Time Extend: Guardian Heroes

EDGE – Scrolling beat ‘em ups are one of gaming’s longest-serving genres – not yet in retirement but teetering on the pensionable as each blundering Final Fight: Streetwise turns up to undo the good work of an Urban Reign. One-on-one scrappers have settled down into a stable domestic relationship with gamers, but the dedicated scrolling beat ‘em up still remain marginalised. The art of one-on-many thumping has moved on: absorbed into myriad action games, it’s always the bridesmaid and never the bride. It features in many games but stars in few, long divorced from the arcades where it once achieved a blissful, balanced existence, able to wow the punters with instant, tap-tap-tap combo gratification while siphoning the credits out of their pockets with cruel boss scraps.