If you’ve exhausted all of the content in the Capcom Beat-‘Em-Up Bundle, played the various Double Dragon re-releases, and seen everything in the likes of Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind, then we have something that may be of interest to you.
QUByte Classics’ new Beat-‘Em-Up Collection may not include the biggest and best games ever, but it’ll certainly give you a bunch of new belt scrollers to button bash your way through. It’s available now for £15.99/$19.99, with a 10% PS Plus discount.
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Here’s the full list of titles, alongside some additional information:
First Samurai: Originally developed by Vivid Image and released on the Amiga in 1991.
Second Samurai: A 1993 sequel from Vivid Image again released on the Amiga and published by Psygnosis.
Gourmet Warriors: A 1995 SNES game, previously only available in Japan. You collect ingredients and cook up recipes for stat boosts at the end of each stage.
Iron Commando: A 1995 SNES game, again only released in Japan. The original was planned to be published in Europe by Sony, but it switched its attention to PlayStation and cancelled the contract.
Legend: A 1994 SNES game, similar in style and theme to Golden Axe.
Sword of Sodan: One of the older games in this compilation, originally released on the Amiga in 1988. It has a medieval fantasy flavour.
Water Margin: The Tale of Clouds and Winds: Originally released on the Mega Drive in Taiwan in 1996 without an official license from manufacturer SEGA.
Some of these games, like Gourmet Warriors and Water Margin: The Tale of Clouds and Winds, can already be purchased standalone on the PS Store, but they get new Trophies as part of this compilation. Iron Commando and Legend previously released as part of the similarly named Beat-‘Em-Up Archives on PS4.
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As mentioned, there’s a fresh Platinum up for grabs here which you’ll earn for completing all of the games and fulfilling some fairly simplistic gameplay feats.
The compilation itself is buoyed by contemporary features, like save states and rewind, so don’t worry too much about butting your head with impenetrable retro difficulty.
It should be noted that in the case of games that weren’t originally released worldwide, they’ve been given new English translations so you can understand what’s going on.
Even if these aren’t up to the standards of the likes of Final Fight, it’s good to have them preserved on modern hardware.
But will you be picking this up and getting your retro game fix? Let us know in the comments section below
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.