[PresidentLeever]

Well there's a lot that I haven't played yet, but from what I have played, these stood out:
Aliens
Alien vs. Predator
Battle Garegga
Batsugun
Black Tiger
Cabal
Chiki Chiki Boys
Fantasy Zone, Fantasy Zone II DX
Galaxy Force II
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Hammerin' Harry
Hyper Duel
Outrun
Osman
Ninja Spirit
Rastan
Prehistoric Isle in 1930
R-Type, R-Type II
Shinobi
Splatterhouse
Super Street Fighter II
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles in Time
Toki
Willow
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

[FallenAngel2387]

^Chiki Chiki Boys is actually the Japanese title of Mega Twins. Not sure why the Genesis localization stuck with the Chiki Chiki Boys title, but if the arcade version is as fun as the Genesis version, yeah, really damn good lesser known game.

@M-Tee: One of the things that stood out for me with Warriors of Fate was the number of grab moves Kassar(obviously supposed to be Zhang Fei) had.

[Tharthan]

Yeah, hope you don't take it as an attack or something, but as a beat 'em up fan myself, I get sick of seeing the same old nostalgia games considered the best. Sometimes you really gotta step outside your comfort zone with an open mind, and in my opinion the best come from the developers you don't expect.

The Denjin Makai series(includes Ghost Chaser Densei, something of a port of the first Denjin Makai on the Super Fami) for example, is by WinkySoft, of the Robot Wars series.

Ninja Baseball Bat Man and Undercover Cops(also ported to the Super Fami) are by Irem, who's beat 'em up input you'd most associate with Kung Fu/Spartan X and Vigilante.

Night Slashers is by Data East, who you'd think of Bad Dudes/Two Crude Dudes when it comes to beat 'em ups.

Dungeon Magic is by Taito... You do not want to play the majority of their beat 'em up input... Another good one by them though, is Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga Episode III, never left Japan, plays similarly to Golden Axe(still worth checking out if you're not into GA).

This might not be what you intended, but I now wonder if there are any RPG beat-'em-up hybrids out there, because that sounds pretty groovy.

I would love if something like that existed: half RPG, half beat-'em-up.

[M-Tee]

I believe those are just called Action RPGs. Very little separates a Baldur's Gate game from a beat 'em up, save for RPG stats and leveling. 

[FallenAngel2387]

This might not be what you intended, but I now wonder if there are any RPG beat-'em-up hybrids out there, because that sounds pretty groovy.

I would love if something like that existed: half RPG, half beat-'em-up.

From Capcom(all originally arcade games):
Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom
Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara
The King of the Dragons
Knights of the Round

Taito's Dungeon Magic is like if Streets of Rage met Lanstalker.

From Technos(on Nintendo consoles):
River City Ransom
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/226/
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/893/

Konami's Gaiapolis(arcade)

Guardian Heroes(Saturn)/Advance Guardian Heroes

Then you'd be looking for action RPG's, mainly hack 'n slash, after Dragon's Crown(PS3/Vita), which is probably THE game you're looking for.

[SC]

Knights of the Round

That's it! That's one of the games whose title I didn't remember!
IIRC, it had nice gameplay and great graphics and sound!

Now, what was the name of that old Taito game where you control some kind of little dragon...?
It's a timeless classic for me!

[FallenAngel2387]

^Best I can think is:
You somehow forgot the title of Bubble Bobble or Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move
Are thinking of Liquid Kids(I don't know how to describe what you're playing as)
Daikaiju no Gyakushu (japanese exclusive walking shoot 'em up as a Godzilla clone that shoots lasers out of it's eyes)
Syvalion (shoot 'em up as a gold, oriental style dragon)

If it isn't one of those, it's probably not Taito.

[SC]

You somehow forgot the title of Bubble Bobble or Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move

THIS! But still not sure of its original name...
How could I forget the name?! Thank you!

[M-Tee]

Bubble Bobble's a classic. Bubble Symphony's a fantastic sequel. Bubble Memories unfortunately has garbage photos of animals instead of backgrounds.

I had forgotten about Liquid Kids, else I would have mentioned it in my earlier post. Totally me favorite cute Taito game.

[FallenAngel2387]

I'll throw a few more out there, non-beat 'em up this time:

Avenging Spirit - play as a ghost that possesses his enemies 1 at a time, and uses their abilities against the others. Also has a bit of an adventure element where you're looking for keys, and the room to use them in, or you get the bad ending.

If you like this: http://www.romhacking.net/translations/853/ Risky Challenge is it's predecessor.

The Outfoxies - basically a 2D arena fighter

If you like Bubble Bobble:
Diet Go Go
Funky Jet
Joe & Mac Returns
Kicker(screen might scroll a bit, but it's essentially the same idea of clearing the screen of enemies)
Metal Saver
Nightmare in the Dark
Snow Bros.
Snow Bros. 2

Pong/Air Hockey types as characters with powers:
Bang Bead
Battle Flip Shot
Slap Shot(Japanese exclusive)
Windjammers (also Neo-Geo)

Sort of an isometric dungeon crawler series in Dark Seal and Wizard Fire.

Elevator Action Returns(also on the Saturn) is probably the most improved sequel I've ever played.

The Gunforce games(the 2nd one separates the words in it's title) are predecessors to the Metal Slug series.

Kamikaze Cabbie - seems like an early inspiration for Crazy Taxi, you can destroy the other cars your size, but anything larger destroys you, and you need to watch your gas level.

Legend - pay enemies to be your fighting force

Legend of Makai - unfortunately I haven't spent much time with this one, but it's kind of like an arcade version of Wizard and Warriors, with a different style(you're not playing as an armored knight for example).

Seems somewhat obscured by time now, but I'd have to recommend Rally X/New Rally X to fans of Pac-Man. It's another Namco game, and you can almost see Pac-Man having taken inspiration from it(despite you and your enemies being cars). Initially this was the game that was impressing people before both released in 1980, but we know how that turned out...

Rollergames - almost breaking my initial rule, but it's a roller derby that makes a sport out of seeing which team leader can beat up the most of the other side's team.

I'll leave it there for now... I don't even play some of those half as much as I should.

[Tharthan]

I believe those are just called Action RPGs. Very little separates a Baldur's Gate game from a beat 'em up, save for RPG stats and leveling. 

Derp. How did I forget an entire genre existed, especially one that I play games of occasionally?

Baldur's Gate was pretty good, I will say. I never played the sequel. Is it any good?

From Capcom(all originally arcade games):
Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom
Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara
The King of the Dragons
Knights of the Round

Taito's Dungeon Magic is like if Streets of Rage met Lanstalker.

From Technos(on Nintendo consoles):
River City Ransom
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/226/
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/893/

Konami's Gaiapolis(arcade)

Guardian Heroes(Saturn)/Advance Guardian Heroes

Then you'd be looking for action RPG's, mainly hack 'n slash, after Dragon's Crown(PS3/Vita), which is probably THE game you're looking for.

I love Technos' Kunio-kun games, but their RPG elements are a bit shoehorned in I feel. They are still great games, but not exactly the mix I was referring to.

I'll need to check out Guardian Heroes and The King of Dragons. They sound very interesting. Thanks for the heads-up!

Actually, now that I think about it, although it wasn't a Beat-'em-up, that one game for the GBA with the double-agent-protagonist-wears-alien-as-hat was a good shoot-'em-up RPG mix. I think it had three words in its title, but I can't remember the name off of the top of my head.

I had forgotten about Liquid Kids, else I would have mentioned it in my earlier post. Totally me favorite cute Taito game.

I haven't played the game, but the phrase liquid kids makes me think of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

Avenging Spirit - play as a ghost that possesses his enemies 1 at a time, and uses their abilities against the others. Also has a bit of an adventure element where you're looking for keys, and the room to use them in, or you get the bad ending.

That makes me think of Cocoron and, of all things, Dark Law for the SNES. I'm not sure why the latter comes to mind, though.

EDIT: It also makes me think of that one Castlevania game for the GBA in which you play as Soma Cruz.

[M-Tee]

Baldur's Gate was pretty good, I will say. I never played the sequel. Is it any good?
…
I haven't played the game, but the phrase liquid kids makes me …

I'm not one to comment on Baldur's Gate II. I actually find very little pleasure in Action RPGs outside of the Elder Scrolls series (Still haven't played Skyrim), and have only played the console versions of the Baldur's Gate and Champions of Norrath series because it's one of the few genres that regularly features couch-side co-op.

Liquid Kids is a scrolling 2P platformer in which you play as platypuses. Its gameplay is reminiscent of Bubble Bobble (with the water bubble power-up), but like I said, scrolling instead of single-screen.

It was #1 on a list of recommendations I recently wrote for a friend when he had stated, "I'm building a MAME cabinet, what games do you suggest I play with my wife?"

[Spooniest]

I just watched a speed run of Cadash and it looks FUCKING AWESOMME

It looks really hard though...Idk if I could be very effective at it.

[FallenAngel2387]

^ported to both the Genesis and the TurboGrafx-16.

@Tharthan, wasn't one of my favorites, but I believe the GBA shoot 'em up/RPG was Sigma Star Saga.

@M-Tee, as an arcade exclusive, Arkanoid Returns might be another good 2 player suggestion for a couple. Twinkle Star Spites(also Neo-Geo, Neo-Geo CD, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, and evidently some version of Virtual Console) is a competitive split screen cute 'em up.

[MisterJones]

Semi related, whats the state of mame frontends and such?

[FallenAngel2387]

For years I've been using MAMEUIFX as a standalone program. I don't know the advantages and disadvantages of other offshoots, but this one gives you turbo functionality, so you're not hammering on buttons if you don't want to be. I know it also allows you to shut off crosshairs if you have an actual light gun to use with it, I'm not sure if all versions of MAME do or not.

[Lilinda]

^ported to both the Genesis and the TurboGrafx-16.

@Tharthan, wasn't one of my favorites, but I believe the GBA shoot 'em up/RPG was Sigma Star Saga.

@M-Tee, as an arcade exclusive, Arkanoid Returns might be another good 2 player suggestion for a couple. Twinkle Star Spites(also Neo-Geo, Neo-Geo CD, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, and evidently some version of Virtual Console) is a competitive split screen cute 'em up.

Sigma Star Saga is correct. Needs a damned remake or sequel. :|

[Lilinda]

As for good arcade series:

Can't really go wrong with the 19(insert number here) series from Capcom. Topdown vertical shooters that are just a-fucking-mazing. Best ones are 19XX and 1944, IMO.

[geishaboy]

I just watched a speed run of Cadash and it looks FUCKING AWESOMME

It looks really hard though...Idk if I could be very effective at it.

Cadash isn't as hard as it probably looks. One of my favourites also.