Capcom's legendary beat-em-up Final Fight features a scenario practically ripped from the headlines: former wrestler becomes mayor of crime-ridden city, pledging to eliminate crime, which prompts local gang to kidnap his daughter in retaliation, which leads said mayor (now shirtless) to recruit said daughter's boyfriend and his buddy to beat up said gang and rescue said daughter. Originally conceived as a Street Fighter spinoff, Final Fight drew inspiration from a variety of sources, including the Double Dragon series and the movie Streets of Fire, and turned it into one of the most iconic beat-em-ups of its era. From its unique character designs and individually named enemies, to its more sophisticated fighting mechanics and infamous continue screen, the game has earned a lasting place in the beat-em-up pantheon.

Three years after Sir Arthur the knight rescued his beloved Princess Prin-Prin from the clutches of Lucifer in Ghosts 'n Goblins (I believe this strictly follows Arthurian legend), the ultimate bad guy is back and he's mad as Hell! Lucifer strikes down Prin-Prin and the local villagers (with some sort of evil laser, it appears), and Arthur must once again leap into battle to defeat him and restore the people's souls. Ghouls 'n Ghosts follows the original game's formula pretty closely, including its lovely organ soundtrack and punishing difficulty, with a new set of enemies, updated graphics and slight gameplay updates. Though it was the last arcade release of the series, it was succeeded by numerous console releases and it remains a popular Capcom franchise.

Giga Wing centers around a mystical medallion that grants godlike power, and a team of pilots charged with destroying it after it falls into the wrong hands. Released for Capcom's CPS2 platform during a late 90s resurgence of interest in shoot-em-ups, Giga Wing features a horizontal screen and a bright, almost garish graphic style. The game's four pilots each have different storylines and weapons, but they all share the Reflect Force, a rechargeable shield that reflects bullets back at enemies, typically releasing a cascade of score-boosting medals across the screen. Though the Reflect Force helps somewhat manage the bullet hell of the game's later levels, Giga Wing's high level of difficulty has limited its appeal somewhat; nonetheless, the game spawned two sequels for both arcades and consoles.

Though not its best-known hack-and-slash title, Capcom's Knights of the Round sends three Arthurian warriors (Arthur, Lancelot and Percival) into battle against the forces of the evil king Garibaldi. The game features an RPG-like leveling system, upgrading the characters' abilities, weapons and armor as the game progresses, as well as a blocking system that adds a risk/reward element to the gameplay. The three characters vary in play style and abilities and the enemies and bosses present a wide range of challenges, making Knights of the Round a satisfying forerunner to later hack-and-slash titles such as Dungeons & Dragons series.

Legendary Wings follows the quest of two winged warriors, sent by the war god Ares in what appears to be ancient times to destroy an alien supercomputer (um, sure). The plot is not the game's only mashup – while the primary game is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up, the protagonists are occasionally sucked into side-scrolling platform-based levels where they must fight various mythical enemies on foot. Though the graphics have a pleasant mid-80s feel, the game comes from a somewhat awkward period in which shoot-em-ups were often very difficult simply due to incredibly sluggish player controls and fast enemies, and the platform levels are underdeveloped and similarly difficult to control. If you're willing to adapt to the controls, the game itself is an enjoyable excursion that combines ancient Greece with aliens in a fun way.

Magic Sword (subtitled Heroic Fantasy) is a 2D platforming hack n' slash game, making up for a lack of vertical movement with the ability to recruit NPC teammates to battle alongside you. Your quest is to ascend the 50 floors of Dragon Keep to defeat the dark lord Drokmar (truly a memorable storyline), fighting enemy hordes with swords and sorcery, and a second player if you choose. Magic Sword's colorful graphics and vibrant sound effects make it a classic worth playing even next to more complex games, and its evocative cabinet art represents the end of an era when arcade manufacturers still put considerable effort into the look of the cabinets.

Mars Matrix (sometimes subtitled Hyper Solid Shooting) is a relatively rare vertically-scrolling shoot-em-up that used a horizontal monitor, featuring a more sophisticated visual style with high-res, partially-rendered graphics, powered by Capcom's CPS-2 board. The game's central mechanic revolves around your ship's ability to vacuum up enemy projectiles (which are plentiful) and fire them back at them, but the ability is balanced by a timer and the fact that all of your ship's weapons (including a fast-firing gun, a more powerful blast weapon and an even more powerful Gravity Hole Bomb) are all activated with timed presses of a single button. Mars Matrix's polished visual style and beautiful-but-deadly cascades of enemy projectiles give it a feel that stands out from the crowd of turn-of-the-millennium shooters.

The third game in Capcom's Marvel vs. Capcom series (oddly enough), Marvel vs. Capcom brings together a slate of Marvel superheroes to battle a who's-who of characters from across the Capcom universe, including Mega Man, Arthur from Ghosts 'n Goblins and characters from Darkstalkers, Street Fighter, Cyberbots, Strider and Forgotten Worlds. As in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, players can choose two heroes to team up and trade off, but MvC changes up the formula with a limited number of Guest Character attacks and the addition of the Variable Cross system, which allows both heroes to attack together for a limited time. Marvel vs. Capcom is part of a still-running series that showcases Capcom's commitment to dynamic, character-driven titles with enduring competitive gameplay.

The Punisher was Marvel and Capcom's first collaboration, and it brought a grittier edge to the already-violent beat-em-up genre upon its release in 1993. The game features the standard Punisher storyline (Frank Castle's family is gunned down, and he seeks revenge against the Kingpin), with Castle teaming up with Nick Fury (back when he was a cigar-chomping white guy) to take down hordes of bad guys. Appropriately, this involves a lot more guns and hand grenades than your typical beat-em-up game, diffused somewhat by comics-inspired BLAM! and KRAK! effects. Though it lacks the range of recognizable characters of Konami's 1992 X-Men beat-em-up, The Punisher features sophisticated graphics for its time and action that should satisfy beat-em-up fans. Our overlay depicts the game in the Capcom Dynamo cabinet format.

The first game released for Capcom's CPS III hardware, Red Earth is a fantasy-themed fighting game that combines RPG-like elements with the conventions of the fighting genre. Set in an alternate 14th century, Red Earth follows four heroes as they battle a series of bosses (in the game's single-player Quest Mode) leading up to the evil Scion, who is trying to take over the world (aren't they all?). The game is also playable as a standard two-player fighter, though with only four heroes it lacks the breadth of Capcom's usual squads of playable characters. Though the game isn't as well-known as many of Capcom's other properties, it features the same expressive 2D graphic style you would expect, and its characters have shown up in numerous other Capcom games.