Racketboy has an in-depth piece on the past and present of the beat-em-up genre.  It bills itself as "all you need to know about brawlers," and while I think that might be overstating it a bit, it is a very solid intro to one of my very favorite genres. 

The article is full of legendary benchmarks as well as a few often-overlooked classics, and is of course full of Capcom love.  When it comes to their "5 most timeless beat-em-ups," here's what they had to say about Capcom: 

"Capcom (Insert your favorite game here) – This company has brought so many timeless classics to the genre that it is impossible to pick just one." 

If you're looking to get your feet wet in the genre, you might start with Final Fight: Double Impact, which includes a loving port of Final Fight, as well as Magic Sword (a fun semi beat-em-up in its own right!). 

Is this an unreleased Final Fight ending, discovered by FF superfan theswitcher?  Or another of his bent creations?  All I know is that I am the pregnants... with curiosity.

The download stork will be dropping off Final Fight: Double Impact next week, April 14+15th.  Only $9.99!

IGN just posted the first review of the full Final Fight: Double Impact, and it scored a "GREAT" with 8.8 out of 10!

"Packing both Final Fight and Magic Sword, Double Impact gives you two great games, a slew of unlockables, an arcade cabinet view, and much more. The wave of Final Fight nostalgia that swept over me while punching dudes in the face with Cody's blue fingerless gloves and listening to a gang member exclaim "Oh my God!" when he came upon the car my friend and I had just ruined was nothing short of heartwarming. And if by some act of God or age you missed these games in your local arcade, you're in for a treat because they most definitely hold up."

Head here for the full review.

The good people over at Destructoid have been sinking their teeth into the Magic Sword side of our upcoming downloadable "two-fer," feautring Final Fight and Magic Sword.  We call it "Final Fight: Double Impact," and here's a snippet of what Dtoid had to say:   

Nobody seems to do retro the way Capcom does it. They know how beloved their old franchises are and they could almost certainly sell them to us again just the way they were, adding nothing. But they tend not to do that, preferring to release updated versions of classic games, introducing polygon-based graphics and other modern conventions to their revivals.

Final Fight: Double Impact is just another example. With alternate graphics filters and a remixed soundtrack (both optional), a bunch of bonus features, an online mode designed to recreate the arcade experience -- not to mention two of their best side-scrolling arcade games -- this seems like a pretty sure thing.

Head here for the full report!

Unreleased Final Fight intro, or yet another piece of devious Capcom nonsense from the sideways-slanting mind of theswitcher!? 

You be the judge, but don't forget Final Fight: Double Impact lands on PSN and XBLA on April 14th and 15th--that's less than 2 weeks, people!