Aside from co-op play, which is almost essential to a good beat'em up game. What do you look for and enjoy in a beat'em up? What are some things you dislike? What are some things you can't stand to see? Since most beat'em ups are fairly straightforward button mashing action-fests... would you be turned off by a beat'em up that included strategic elements like being sneaky/stealthy/taking your time to pass an area? Would you not want to see puzzle type elements, or would that be a refreshing change? Does having a lot of abilities/attacks make the game more fun or does it just bog it down when all you want to do is punch and kick your way through swarms of bad guys?

I prefer them with a good variety of abilities but none that are too complicated to pull of. Also, I wouldn't really want strategic elements in a beat em up. I just want to kick some butt, preferably with a friend.

I think something like timing attacks or maybe using the environment to your advantage would be as close to puzzles as I'd want to get. Basically anything that doesn't vary significantly from the punch-kick-throw game play(even button-wise).
When it comes to moves, I'd mostly want ones that are useful in specific situations. If there's ever a time where I'm playing and think, "I wish I could ______," it should probably be a move(as long as it fits within the limits of the game). Of course, it wouldn't hurt to have a couple cool moves to pull off when things get slow.

Final Fight was an awesome game, but one thing that bugs me about a lot of beat-em-ups is the ridiculous number of hits it takes to take down your average thug.

A piledriver, or combo to the chops should put the regular guys down. You could balance it with sending more enemies, or including one or two tougher opponents with each wave.

I never get tired of enemies you can just destroy though. Essentially I'd like to see more varied strategies than repeated drop kicks (which take a dozen to kill a single enemy, but are fairly safe to execute)

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Original post by dashurc Final Fight was an awesome game, but one thing that bugs me about a lot of beat-em-ups is the ridiculous number of hits it takes to take down your average thug. A piledriver, or combo to the chops should put the regular guys down. You could balance it with sending more enemies, or including one or two tougher opponents with each wave. I never get tired of enemies you can just destroy though. Essentially I'd like to see more varied strategies than repeated drop kicks (which take a dozen to kill a single enemy, but are fairly safe to execute)

Interesting... Well then what do you think about the player's ability to take damage? Should the player only be able to take a couple of hits from thugs? Obviously that would make for a short game. How would you want this counterbalanced?