people. For that, you have a grappling hook that will let you flit around the environment, staying out of reach or surprising your opponents from other directions. Even neater is the waist sash, which you can use to tangle up opponents, grabbing them to keep them from attacking AND opening them up to your own hits. When it all comes together, you’re just flying all over the place, demolishing foes before they can hope to react.”
Read our review of The Legend of Tianding.
The Last Friend
The Last Friend has you laying beatdowns on mutants that aim to kidnap your dogs. Why they want your pups, I’ll never know. There’s a distinct pressure you feel when looking back at your furry friends, knowing they’re relying on you to keep them safe. It adds an incredible tension to the beat ’em up combat, but you can mitigate some of that with some clever defenses, as the game also utilizes elements of tower defense. It makes for a tense, yet still deep and strategic beat ’em up.
“I was panicked and throwing down as many turrets as I could afford in each lane. If I started feeling a turret wasn’t going to cut it, I could rush an enemy and pummel them or toss them into a lane that was more equipped to deal with a particular foe. I had a lot of fun smashing my enemies into the dirt as they threatened the sweet dogs that sat happily above. There is something oddly satisfying about decimating enemies that seek to harm dogs. I blame John Wick.”
Read our article on how The Last Friend was one of the top ten games at PAX East 2019.
Charlie Murder
A flare for the outlandish infuses Charlie Murder, meaning you’re never far from facing something strange (like dynamite sharks). It is a punk rock apocalypse, so things are going to get wild. The moves are solid, your possible players are varied with neat abilities, and you can deck them out in interesting gear and tattoos to get the right look down (while powering them up). The soundtrack is relentless, too, continually pounding out of your speakers and keeping you aggressively driving forward. This driving musical momentum kept me coming back to this gritty (but still kinda silly) game of punk rock beatdowns.
Super Crush KO
Super Crush KO is another highly acrobatic indie beat ’em up game, one that will have you keeping your heroine’s feet from touching the ground as you link up fighting combos and gunfire. It’s extremely satisfying to see if you can beat a whole group of foes without your feet touching the ground. On top of that, it’s so bright, colorful, and cute, making for a welcome, vibrant look at a genre that can often look gritty and bleak.
“Our heroine has a ruthless pastel punch, able to string together hand-to-hand combat moves that will send the enemy flying, only for you to catch up with them with a dash to punish them just a bit more. Then, you can seamlessly switch to gunplay for those robots that aim to keep you at bay with bullets. It’s a wonderful system that encourages you to keep attacking without touching the ground, only landing when everything around you is destroyed.”
Read our review of Super Crush KO.
Treachery in Beatdown City
Treachery in Beatdown City is a devious mixture of beat ’em up and tactical game, having you select moves from a list rather than just walk up and sock someone in the mouth. You have to think very, very carefully about the moves you use and whether they’re your best option in a given context, adding a great deal of thought to the action while still opening combat up to the over-the-top attacks we know and love in the genre.
“Treachery in Beatdown City really asked me to use my head as I was fighting, constantly shifting positions and working out how best to whittle my opponents down. It also encouraged playing around with all of the moves, as each had their own interesting interplay to take advantage of. I really enjoyed how the game made me stop falling into my old habit of using the same move repeatedly.”
Read our preview of Treachery in Beatdown City.
Way of the Passive Fist
Way of the Passive Fist turns beat ’em up combat on its head, in a sense. While you’ll stick be knocking foes flat, the game’s more about playing defensively, parrying and countering what your foes do. You can dodge or dash out of the way, but when you use a single hand to block each of your foe’s attacks, then punish them with a punch of your own when they’re exhausted, that’s where the satisfaction comes in. Catching thrown daggers, disabling a foe with only a finger, and stymieing everything your enemies do never gets old.
What indie beat ’em up games have you found and loved? Please share your own favorites with us in the comments and on our socials so we can find more great games about beating folks up!
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